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| INTRODUCTION |
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Although primarily operating
in the global dance music market, we are gradually expanding
our Commercial roster to meet increasing demand for resident
and contract DJ's from clients with mainstream nightclubs in
a variety of UK and international locations, as well as guest
DJ's for event and brand management companies organising one-off
events, product launches and similar.
This demand has
been created as a result of our high profile internet presence
and large international customer base in the dance industry many
of whom are concerned in the booking of both dance music artists
and commercial DJ's for their events and venues.
The Commercial
is roster is entirely seperate from our dance rosters, so all
DJ's should please note there is no realistic possibility of
moving onto them from the Commercial roster - we are interested
purely in career mainstream commercial DJ/Hosts, male and especially
female (always in demand!). If you are more a dance DJ
see our Risin' roster HERE.
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| MINIMUM
REQUIREMENTS - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! |
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Artists for our Commercial
Roster are selected by exactly the same rigorous standards as
our Premier and Risin' dance rosters in regard to talent, reliability,
professionalism, as well as on critical factors relating to commercial
viability - which means bags of experience across the mainstream
UK nightclub circuit, a wide musical repertoire, polished technical
deck and booth skills, top level personality and mike skills
including games and event hosting, a "can do" attitude.
Acceptance onto our roster means you are able to supplement your
own commercial endeavours by association with, and support of,
the Sparkle brand and the worldwide exposure our profile offers,
and be recognised in terms of talent and professionalism alongside
some of the best name dance artists in the business.
You must be/have,
NO EXCEPTIONS;
- over 21 (to
comply with international laws regarding employment on licensed
premises)
- a home base on mainland UK, and be a UK resident.
- at least 5 years total public performance experience.
- 3 years regular bookings, ie weekly, across a range
of well known commercial nightclubs/leisure chains - a live e-mail
address, mobile phone, driving license/transport, and valid passport
- an e-mailable professional standard DJ profile and press pics
(not sure? - click HERE for an example).
- a professional standard CD or DVD demo/showreel (need blank
CD's, DVD's, cases, labelling kits or accessories?
- click HERE
for our recommended supplier)
- no criminal
convictions which would preclude you from obtaining visas to
work abroad (ie drugs or convictions for
major offences).
- a totally dedicated and professional approach to your DJ'ing
You should ideally
have;
- some international
DJ experience (most of our contract work is abroad).
- a professional standard DJ website with/or a regularly updated
mixes to link to.
Please note
- this is a club
DJ roster, not for mobile DJ work.
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| HOW WE
OPERATE |
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We are a full commercial
operating agency that complies with the Conduct of Employment
Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 with full
time, part time, and freelance staff with over 55 years premier
DJ'ing, promotion and management experience between us, as well
as commercial skills in sales, business management, jornalism,
training, and graphic design. Don't confuse us with the
many hobby DJ sites and paid/free DJ registers/listings on the
web - they are mainly speculative lists of hundreds (often thousands)
of DJ hopefuls - many of them with low levels of experience.
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We support our services
with paid magazine and trade journal advertising, flyer campaigns,
top internet search rankings.
At time of writing
Sparkle have top 5 listings on Google, NTL, Virgin, Ask Jeeves,
CNN, AltaVista, MSN, CNN, Excite, InfoSpace, Go2Net, Dogpile,
Overture, Webcrawler, Metacrawler as well as PPC advertising
campaigns, plus additional sales and advertising from our eBay
Store, ongoing promotion and PR, and partnering with other industry
businesses to help give our performers appropriate industry exposure,
plus the hundreds of contacts generated by our flyer and poster
design studio - we have thousands of venues and promoter contacts
worldwide to market to.
Many of the DJ's
accepted onto Risin' at the time of publication have featured
in our full colour double page spreads in the 2003/4 and 2004/5
and 2005/6 and 2006/7 Music Industry Manual in both the DJ Agencies
section and the all important DJ Directory pages plus a three
page editorial feature in the 2006/7 edition (see pictures right)
as well as display advertising in various free magssuch as ICE,
The Tune Review (TTR) and the 2003 season premier Ibizan club
guide NATIVE (ex-Cultura) and UPFRONT.
We also place
adverts internationally and in various genre specific media from
time to time, though specific artist inclusion varies depending
on the target market.
Sparkle Agency is also
researched on a regular basis by TV, printed media, film and
advertising companies looking for DJ's to take part in a diverse
range of opportunities - 2 Sparkle artists were in the EMMY and
BAFTA winning DJ episode of "Faking It", 3 in editions
of "The Weakest Link", 6 nominated for "The Joy
of Decks", 2 nominated for the "Ladette to Lady"
reality TV show and 1 for "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire"
plus various vox-pop and interview shows, shop openings been
panel judges on OXY/Smash Hits "Search For A Band"
on THE BOX, contributed extras and technical advisors to TV and
film productions,and even opened their souls for articles and
photo shoots for Marie Claire magazine - well we did say diverse,
and there's almost no such thing as bad publicity!
We are often
asked why we don't place adverts in DJ magazines - simple, we
are not a DJ club, directory, or listing service, we are a pro
booking agent and our promotion is targeted at promoters, venues,
and event companies - not at other DJs or clubbers like many
seem to do. As a reputable agency we don't need to advertise
for artists so we can spend our budget on reaching the people
who book them!
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| WHAT IT
COSTS |
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Sorry
people - we would love to do this for free (and perhaps we will
do one day) but for the moment we have to bow to commercial pressures
and charge an annual fee towards the costs of a professional write up, graphic
finishing and publishing of your information on our website pages
and roster lists, updating and re-publishing them, and preparation
of suitable professional artwork for the agency's advertising
in trade magazines or other media as appropriate.as well as the
set-up and administation
costs of featuring each artist.
UK based mainstream
DJs/Hosts may apply free of charge and if accepted we will charge
you a publication fee of £100 per year. All artists accepted
will automatically be provided with representation to the same
high standard as our Premier roster artists, providing they sign
our non-exclusive agency agreements.
This arrangement
does not affect any work you go out and get yourself or are already
undertaking, nor is it an exclusive arrangement - you can work
with other bookers, agents or through a manager if you wish (though
we insist that all contacts and business dealings made through
us remain confidential).
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| ADDITIONAL
BENEFITS |
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Apart from providing
the same high quality agency services as for our Premier artists
there are a number of additional benefits available to our Commerical
Roster artists.
£50
off
the cost
of our Pro Industry Coaching Days (click HERE for details) for you
and up to 4 friends, subject to suitability for the course
and at a date convenient to the Agency.
Use of the Sparkle
Commercial brand logos, and agency promotional materials available
from time to time for your own marketing activities (permission
required for any retail use - ie use on CD's offered for sale)
Template pro-forma
DJ contracts for work you may find yourself.
Inclusion on
our mailing list for other DJ opportunities that Sparkle get
asked for assistance on - charity events, DJ competitions, free
play parties, magazine articles, TV game or reality shows - and
anything else that comes along that is an opportunity for some
extra exposure for you. You are under absolutely no obligation
to take part in play for free events or similar, though we would
expect you to take up paid DJ bookings offered if you were available
and the event was appropriate to you music style
E-mail help with
just about anything DJ or promotion related during normal
office hours.
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| LEGAL
& STUFF WE HAVE TO TELL YOU |
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Under employment legislation
(The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses
Regulations 2003) effective 6th April 2004 we are required to
have specific written agreements with all artists joining or
continuing on our roster. We operate as an "Employment Agency"
under the terms of the legislation, representing artists for
the purposes of contracting them for temporary occasional work
with bookers as performer/s in the entertainment industry.
Representation
by Sparkle does not constitute employment with the Agency. All
contracts are direct contracts betwen the artist and the booker,
not the Agency. For more info on our terms and conditions of
business and booking see HERE
To avoid any confusion
please note we are a booking agent, and don't currently offer
management or individual artist promotion or plugging for our
Commercial Roster artists - if that's what you are looking for
you need to get yourself a manager or marketing/PR person as
well as applying to Risin'. Just like our Premier roster,
we make no guarantee relating to quanties of bookings as you
will appreciate this is subject entirely to market forces - however
we do offer a high level of professional international exposure
alongside our established artists and the bookings that this
generates are usually of a high calibre and well paid.
We do NOT charge
promoters a booking fee or (currently at least) VAT - this makes
the booking transaction very attractive to bookers and has contributed
greatly to the popularity of our agency with promoters worldwide.
Acceptance onto
our roster requires that business dealings between you and us
are confidential and that you carry out your performer duties
and business in a professional and courteous manner - artists
on our roster must be good ambassadors for Sparkle as well as
fabulous performers!
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| HOW TO
APPLY |
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Email us your full professional
DJ CV along with a covering note telling us a bit about yourself
- if we like what we see we will ask for a demo (CD/CD-ROM only).
If we select you we will send you our agency agreement and ask
for your publication fee. Don't forget we look at the professional
presentation of your demo and CV as much as your experience and
technical skills.
Need blank CD's,
DVD's, cases, labelling kits or accessories? - click HERE
for our recommended supplier
Please do not
apply if you haven't got the required experience as detailed
above, live outside the UK or don't have current regular bookings
in the UK - your application won't be successful, however you
may still be interested in our Pro DJ Career & Industry Coaching
Day to help you boost your DJ bookings - click HERE for details
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