DJ pricing and profit calculator
A five-hour wedding set is closer to a twelve-hour day once music preparation, client meetings, loading, travel, setup, performance, pack-down and unloading are counted.
Price a gig against what it truly costs to deliver, including the rig you are wearing out and the hours nobody sees.
Your fee for the gig, before extras.
Late-night pack-downs take longer than you think.
Requests, do-not-play lists, edits, timeline building.
Annual subscription spread across your gigs.
Lamps, hazer fluid, moving-head servicing.
Stairs, long carries, restricted load-in windows and parking.
As a percentage of the purchase price.
- Direct costs£39.00
- Travel£37.00
- Payment fees£9.80
- Overheads£61.60
- Equipment£48.00
- Your time£448.00
This gig covers its direct costs but does not pay you your target rate of £28.00 an hour — you are effectively earning £27.79 an hour across 16.0 hours.
To pay yourself properly and hit a 20% net margin, price this from £717.39. Adding £167.39 would raise annual profit by roughly £8,369.43 at your current volume.
A 5.0-hour booking actually takes you 16.0 hours once setup, prep, admin and travel are counted — 3.2× the on-site time.
Overheads add £61.60 to every gig at 50 bookings a year. Fewer bookings raise this figure, so a quiet year needs a higher price, not a lower one.
At 5 bookings a month, this kit pays for itself after about 19 bookings — roughly month 4.
You need about 68 bookings a year to take home £30,000.00 from this service — currently you are planning 50.
A 10% discount (£55.00) would cut this gig’s profit to -£58.40.
- Overhead per booking = annual overheads ÷ (bookings per month × months trading)
- Equipment per booking = (purchase price ÷ lifespan + maintenance allowance) ÷ bookings per year
- True cost = direct costs + crew + travel + payment fees + overhead per booking + equipment per booking + (your hours × your target rate)
- Effective hourly rate = (revenue − cash costs) ÷ every hour the booking takes you
- Break-even price = cash costs ÷ (1 − payment fee %) − add-on revenue
- Recommended price = (cash costs + your time) ÷ (1 − payment fee % − target margin %) − add-on revenue
- Equipment payback = purchase price ÷ (revenue − variable costs − overhead per booking)
Results are planning estimates, not financial or tax advice.
A Saturday in peak wedding season has a limited supply of dates. Pricing every date identically gives your best dates away cheapest.
Corporate bookings usually carry stricter timings, invoicing terms and insurance requirements — price them separately from private parties.
A 1am finish costs you the pack-down and the following day. Reflect it in the fee or set a curfew.
Frequently asked questions
- How much should a wedding DJ charge?
- There is no single figure. Work out the hours a wedding really takes you, add travel, rig depreciation, insurance and overheads, then set the price that pays your target hourly rate and margin. This calculator produces that number from your own costs.
- Should I charge more for a Saturday?
- Saturdays in peak season are your scarcest stock. If they sell out every year at your current fee, the fee is below what the date is worth.