With 15 years under her belt along with successful gigs at countless big clubs and festivals, DJ Red has quite the resume.
Yet, even with such extensive experience, the 33-year-old, who also manages a group of disc jockeys, has not been spared from delayed payments and, in some cases, not getting paid for her work.
The DJ, who sports red-tipped hair in line with her stage name, is now owed about S$23,000 in unpaid fees from several clients, some of which date back to August last year.
That figure does not include other payments she has written off over the years, such as the S$2,400 owed by a now-defunct bar chain for the gigs she played in January 2024.
"I've had to write off amounts because they're so difficult to get back, mainly due to companies going bankrupt and closing down," she said, wanting to be known only by her stage name because she has been stalked in the past.
"It's nearly impossible to get the money back."
In Singapore' s nightlife scene, booking a creative freelancer such as a DJ, a live band or a sound production crew for a gig can usually be arranged with just a few text messages over the phone.
It usually starts with a venue owner reaching out with a date and an offer price for the job, before the performance goes ahead as planned – sometimes even on the same day.
Freelancers who spoke to CNA TODAY said that such informal arrangements help speed up bookings and offer them flexibility, but they can also create problems since l ast-minute cancellations and delayed payments are commonplace.
Agreements are often struck between freelance workers and nightlife venue operators through WhatsApp or phone text messaging because it is flexible and convenient when pressed for time. (Photo: iStock)
Many of the workers said that the problem stems from longstanding industry practices, but the issue has recently drawn greater attention amid calls by the Visual, Audio, Creative Content Professionals Association (VICPA) and the Singapore Nightlife Business Association (SNBA) for clearer engagement practices and written agreements.
In May, the two associations urged nightlife businesses to adopt clearer contractual arrangements and fairer payment practices for freelance performers and creative professionals.
The groups said that better-defined expectations around key engagement terms – such as payment timelines, scope of work and cancellation policies – would help both parties align and can reduce misunderstandings or disputes.
CHASING FOR CASH
Similar to DJ Red, Mr Robin Chua, a 53-year-old DJ better known by his stage name KiDG, has also encountered errant operators.
His most recent experience involves a bar that closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He claimed that he was expecting around S$1,300 for gigs he played over a few months in 2019 and that he has made multiple follow-up attempts with the venue to settle his invoice, but to no avail.
"A lot of us DJs work in this industry out of goodwill, agreements and (mutual) respect," he said.
DJ Robin Chua has worked in Singapore's nightlife scene for years. Just like many freelancers in the industry, he has had problems recovering payments when disputes arise. (Photo: Robin Chua)
Another DJ, who did not want to be named because he did not want to strain relations with clients , said that he learnt the importance of having written agreements in the early years of his now 20-year career.
In 2004, when his employer made no indication of paying him after he had already worked for a month, he decided it was time to draft his own letter of appointment (LOA).
"It was not easy to get the company's signature (on the LOA), but because I was very persistent back then, so they just signed it."
He then submitted the document to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), which contacted the business owner. The dispute was eventually settled privately and from what he recalled, he recovered slightly over half of the S$2,000 he estimated.
Since then, he has tried to persuade more employers to put down their agreements in black and white, but often, it is without success.
Mr Lance Ang, law lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) and research associate at the University of Cambridge, said that businesses and freelancers may not always perceive the same need for formal contractual arrangements, because the benefits of written agreements may differ depending on their respective bargaining power and interests.
The risk of future disputes is often not top of mind when parties first enter into a working arrangement. Instead, they tend to focus on the immediate benefits of flexibility and the convenience of relationship-based arrangements.
Such arrangements are common across gig work more broadly, where engagements are often short-term and project-based, he added.
For the DJ who took his dispute to MOM, he has become more selective about whom he works with, relying on trusted referrals and long-standing industry relationships as a form of prot…
Read the full article at Channel NewsAsia (CNA) →
SG