Gigs & business
Mobile DJ
A mobile DJ brings their own sound, lighting and equipment to venues that have none — parties, corporate events, functions. The music is only part of what is being booked.
In practice
You are the sound system as well as the DJ. Power, cabling and a spare of everything are part of the job.
Carry redundancy on the things that end a night: a spare controller or player, spare cables, a spare laptop power supply. Visit or at least photograph the venue in advance if you can — power outlets, access and the room shape decide most of the setup. And handle the schedule as carefully as the music, since a function usually has speeches, a first dance and a hard finish that everyone will remember you getting wrong.
The rig
What you also are
Spares
Of anything that ends a night
The schedule
As carefully as the music
Where these come from: Mobile and function practice, not a catalog figure. For what we can measure, see the most common version.
Why it matters
It is the largest paid segment of DJing and the least discussed, largely out of snobbery. The skills genuinely differ: reading a mixed-age crowd with no shared taste, running a PA safely, working to a schedule with speeches and other people’s plans in it, and managing a client rather than a promoter.
The equipment responsibility is the real difference. A club DJ arrives to a working rig; a mobile DJ is the rig — which means power, cabling, safety, insurance and a spare of everything are part of the job rather than someone else’s department.
Frequently asked
What equipment does a mobile DJ need?+
A PA appropriate to the room, lighting, cabling, and a spare of anything whose failure would end the night. You are the rig as well as the DJ.
Is mobile DJing easier than club DJing?+
Different rather than easier. Reading a mixed-age crowd with no shared taste is harder than reading a room that came for one genre.
Do I need insurance?+
Most venues require public liability insurance before they will let you set up, and it is worth having regardless once you are carrying and powering equipment in someone else’s building.
Related terms
Wedding DJ
A wedding DJ runs the music for a reception — often also handling announcements, the first dance and the schedule. The brief is a room of every age with no shared taste and one night that cannot be repeated.
Club sound system
A club sound system is the whole chain after the mixer: processor, amplifiers, subwoofers, main speakers and often delay or fill speakers, tuned together for one room by an engineer who is not in the booth.
Advance
Advancing a show is the exchange of practical information between artist and promoter in the days before it — times, equipment, travel, contacts. The document that results is usually called an advance sheet or day sheet.
Booking fee
A booking fee is the agreed amount a DJ is paid to play, independent of how the night performs. It is sometimes called a guarantee, because that is exactly what distinguishes it from a share of the door.
Explore: DJ contract template · Club sound system · Advance · All DJ terms