JOHN CURTIN – BRAND MANAGER, ONELOVE

An opinion I’ve heard often is that there’s a ‘new’ generation of clubbers who are less loyal to any particular club night now, and the club scene has become in some ways less motivated by music. Is there truth in that from your perspective?
I just think the clubs as a whole have become boring. They are too reliant on artists to bring people in, but have actually forgotten what a club is about: looking after friends, inviting décor, cool barstaff and so on. Clubs are designed for people to meet like-minded people and listen to music that they like or be introduced to new sounds.

There are also more and more suburban clubs, which mean that less and less patrons will travel to destination venues in the city and popular local areas. Gone are the days of the exclusivity of seeing some household name DJs as they could be playing two to five gigs per week, competing against themselves.

Is there a risk with the rise of the so-called ‘promoter DJ’ that the scene becomes homogenised and less open to risk-taking, or does it have its benefits?
It’s a massive problem. Your average 18-year-old wants to play at key Melbourne venues now such as Seven, QBar and Prince. Back 10 years ago, these venues had older DJs playing based on their skills. The younger DJs should be playing venues and doing private functions where they can hone their skills first and learn to play to a crowd. I also think the one hour and 90-minute sets don’t help. Without saying ‘back in my day’, it used to be a lot more about quality DJs taking patrons on a journey.

Obviously every promoter hopes that the acts they’re booking will bring in a crowd in support. Is it perhaps justifiable then to say, ‘you must bring XX amount of friends’ in order to play, given the club climate is more uncertain than it once was?
It’s just a really boring and lazy way of bringing people to a night. It happens, but it’s not ever going to help the longevity of the night but only confuse the patrons even more. The ‘bringing friends but you can’t DJ’ system simply doesn’t work.

In light of this recent trend, what is in your opinion the most sustainable way for parties to build a loyalty?
Go back to being actual clubs, as I previously stated. Rebuild databases, fairer prices to get in, and actually make it a club night with hosts and cool marketing. Don’t expect that by putting on popular national touring artists with three 21-year-olds with big Facebooks that they will pull in a large crowd. If you don’t have a direction, how is the consumer supposed to know?

ANDY SCALLY – MANAGING DIRECTOR, LIMELITE PERTH

An opinion I’ve heard often is that there’s a ‘new’ generation of clubbers who are less loyal to any particular club night now, and the club scene has become in some ways less motivated by music. Is there truth in that from your perspective?
In the last 12 to 18 months, club-land has suffered from two things: event marketing and the cult of celebrity. It seems sometimes the motivating factor for kids to hit clubs is just to be in the same room as a superstar or because the show has been marketed as a major event.

The problem with marketing every show as a major event on a weekly basis is that we simply don’t have access to acts worthy of event status week-in, week-out. Two years ago, we were doing very well based on consistency. The majority of my customers were regulars, that being every three to four weeks. They saw value for money and understood it was about the culture of a club night.

A great example of the culture of celebrity is when I hosted will.i.am in October last year. Over 1800 scrambled for tickets to see an artist not known for his DJing at all. Whereas two weeks later I hosted DJ Hell and was in a world of financial pain, with just over 200 payers. Now I did enjoy the financial rewards that came with the will.i.am gig and maybe I wasn’t completely all over the Hell gig, but to have such a dramatic shift in attendance was almost soul-destroying.

Is there a risk with the rise of the so-called ‘promoter DJ’ that the scene becomes homogenised and less open to risk-taking, or does it have its benefits?
I’m at a complete loss to why promoters book a kid who can’t mix, track select or even know how to do a warm-up set. I’ve seen some local promoters book kids that came dead last in DJ comps because they think they can pull a crew in through the doors. Meanwhile, experienced guys sit on the sidelines scratching their heads while the night falls apart. These young kids jump on Beatport, download the 10 biggest tunes, play them in a row and stuff the dancefloor. Experience would have taught them that its more important to build an atmosphere first.

Obviously every promoter hopes that the acts they’re booking will bring in a crowd in support. Is it perhaps justifiable then to say, ‘you must bring XX amount of friends’ in order to play, given the club climate is more uncertain than it once was?
Now I’m all for booking acts that will pull heads, but I’m not going to throw a DJ on because he can bring in 20 mates but still not grasp what his job is while he train-crashes half his set. Developing new talent is a very important part of a promoter’s job. The up-and-comer must be super-keen, but also have the base set of skills needed. They need to listen to the experienced guys and hopefully pick up a couple of tips on the way.

In light of this recent trend, what is in your opinion the most sustainable way for parties to build a loyalty?
Get back to the basics: flyers in the shops, handshakes and bar cards in the club. Add in Facebook without the spam. Show some innovation and get a crew of true music fans to help push the love.