Rhythmism.com

which DJ's make the most bank?

and how much do they make?

pvd
tiesto
paul oakenfold

Frankie Pena...LoL..

That is in the category of most OVERPAID DJ...

Tiesto by a landslide.....now he is all about TIESTO IN CONCERT

Yeah, I think he makes on the order of $50K for an NY appearance? Some very high figure.

Noooo!
Really?
No fucking way.

Can one of the lurkers who work in the industry set us straight and post?

He makes more than Pvd, still?

DT is up there as well...

well here is something even more sickening....very recently, Erick Morillo was paid 60K by Mansion Miami to switch venues (he used to play at Space before). enough for him to start putting $$ on his 2 mill estate in Miami Beach.

smart guy.

selling 145 dollars a ticket in Miami. go check it out.
Mansion also took Tiesto from Space.

i know how much pvd made for nye the other year @ ikon.


and yea...it was alot.

I know certain of the South American festivals were paying him $80K, all donated by corporate entities, and this was a little while ago.

I've heard from more than one promoter that Morillo is the highest paid.

Heineken and Red Bull

I would never allow somebody to charge 145$ for an event i was playing at, no matter how much of a superstar I became.

Nokia paid for one of them.

i heard justin r has a rider in his dj contract that he gets a cut of the money made by bathroom attendents

so how much is that per cheesy record?

yea ... the staff at cielo yesterday told me he also requested a bowl of m&m's without the brown ones ...
what a queen!

Heineken sponsored Tiesto's South American tour a couple yrs ago.

I'm lucky if I make off with a brown booze hangover, a semblance of self respect and a woman who has always been a woman.

Morillo & Sasha are def in the top 5 highest paid club Djs, along w/ tiesto, oakenfold & pvd...

Radio DJ, Chris Moyle (radio 1) makes about $1.2 mil a year ... Im sure thats around what the top 5 make as well ..

If i had to bet I'd say either Morillo or Oakenfold are the highest paid overall, or have banked the most ..

holy crap, that's like $1K for every mix over the course of the night


i guess if i was in their shoes, i'd take the money as well. you can't really blame them, considering most of these guys started out broke-as-a-joke. unfortunately, these high wages keep new talent from coming up. it's definitely a cartel.

Tiesto & PVD make quite a bit more per gig than Morillo & Sasha, on the order of 10s of thousands of dollars, from what I have heard.

well played. Summs up the life of a non superstar dj...

esp because now, people go see the TIESTO in concert shit --and he sells stadiums in South America

I don't think so, really.

I would take the $, as would anyone, and anyone who has the kind of $ to pay these cats clearly knows they are getting and either doesn't care about the $ or is looking at it as a business investment. I think getting to their level of income is probably not going to happen for many people, but look at, say James Zabiela, who came right up & earns a very nice living as a DJ. These icons, that have been in it forever and whose names are basically associated with dance music, gave rise to the whole culture, so it isn't surprising they are at the top of the $ pyramid, but mind you, that there is that culture at all, certainly helps performing DJs earn $ at it. And new talent is coming up all the time - I'd point out Butane as an example. He's going to relocate to Europe and be able to make a living doing the underground music he wants to do. He's likely never gonna earn $ like Morillo, or even Hawtin who's perhaps more relevant stylistically, but he was noticed for producing excellent tracks, which led to the chance to show people how good he is as a DJ, etc.

So IMO the "chance" is still there for those who are smart and persistent at it, and this financial component of the big DJs making the big bucks isn't really hurting DJs generally.

its like any other industry. Hype/marketing will beat out pure talent 99% of the time in the world we live in. I eat thai food at a small lil place that has the best thai food in the world, and a mean will cost me less than 15 bucks. Doesn't mean that joint is making more money and/or is more recognized than some trendy joint where the food is mediocre at best. That analogy is not for the feeble minded...


It also works on the supply and demand model. If one knows that playing a venue will result in over a 1/4 million dollars worth of profit, that individual now has the power to say I want to be paid $80k for the one night. Plain and simple. Lazie faire...

i'm going to agree i think, but the top 3 - with tiesto at the top - def make a significant amount more than the other two, which someone above mentioned too