In planning to put music into an event, it is not uncommon to put the meeting, hiring and planning with your DJ quite late in the process. Often times, it is one of the last things that clients do. I suppose it depends upon how important you feel the music is to your event but here are a few reasons why I feel you should meet, hire and start planning your music early in the process of putting your event together.
With all the other things going on while trying to put a function together, sometimes the client will hire a DJ and then forget about it until a week or even a few days before the event. Then, it is a scramble to choose the music. A case in point is a recent wedding where the bride and groom were firing off emails for music right up into the last day. Luckily, we were able to have everything ready but that certainly was stressful and could have ended with not having all of the songs the couple wanted in the library. Some songs and genres have to be sourced, checked and put into the DJ software properly. It is a thing of nightmares to have a key song not play because the file is corrupt because it was slid into the mix at the last minute with no time to check for playability.
Another reason to get your music prepared early is to make sure there is time to do any special musical preparations. You may want a song to stop or start at a certain time. How about a mash up? They are fun but take a little time to do well. A few days before the event is not the time to be requesting songs to be cut up and merged into your custom made track. There again, music may have to be sourced and checked and then edited according to your instructions. So, give yourself and the DJ less stress and put that request in early or you may have to end up doing a mash up yourself.
Often, the DJ has any number of events going on in a week. They may even have a number of events going on the same day as yours and may not have time to diligently obtain your songs if you leave your music planning too late . The earlier you start working with your DJ on your music choices allows everything to be organized in advance of your event with less confusion and possible mistakes taking place in the execution of your play lists and music choices. In addition, it is much easier to make a few last minute changes if need be.
There really is no substitute for early planning when it comes to many things in life. Your special occasions, events and functions will flow so much better when the music is planned earlier and when the day comes for your event, it will be one less thing to worry about.