How Steve Jobs Changed The Mobile DJ Industry

Steve Jobs changed the landscape of the music industry in 2001 by introducing the iPod.  Today, it's old hat to be able to store thousands of songs on a portable digital device that you can fit in your pocket.  But before the laptop and iPod, having such large collections of music was quite a feat left only to music nerds (some of whom are DJ's such as myself) who would proudly fill spare bedrooms, basements, closets and cargo vans in order to have such a collection.

Apple also wanted to dominate the market on how people purchased their music.  No longer was it necessary to buy whole albums (CD's) just to own the two or three great songs that came with the eight or ten mediocre songs you really didn't want.  Consumers, fans of music, could download music one song at a time without even leaving their home.  Toward this end, Apple needed to place a value on just a single song and it would be about a dollar.  Today, it's typically a little more than a dollar but still a pretty reasonable price for a song that you know you'll love before you even buy it.

Some of the information we have about innovators and entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs suggests that they don't much concern themselves with the consequences of their inventions.  Their passion is such that if they believe they can accomplish something extraordinary, they should - just for the sake of doing it.  This idea is debatable.  Probably most innovators at least consider how their work might affect society.  And most probably see their innovations as positive socially as well as profitable economically.

If digital music transformed the music industry (it's still transforming) it most certainly dramatically changed the way mobile DJ's go about their business of delivering entertainment to their many local events.  In the late '80s, when I first began DJ'ing, clients saw the value of their DJ service simply in the fact that one (or two) people alone could transport and deliver thousands of songs to the site of their event.  Whether vinyl, audio cassette or even CD format, carrying thousands of songs was quite a job.   Add to the music the audio equipment that was then large, bulky and quite heavy and you really required a lot of muscle as well as a cargo van or a small truck.

Now, sound equipment is getting smaller and lighter.  Music can be stored on small very portable devices.  As said earlier, many high school kids can now boast thousands of songs kept in a pocket of their backpacks.  Thank you Steve Jobs for your innovation but sir, you also made music a commodity.  And customers value commodity products in a different fashion that is often more difficult to sell.

I fall on the side of innovation more often than not and I'm quite glad that Mr. Jobs made music so readily accessible.  It does, however, change how I must market my DJ service.  Interestingly, when I meet with prospective clients they hardly ever ask about music, storage and playback devices, etc.  They pretty much assume that I either already have or can quickly get any song ever digitally recorded.  So, if music is now a commodity, like bottled water, what really stands one DJ service apart from the rest?

First, I remind prospective clients that we legally purchase our music from reputable vendors.  We are not pirates!  It's easy to gloat over stolen property.  But if we say we own 10,000 songs (and more with each passing day) you can readily do the math to figure out our investment.  Next, we do use professional grade gear and that is still not consistent in the industry.  Some DJ's are bringing sub par devices they used at their college frat parties. So I typically take a moment to reiterate these important considerations.

What really stands a DJ service apart from the rest is the experience they bring to the event and the personal attention they are willing to give their clients.  It's easy to rely too heavily on automated websites, software programs and the like in the effort to seek efficiency.  I must say at this point, that we do offer such conveniences to each client and they are extremely helpful.  We are careful, however, not to use technology to the point that we lose human interaction.  Most people still want to sit down over coffee and get to know the person who will be helping them with their wedding reception, anniversary, fundraiser, birthday party, holiday event or whatever it may be.  We do not use technology as an excuse to ignore human beings.  Our real value is in the PERSON who will bring the laptop, the sound system, the lights, etc. and that PERSON'S unique personal experience as an MC and DJ to make it all work in our client's favor, to make their celebration really fun and memorable.

So to innovation we say, "bring it on".  Thank you Steve Jobs and Apple.  But real value will always be found in the person, the people.  And if this is true, we'll be in great shape for a long time! View Steve Jobs Introducing the iPod in 2001

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Who Will Pour the Drinks at the Head Table?

This is the one thing that is almost always overlooked at the wedding reception.  It's a small thing and it won't ruin your night, but hey, why leave anything to chance on your big day?

It's about an hour into your reception and all of your guests are enjoying cocktails and looking forward to a delicious dinner.  It's at this point where your DJ will want to do introductions to formally get the event going.  Your DJ does a fine job organizing the members of your bridal party for the entrance and he gets the attention of all of your guests, not always an easy task by the way.  The introductions go well and everyone is pumped to get on with the party.  You are all in the dining area and next on the agenda are the long anticipated toasts!

Your best man and maid of honor are extremely nervous but ready to go nonetheless.  But wait, you discover that no one has poured drinks at the head table.  All of your guests have something to drink but you have empty glasses... Somewhat embarrassing.  You'll either go ahead with the toasts anyway - with empty glasses OR you'll all scramble to the bar to get something which will appear a bit silly and will interrupt the flow of the evening.

I've learned as an experience DJ to check the drink situation at the head table before starting with the introductions.  And, sure enough, it's the one thing most often forgotten.  I think it's because everyone just kind of assumes that someone else will do it, that it never gets done.

As you plan your reception be sure to know ahead of time who will be responsible to make sure drinks are ready for you at the head table, or sweetheart table if it's just the two of you.  Ask your catering team if this is part of the service they provide, often it's the case but not always.  Is this something your bartender will do for you?  Don't assume, ask.  Sometimes it's a designated family member who makes sure drinks are ready for you when you enter.  In any case, be sure that someone has been delegated the task.  You'll be glad that you planned for it when you are introduced to your table and your DJ will have one less thing to worry about.  Cheers!

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Weddingwire.com Honors My Life Media!

{North Olmsted, OH} – January 23, 2012 – WeddingWire, the nation's leading wedding Marketplace, is excited to announce My Life Media DJ Services has been selected to receive the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for DJ!

The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization, My Life Media DJ Services was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients.

My Life Media DJ Services is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes  the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate My Life Media DJ Services for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”

We are happy to announce that My Life Media DJ Services is one of the very best DJs within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. Thanks to their positive feedback we were able  to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ for 2012.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/my-life-media-dj-services-lakewood/0d200ac634b4807b.html.

To learn more about the Bride's Choice Awards™, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

About WeddingWire, Inc.
WeddingWire™, the nation's leading marketplace serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 reviewed wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers. WeddingWire also offers a comprehensive suite of online planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire is the only all-in-one marketing platform for businesses online and on-the-go. WeddingWire offers one simple solution to build a professional network, improve search visibility, manage social media and reach mobile consumers. Businesses that advertise with WeddingWire appear on WeddingWire.com, ProjectWedding.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com (NYSE: MSO), Brides.com and Weddingbee.com.
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I've Found Glee in Napoleon Ohio

I can always tell how popular a TV show is by the number of song requests I receive that originates from the show.  Creative types in the entertainment industry discovered that they could combine TV or movie scripts with popular music and have a hit in multiple media outlets, generating more profit.  The TV show Glee is a perfect example of this strategy. Glee is not only drawing a strong TV audience but it is also successful at pumping out popular music.  Not unusual is that young audiences are pushing the popularity of both the show as well as the music.

Glee is high school drama mixed with a heavy dose of the love of music and theater.  Students precariously navigate their desire to participate on the school stage without jeopardizing their popularity.  At the very least, they are trying not to get beat up in the school yard because they have a lead in the school play.  Along the way, everyone discovers just how fragile life can be, even at seventeen.  What makes it all the more magical is that jocks, nerds and other cliques sometimes come to the realization that, hey, everyone’s got something of value to offer!

Set in Ohio, it is the shared story of just about any school in America.  I am delighted, however, that it has a distinctive Midwestern feel about it.  I believe I’ve found the real life high school that the TV show must have used as its model.  Napoleon, Ohio is a small town located in northwest, Ohio just south of Toledo.  Like other small rural towns, Napoleon loves its barbecues, parades and of course football.  But in striking fashion, it also loves the arts, particularly the performing arts offered by its local high school. 

Now, admittedly, I am biased as I have two nephews and a niece who attend the school.  But much to my amazement the public performances put on by their bands, choir and theater group are noteworthy.  As a professional, I can’t help but observe such things as stage presence, vocal training, choreography, etc.  And, there is no doubt in my mind that the kids who participate are getting above average mentoring there.  In fact, after several years of driving 150 miles one way to see numerous performances, I have identified several students who have impressive talent, the kind that makes me wonder if someday I’ll be purchasing music of theirs when preparing for a gig.

I’ll be making the drive again from Cleveland this weekend to enjoy The High School Theater Department’s Spring musical, The Wizard of Oz.   Performances will be held at the John L. Johnson Auditorium located 303 W. Main Street.  Show dates are April 8 and 9 at 7:30 PM and April 10 at 2:00 PM.  Tickets are only $10.

So, to the educators, parents and students in Napoleon, Ohio and the many other schools across our country that stress the arts, I encourage them to continue their efforts.  Their students are gaining valuable skills and ever so important confidence with each show they perform.  Not all of them will become stars on the big stage but they’ll all benefit in numerous other ways from their time on stage at school. 

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The Importance of Celebration

For most of my adult life I’ve been involved in the activities of helping people in crisis and paradoxically of helping others celebrate their good fortunes.  During my 22 years of work in a large charity organization, I worked with children and adults with disabilities and their families.  I also worked with the poor, homeless, persons with mental illness, at-risk teens, victims of abuse, you name it and I’ve probably seen it.  And although I am no longer employed in the social service sector, I am still very much involved with charities in an advisory capacity or as a volunteer.  Occasionally, I am asked to speak to groups about the effort of serving those in our society who are vulnerable or otherwise disconnected from the “mainstream” and I am happy to do it.

During this time, I also pursued a career path in entertainment as a professional DJ and emcee.  At first, when I was in my early twenties, the DJ thing was mainly to help pay for college tuition – which it did.  I am grateful to my friend and mentor, Dennis McNulty, for offering to train me and bring me into the industry.  The added income allowed me to stay working in charity, which was exhausting, paid very little, yet was very rewarding.

There were many times in my life when in the course of just one day I (and my co-workers) would assist a homeless individual or family with their search for shelter, help them obtain food and clothing – the basic necessities - and then later that evening DJ an event for 300 people where food, drink and all around good cheer and merriment would flow well into the night.  I have many examples of such days and weeks where I witnessed both great need and luxurious abundance.

For me, my dual career paths were a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde lifestyle.  I was deeply involved with both ends of our lifestyle spectrum in the U.S.  It was also a shock to me early in my Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde experience that I could occasionally make more money on a weekend entertaining at parties than I did all week helping our community’s most needy, but that is a topic for another article.  I must admit, however, that participating in both career paths was probably very cathartic and healthy for me.  It often forced me to step out of the emotional quagmire that people (and those who help them) experience when in crises and into the healthier emotional experience that comes with celebration.

For the longest time I thought that the depression, frustration and sadness of human struggle was far removed from the happiness, cheer and joy that comes with celebrating a significant milestone or achievement.  A change in my thinking happened when I worked with the homeless in Lorain, Ohio.  One afternoon before a community meal for about 170 people, I addressed the crowd and – almost as an act of desperation - asked anyone in the room if they had any good news to share.  No one answered.  Silence.  People looked at each other wondering what in the world might possess me to believe that they had anything to celebrate.  I said, in a second attempt, that it didn’t have to be big good news but even something small is worth mentioning.  As if on queue, a little boy raised his hand and shared that he had received an A on a recent spelling test at school.  The room erupted in cheers and applause.  The boy was ecstatic to receive the recognition.  Another person shared that he had an interview the next day in hopes of finally getting a job.  More cheer!  From that point, I was convinced that celebrating life’s significant moments, big or small, was just as important as responding to need.  These experiences are opposite sides of the same coin and to be fully human, we need to make space for both.

Suddenly, my dual career path seemed to make more sense than ever and not so much an ironic paradox.  Both endeavors reinforced my personal mission to “help people get to a better place in life”.  Sometimes that mission involves helping people when they’re in great need and sometimes it involves helping people celebrate their significant moments.

I have over time, asked my friends who are counselors or otherwise in the field of psychology, sociology, etc. whether it is possible for whole communities to be continually depressed, unable to find even the smallest reason to celebrate.  They answered with a resounding yes and I’ve witnessed this myself in a variety of settings.  It is possible for families, communities, organizations to be stuck in a self-fulfilling group depression and one of the truest characteristics of this is an inability to celebrate.  Vibrant groups celebrate frequently.  Vibrant, healthy groups are vigilant, consciously looking for significant milestones and achievements to celebrate.  Celebrations are noticed and remembered by members, especially the young and they eventually become the foundation for traditions that help individuals and groups stay strong and prosper well into the future.

Helping people celebrate life’s most significant moments is the purpose of the company I run, My Life Media.  It is as much an honor to conduct this work as it is for me to be involved in charity.  Both pursuits have their unique challenges and rewards, of course.  I am not suggesting that helping an organization plan a holiday staff appreciation or a newly engaged couple plan their wedding reception is more important than running a homeless shelter but I do suggest that both efforts have their necessary place in a healthy society.

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DJ'ing the Company Holiday Party

Here's what we've learned over the years about DJ'ing a company holiday party!

1) "Respectable but fun" is the order of the day. Companies typically want to highlight a successful year with their holiday event, a celebration that allows employees to relax and know they are appreciated. The event is a company sponsored activity and should reflect the values that the company holds dear. Music should be fun and full of energy but not offensive or otherwise damage the sensibilities of the group. Usually, a variety of music is best so that everyone feels they've heard something they enjoy and can dance to. Unless otherwise directed by planners, the DJ should shy away from playing just one type of music all evening. Requests from guests before the event via an online planning tool helps the DJ to prepare, making him or her an effective DJ on the day of the event.

2) Make the sound system available to presenters. Usually, representatives from the company desire to welcome their guests, discuss successes of the year and/or present awards. For this reason, we always have a wireless microphone system set-up and available to company leaders. Occasionally, company leaders prefer it if the DJ assists with announcements, prize giveaways, etc. No problem! We are trained as MC's as well as DJ's. The DJ is flexible and is happy to work with the agenda of the company.

3) This should go without saying but.... A DJ who drinks alcohol with guests is likely to become ineffective and worse, do something to jeopardize the reputation of the company. We typically do not drink alcohol when we are working an event.

Other important considerations go into creating a fun-filled company celebration. These are just few. Please know that we are experienced and proud of our track record as professional entertainers! We hope to be working with you this holiday season to give your employees a celebration they'll truly appreciate.

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Updating Christmas

Most of the people I know enjoy their measured dose of holiday music during this time of year. Recently, I was booked for a string of holiday parties and wanted to be sure I had an abundant amount of music for these occasions.

Now, having been a DJ for many years, you can imagine that I’ve collected many song titles. But the thing about holiday music is that each song has been sung and rearranged many times over. So, while I might have eight versions of “Jingle Bells” (which I do) it doesn’t necessarily mean that I have the version that is most widely known or would prefer to play. So it was with childish excitement that I decided to go through all of my holiday music to be sure 1) that I at least had the 25 most popular titles and 2) I had the versions that are most widely requested and heard on the radio.

So I happened upon a list published by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) of the 25 most performed holiday songs. As I thought, I already had most of the songs listed. But to my surprise I didn’t have some of the most popular cuts of those titles. This gave me cause to buy more music, one of my favorite things to do! The list is as follows. There is one song not mentioned that you would think should be listed. Can you identify the song?

1. The Christmas Song

2. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

3. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

4. Winter Wonderland

5. White Christmas

6. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

7. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

8. Jingle Bell Rock

9. I’ll Be Home For Christmas

10. Little Drummer Boy

11. Sleigh Ride

12. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

13. Silver Bells

14. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree

15. Feliz Navidad

16. Blue Christmas

17. Frosty The Snowman

18. A Holly Jolly Christmas

19. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

20. Here Comes Santa Clause (Right Down Santa Clause Lane)

21. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

22. (There’s No Place Like) Home For The Holidays

23. Carol Of The Bells

24. Santa Baby

25. Wonderful Christmastime

What? No “Jingle Bells”? Are you shocked, outraged, and otherwise beside yourself? My guess is that Jingle Bells was written so long ago, that it does not fall under the watchful eye of ASCAP.

A minister named James Pierpont originally wrote “Jingle Bells” in 1857. He wrote it as a Thanksgiving Day song for the children in his Sunday school class. James Pierpont was a relative of the notoriously wealthy JP Morgan. The song became so popular it was repeated at Christmas and quickly became an American holiday classic.

According to ASCAP, the author of the most top holiday songs is Johnny Marks with three – “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas”.

Some holiday music tips from your DJ: Everyone should own a copy of Vince Guaraldi’s “Charlie Brown Christmas”. If you don’t have this CD, I shall have to shun you forever and take you off of my Christmas card mailing list. If you enjoy instrumental jazz along the lines of Vince Guaraldi’s music, check out the CD by Wynton Marsalis entitled “Christmas Jazz Jam”. Good stuff! Some contemporary versions of old classics that I like include – “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” sung by James Taylor and “White Christmas” sung by Taylor Swift.

Oh, by the way, my computer tells me that I have over 11 hours of holiday music. Still not enough! Have a great, happy and safe holiday season and remember – enjoy the music!

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