MOBILE DJ PROFILE Extra: David Osborne offers DJs, musicians & more.
By Jim Tremayne
College-Town Multi-Op Offers
MULTI-SERVICES Athens, Ga. – Outside of the Classic City, Athens, Ga., is well-known for three main exports: a live-band/club scene that has produced influential rock acts like The B-52’s and R.E.M.; the University of Georgia and its massive alumni base; and UGA’s wildly popular football team, the Bulldogs – 2021’s National Champs. So, in a college market of 125,000 that loves its live bands, what opportunities remain for a mobile-DJ/entertainment service? If you’re David Osborne, a longtime Athens resident, 2004 UGA grad, and multi-op mobile, there are plenty. Not only does Osborne run Sound Insight, a premium outfit for higher-end events, he also runs Athens DJ Service, a wedding-only company – and he offers live-band services to clients with Side Hustle, a 10-piece cover band, complete with horn section. Speaking of side hustles, Osborne recently launched The Blueprint, “a full training resource for solo-op and multi-op DJs to train their teams.” And at DJX, this Aug. 8-11 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., Osborne will reveal some of that “secret sauce” when he helms “Grow A High-Performance Team,” an hourlong tutorial on recruiting, training, and maintaining DJ-staff in, what he calls, “a difficult market to operate.” We recently caught up with David Osborne, 39, to discuss how he’s thrived and evolved in this unique Northeast Georgia market. What inspired you to DJ? 42
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Was there a moment, an event or a person who lit that fire? DJing is quite literally the crossroads of all the things that I’m good at. Trust me, there’s tons of stuff I’m terrible at – that’s just a different set of questions. I came out of the womb talking and entertaining people, I have my degree in music from the University of Georgia, and I come from a family of engineering-minded folks. So problem-solving and technology is in my DNA. I’m happy doing any of the mentioned things, but when they culminate at DJing it’s a Zen-type experience. How did you actually get started DJing? Did you work for another jock? I totally fell into DJing by necessity. My mom got remarried in 1998 and my step-dad said, “Hey, you should DJ the reception with all your CDs.” I remember then knowing that my CD collection wasn’t going to cut it and I sourced as much as I could from the local library and played my first party on my boombox! Some years later, in college, I was always the guy making the burned CDs for parties and road trips. Right after college, I was attending what felt like dozens of weddings – and the DJs were awful. At one of the weddings, I told a friend, “Hey, I can totally do that,” and they challenged me to get started. I bought some gear and never looked back. Did your music studies at UGA help you in your DJ business? How so? My degree in Music Education/
Trumpet Performance has helped me tremendously. I spent 13 years teaching elementary-school general music – 2004 to 2017 – and was a professional trumpet player from 2004 to 2007, so my ability to understand and support people, as well as put on a show, come from my earlier experiences. Can you describe your company? How many DJs? What range of services do you offer? I own two brands. Sound Insight is a signature-level brand – i.e., more expensive, higher expectations, higher results – that has four DJs, soon to be five. We offer DJs, lighting design, photo booths, live musicians, a live band, and FX. The second brand, which is like our minor-league-training team – Athens DJ Service – is a wedding-only DJ company that just offers DJ/dance lighting. We have five DJs at that brand. What are your company’s main gigs? Mostly weddings, corporate, and non-profit. Our band does work with a lot of UGA sororities. You’re working in a town that’s wellknown for its live music – describe your live-band services? We have a band called “Side Hustle” – it’s an eight- or 10-piece cover band. The 10-piece has a full horn section. The sax player is part of both groupings and is actually a working, wedding DJ with our company, so he helps with the client-facing side of the band.
