DJ Buono: From Turntables to Top Dollar

Ride The Wave #4: DJ Buono, Owner of Spinner Music Productions

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Introduction

By: Daniel Magazu

Are you ready to be inspired by the story of one man's journey to turning his passion for music into a successful business?

Meet DJ, whose name is so fitting for his profession you'll be convinced his parents had a crystal ball. DJ is a self-taught entrepreneur who, from a young age, was drawn to the world of DJing and music production.

djbuono

A post shared by DJ Buono (@djbuono)

From his early days of experimenting with his father's gear to booking his first event at just 12 years old, DJ's story is a testament to the power of following your dreams and working hard to make them a reality.

Despite facing obstacles such as ADHD and the stress of running a business, DJ never gave up on his passion. He learned the ins and outs of the event industry through self-education, networking, and perseverance. 

His hard work paid off, and he eventually landed big corporate event production contracts, bringing in tens of thousands of dollars for his company. Today, Spinner Music Productions focuses on weddings and are booked out to 2025.

DJ's story inspires those in the event industry and anyone who has a passion and is willing to work hard to turn it into a successful career. 

So, if you need a new wave to ride, read on and discover how DJ turned his passion into a thriving business.

Spinner Music Production Website

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From Turntables to Top Dollar

By: Dj Buono

One could say that I was born into this.

When my father, David, was younger, he traveled to New England as a radio and club disc jockey, and years later, my parents had their first kid and thought it would be funny to make him a Junior so they could nickname the kid 'DJ.' When I was 7 or 8, my dad introduced me to some of his 1970s and 1980s radio DJ gear and massive record collection.

I was instantly hooked. A few years later, Santa delivered my first CDDJ set, mixer, and cheap speakers. These were the days when the compact disc (CD) had just edged its way as the forerunner in mainstream media storage.

By age 12, I had my first signed contract to headline 2002's hottest event; a local police station's annual children's Christmas party. I walked away from that event a whole $75 richer and have never looked back.

Over the years, the business inched along, and I was booking communion celebrations, sweet 16s, and middle school dances. With the school dances, I began learning firsthand the power of relationship building as it relates to the long-term success of a business.

I was self-taught in marketing, sales negotiating contracts, and as the business developed a bit more in my mid and late teens, HR, payroll, taxes, and all the other fun stuff that comes with running a business. All of this was great. I was an eager learner and quickly developed an appetite for the game of business, but I was a terrible student.

I was fortunate at the end of middle school and the beginning of high school to have some teachers that took notice of my ADHD and that I hated being in a classroom and taking tests, and they provided support and motivation to me in other ways.

My middle school assistant principal and gym teacher, gave me my first recurring contract, and a few of the business teachers at my high school helped me develop a proper business plan, helped review my marketing strategies, and assisted me in developing an awareness for the value that I was bringing to my' market'. 

A business that generated just a few hundred dollars a month a year or two prior was now bringing this high school $1000+/week and employing two to three of my best friends.

Those were the simpler times, for sure!

Just a few of us are kicking back, having fun, making great money, and having hardly any stress. If you had told me that we would be signing $50,000/night contracts just a few short years later, I would have called bullshit. But we did get there, and that was an amazing feeling of success and accomplishment.

It brought us to tears when we got a text from the VP of the world's largest telecommunications company that they were wiring tens of thousands of dollars to my little bank account the next day. We had finally made it!

Or so we thought. Scoring those huge corporate event production contracts didn't come easy. Although we only performed on-site event services for "one night" for that $50,000, it sucked up our human resources and total attention for nearly a month.

And they were more common than the calls for weddings that we were getting and inquiries for related services that we didn't at the time offer. This was all happening quickly back in 2016 and 2017. By now, we had grown the company to a loyal staff of 8 part-time event professionals who we trained from the ground up and had run the private events circuit every weekend across New England. We were motivated and had just enjoyed a $50,000 payday, so we were hungry for more.

So we kept booking weddings (which book vendors 1-2 years in advance) which allowed us to forecast future business and revenues best. We worked hard to advance our way into that lucrative corporate events market. We went to industry conventions, joined industry associations, and soaked in all of the youtube videos we could find to learn more about our industry and modern-day business practices. And it kept working, and the results continued to pay off.

We were booked solid nearly a year in advance and smashed every goal we had set for ourselves. But we still wanted more. We wanted to move into the luxury events world.

That was a HUGE undertaking to earn the kind of respect among established luxury event vendors required to achieve the referrals needed to book that kind of clientele. But we pushed on and eventually made a name for ourselves across New England.

Finally, the eyeballs we wanted to be in front of were seeing us, welcoming us, and supporting us. Again we were booked every weekend now up to two years in advance, cashing deposit checks that a few years ago were entire months' revenue, and had a waitlist of clients and even many couples booking their wedding dates around OUR availability.

Again, we thought we had made it. Then the most significant obstacle we have ever faced struck not just our company but our entire industry and brought our little empire to its knees. 

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On March 13, 2020, the government entered the notorious and draconian lockdowns for their 'two weeks to slow the spread' campaign, effectively sending the entire economy to a grinding halt.

As the dust began to settle and some industries were permitted to begin a slow reopening, gathering bans remained largely in effect for most of the areas we serviced.

Large-scale events were deemed the dangerous and deadly super spreaders, and the industry that was once known to bring people together for life's most joyous of celebrations was overnight vilified as being the 'grandma killers'.

The light had gone dark on events, and as each week passed without any sign of letting up on gathering bans and mandates, the dark tunnel we were lost in seemed never to end. 

So did we give up? Yes and no.

Yes, we had come to realize that only a few were going to sign contracts for events when nobody could tell if and when they were allowed again. And the impact of the postponed 2020 and 2021 events cost us over $600,000 in lost revenue and refunds. We had just harshly learned the meaning of the 'force Majeure clause that had been in our contracts for all these years.

So, for the time being, we had to give up on the in-person events we relied on, but no, we didn't give up on the company or the employees. We went to the drawing board and had some tough and emotional conversations about the immediate, short term and long-term implications and plans and how to pull through.

I joined as a vice president of the Boston chapter of the International Live Events Association. I began immediately checking in on the mental and business states of our hurting membership, working with other board members across the country to assess reopening plans and the optimism of our clients, and also joined the inaugural board of directors for the Massachusetts Live Events Coalition which was tasked with knocking on the government's door and demanding help be extended to the 'gig workers' of the U.S. economy which weren't covered under unemployment insurance.

There were 12 million of us: A measly 4% of the United States population but still many people with families that immediately needed help. Our jobs were gone, and every other skill we had learned in our industry could have been more helpful in the remaining available jobs as the hospitality and events industries were still at their knees.

We succeeded. The state and federal governments had earmarked billions of dollars to support gig workers and those in the service industry.

And the SMP team had succeeded in pivoting to virtual event production, allowing us to enter the photography and videography markets.

We had a good idea then that these decisions could prove to be beneficial but not that they would go on post-pandemic to be some of our largest revenue centers and key reasons that 2022 and 2023 would go on to be SMP's most successful years in terms of sales, tripling employees on staff, and bringing back that massive feeling of accomplishment once again.

We had only lost one employee who left the industry entirely but hired ten more for new roles we had created with fantastic pay and incentives. We brought back the company feeling of a team/family rather than employees working for a boss in a feverishly positive way.

As I look forward to 2023, I am fortunate to have a loyal team employed each weekend with guaranteed pay almost two years in advance. I am lucky that everyone made it through with their health and happiness. And I am most fortunate and excited that we once again have a full schedule of events and are right back to the point where couples choose their wedding dates around our availability. Every year, a couple will be celebrating their anniversary because of an arbitrary date that *I* had available is as humbling as it gets.