Music Equals Money – The Set Up

In 2007 I was in love with West Coast Swing music! I would spend my free time on Napster and iTunes looking for new music. If I had an extra $10 I bought an extra 10 songs. Night after night I would dig through song after song longing for the next big hit. The only issue was not one promoter would hire a “wedding DJ” to DJ a swing dance. At that time I was in the rotation as one of the DJs at Longfellow’s Country California Mix nights, but even they would not let me play their swing nights because I had no experience in the very fickle swing world. Something just had to be done.

Dance Boston was hosting their annual swing competition the summer of 2007 and I had just purchased a brand new Bose tower that could handle 500 people. I offered the use of my sound system in exchange for letting me DJ. The music that I collected was so good, in my opinion, that I just knew I could build a name for my self if I could get it in front of an audience. That summer I was part a select group of people that inadvertently played a big role in the demise of swing music at swing events.  Because some of us where wiling to DJ in exchange for building our resumes, we, “The Free-Jays” gave swing event promoters something better than a happier audience. We gave them a greater margin on their events. 

Next week I will share with you how and why the “Free-Jay” proved to be as good as what they paid for him and how because of Free-Jays Promoters slowly changed the music that was played at events and how they turned music into money!