Revealed: The True Price Of Digital DJing In 2025

DJing used to be a very expensive game. Back in the days of turntables, you needed two – and they weren’t cheap. Add in the price of a mixer, speakers, amp and headphones, plus the music (records were hard to find and expensive to buy) and it all added up – quickly.

It’s no wonder that one of our first aims as serious DJs back then was to start bringing the money in with paid gigs, because we needed to turn that cost into an investment sooner rather than later!

Nowadays with digital, of course, everything has changed. The equipment starts at much lower prices. Because DJing has exploded in popularity, there’s much more choice, which has driven prices down. Music is digital, and digital music is far cheaper to buy than records ever were.

And so, DJing is accessible to far more people than it has been traditionally. For hobby DJs, it’s no longer necessary to think about playing gigs to recoup the money they’re spending on their gear – although of course many do. But along with the savings there are new costs, not least software and subscriptions.

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Therefore it’s worth knowing what all of those costs are going to be ahead of time, especially if you’re just starting as a DJ or you’ve just returned to DJing after a break and have realised that, of course, everything has changed. So in this article, we’re going to look at the real cost of DJing today.

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Prefer me to talk you through this? In this video, a recording of a live show from the Digital DJ Tips YouTube channel, I talk you through everything in this article, and we take questions from our community on the subject.

Who this guide is and isn’t aimed at

Actually, we’ve already spoken of one group of people this isn’t aimed at: working DJs. They may well own gear even pricier than what I cover here, and possibly (if they’re “mobile DJs”) additional things like PA systems, lighting, flight cases and so on. Such DJs will be making back the money they spend on their gear and have a different outlook on cost, seeing it more as an investment and a business expense.

Also, this is not aimed at “super casual” DJs: People who just want to mess around without really learning in any depth how this is done, who just want a bit of fun before moving on to something else. You can dabble in DJing for less outlay than even the cheapest options here – but you won’t be learning it properly.

 

 

To make things easy, we’re actually going to “invent” a DJ who this article is aimed at. Our imaginary DJ has always loved DJing and wanted to have a go, and finally is getting around to it. They know their music and are serious about learning, but have no real aspirations to go professional or start making serious money from it.

That said, they hope that within a few months (or, let’s say, a year) they can perform a reasonable length DJ set – maybe an hour and a half. This might just be to show off to friends at a party, maybe even in public, could even be a livestream, or making a mix to share online – but their goal is to be able to perform competently within that 12-month window.

Apart from that, they’re really not sure what equipment and software to get and what it’s going to cost them.

Sound like you? If you’ve been nodding along, then read on because I’m going to tell you what it’s really going to cost you to get started by looking at four potential approaches: Two “standalone”, and two “laptop”.

Note that we’ve only included the essentials as we recommend to our students: No bags, workstations, speaker stands etc. You can get these as you can afford them. This is just what you must have to both learn effectively and take your first steps towards performing.

1. The “Standalone” Route

A standalone DJ system is one where you don’t need a laptop with you as you’re performing. While the initial piece of DJ gear will always cost you more, ongoing costs are always less. And this route has the added advantage of being simple. (While you do actually still need access to a computer for buying and preparing music, any old computer will do).

Let’s look at a couple of options:

i. Budget standalone option:

A fantastic entry-level standalone piece of DJ gear is the Numark Mixstream Pro+, making it an easy choice for our budget package. This unit is great value, with built-in speakers for practising, and it is complete – indeed, there’s just one simple software add-on (for $10) that is worth getting, which we’ve listed below.

You’ll need to add a pair of headphones, and at this level, an entry-level model from a good brand will do – we like the Pioneer DJ HDJ-CUE1s.

You’ll need some music of course, and if you’re practising towards a 90-minute DJ set and then performing every now and then, buying about 10 tunes a month would be perfect.

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And, not essential, but strongly recommended, you should also subscribe to a music streaming service that works with your hardware, for music discovery and casual DJing. We’ve gone for Amazon Music Unlimited here because it does the job and is super-cheap.

Your costs will look like this:

Cost breakdown

• Numark Mixstream Pro+ DJ system: $699
• Engine DJ Stems add-on: $10
• Pioneer DJ HDJ-CUE1 headphones: $69
• 120 music files from online stores: $180
• DJ-friendly music streaming service (Amazon Music Unlimited) – 12 months: $144

Total cost year one: $1,102
Subsequent years: $324/year

ii. Pro standalone option:

We always recommend that people starting out go for a budget option, for all kinds of reasons. But if you want to go straight in with something top-end, this is for you. It’s certainly the closest you’re going to get to a pro club system at home, without actually buying one!

We’re going to recommend the AlphaTheta XDJ-AZ standalone unit, although another option that springs to mind is the Denon DJ Prime 4+, two “flagship” products (the Prime 4+ comes in at $2,199, saving you an initial $1,000). Again, and in both cases, the software you need for music prep comes with the units and is free.

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Of course you’re going to need to add a pair of headphones – we’ve recommended some better ones this time, the venerable and much-loved Sennheiser HD-25s.

But also, at this point, a separate pair of speakers is necessary – unlike the Mixstream Pro+, this one doesn’t have speakers built in (few DJ units do, of course). We’d recommend going for a reasonable pair of monitor speakers – the KRK Rokit 5 G4 monitors would do the job, and we’ve budgeted for some speaker cables for you, too.

At this level, you’re probably going to want a more specialised DJ streaming service, so we’re suggesting Beatport Streaming Advanced.

And if you’re spending this kind of money, likely you’re planning on spending more time on your hobby and you’d enjoy having more music, so we’ve doubled the amount of music that you might be purchasing to 20 tunes a month.

Your pricing comes out like this:

Cost breakdown

• AlphaTheta XDJ-AZ DJ system: $3,199
• Sennheiser HD-25 headphones: $99
• KRK Rokit 5 G4 monitors x 2: $335
• XLR speaker cables x 2: $35
• 240 music files from online stores: $360
• Specialist DJ music streaming service (Beatport Streaming Advanced) – 12 months: $192

Total cost year one: $4,220
Subsequent years: $552/year

2. The “Laptop DJ” Route

Laptop DJing – DJing with a laptop plugged into a DJ controller while you perform – has driven the explosion in hobby DJing for the last decade or so. Because the DJ gear is essentially just an interface device, and all the heavy lifting is going on in the laptop (which you already own), such set-ups are typically considerably cheaper than standalone gear.

But there’s no such thing as a free lunch, because taking this route, you have to pay for the software, either as part of the price of the unit, upfront as an outright purchase, or as a subscription.

i. Budget controller option:

As stated, one of the advantages of laptop DJing is that you can get in at a lower price point. And indeed, you need look no further than the Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX4 as a great all-round starter DJ controller – it’s what we recommend day in, day out to our students, and so that’s the one we’ve gone for here.

Learn to DJ with us: The Complete DJ Course

You’re going to need the software too. While Rekordbox, the software designed to work with the unit, does work for free, you’ll be constantly nagged to upgrade for $19 a month to Rekordbox Core, which you’ll want to do sooner or later to get the inevitable missing features – we’re assuming you’ll do this right away (note that this controller also works with Serato as an alternative, which is $15/month).

Then, just as above, it’s simply headphones and speakers you need to finish your initial purchase. We’ve stuck with the Pioneer DJ headphones from the first budget system above, and we’re recommending the Pioneer DJ DM-40D desktop active monitors – speakers which are good enough to get you going at home, and come with all the cables you need too.

Throw in similar music purchasing and subscription options to option one above, and we can calculate our costs as listed here:

Cost breakdown

• Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX4 controller: $299
• Pioneer DJ DM-40D monitors: $149
• Pioneer DJ HDJ-CUE1 headphones: $69
• 120 music files from online stores – 12 months: $180
• Rekordbox Core software subscription – 12 months: $228
• DJ-friendly music streaming service (Tidal) – 12 months: $144

Total cost year one: $1,069
Subsequent years: $552/year

 

 

ii. Pro controller option:

Again we always recommend that people starting out go for a budget option, for all kinds of reasons. But if you want to go straight in with something top-end and master more advanced DJ skills, especially if you want to learn scratching and play technical open-format sets, this system would be great for you.

We’ve gone for a Serato DJ Pro option, Serato being equally as popular software as Rekordbox – although you could, for instance, go with the Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX10 ($1,599) as a Rekordbox option (in that case you’d need to add in the minimum $19/month Rekordbox software subscription).

The piece of hardware we’ve chosen, the Rane Performer, is particularly fully featured, with four channels and motorised jogs plus impressive stems integration. It also unlocks Serato DJ Pro software (including the essential Pitch ‘n Time Expansion Pack), saving you a considerable amount of money.

So… with no DJ software subscription to pay for, we’ve spent that money on a higher tier of DJ streaming service, Beatsource Pro+, that has excellent DJ edits and an “offline locker” so you could perform with music from it mixed in with your purchased music without relying on the internet.

You’re still going to want to buy music to build a collection over time, and again, we’ve stuck with around 20 music purchases a month as per the standalone option 2 above. We’ve also stuck with the same monitors and headphones from there as well.

Cost breakdown

• Rane Performer DJ controller: $1,999
• Sennheiser HD-25 headphones: $99
• KRK Rokit 5 G4 monitors x 2: $335
• XLR speaker cables x 2: $35
• 240 music files from online stores – 12 months: $360
• Specialist DJ music streaming service (Beatsource) – 12 months: $420

Total cost year one: $3,248
Subsequent years: $780/year

Further Thoughts

So there are four DJ set-up options there to get you thinking – but of course, we haven’t covered all the options available to you.

We haven’t looked at Traktor software, which is great value as long as you’re happy to use one of their DJ hardware offerings. We haven’t talked about VirtualDJ software, which works with most DJ equipment and doesn’t require a subscription if you purchase it outright. We haven’t talked about Algoriddim’s Djay Pro software, which is subscription-only but quite cheap, and for some people will make more sense than some of the platforms I’ve suggested.

You may not want a streaming service at all, or want a different one. Or you may have decided that for your level of DJing, there’s no need to buy music, and so you don’t need to factor that in. (I don’t recommend that, by the way, but hey, we’re all different). I could go on.

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But hopefully, this has shown you that whatever DJ equipment is tempting you, it’s definitely worth looking past the sticker price and being honest about the cost of your hobby going forward.

And of course, if you are justifying all of this, either to yourself or to a partner, with the age-old line, “I’ll just get some gigs to pay for it”, at the very least you now know how much money those gigs are going to have to bring in, and how quickly, to fund your hobby! Forearmed is forewarned, as they say.

The most expensive gear is the gear you don’t use

I think a sensible way to look at any cost like this is to divide the price by the number of times you end up using it. If the second number is high, then you’re getting a lot of value for your money, despite a high cost to you.

As the owner of a DJ school, I can tell you that the number one reason people end up not using expensive DJ equipment – once their initial enthusiasm has waned, they decide that it’s actually quite hard to get good at this. Slowly the gear ends up getting dusty and finally gets put under the bed, only to be pulled out at Christmas or when they’re feeling guilty about the money they spent on it.

It doesn’t have to be this way! The best investment you can make in addition to the above is in high quality DJ training, so that you learn all the basics properly and quickly. Once you’ve learned to ride the bike, you’re far more likely to keep it.

This is why I strongly recommend you take a look at our courses page. Alongside any DJ purchase, choose a suitable DJ course to get started on your learning journey. Our courses are made exactly for people like you, and our mixture of training, tutor help, and community is exactly what you’ll need to make your hobby a success. But wherever you find it, get help and advice. It’s less lonely and you’re much more likely to stick with it. And it makes the journey more fun!