Entertainment for networking drinks and company receptions in Amsterdam, from EUR 600. Jazz trio from EUR 1,600, DJ from EUR 1,000, quote within one business day.

How it works

What entertainment has to do at networking drinks

A networking reception is a talking room. That sounds obvious, but it is exactly where most bookings go wrong: someone books an act built for a dance floor, the act does its job well, and half the guests move to the corridor so they can finish a sentence.

Three things decide whether the booking works.

The volume ceiling sits at conversation level. The music has to reach the back of the room while two people standing half a metre apart still talk normally. That is not a matter of turning a knob down. It is line-up, arrangement, and a musician who notices when the room starts raising its voice.

The first half hour is nearly empty. A reception fills by trickle: five people, then fifteen, and only after forty minutes is the room full. An act that opens at full power plays to nobody and has nothing left for the moment that counts.

The reception either fades or it tips. Around the second hour the room either drains or a core stays behind that actually wants to dance. Which of the two you want decides the act. A jazz trio will not tip a room, and sometimes that is the point. A DJ with a saxophonist will, provided you give them the last forty minutes.

Which act fits which company reception in Amsterdam

Send us the date, the room and the headcount, plus whether the evening is allowed to end in dancing. You get the fitting line-up and a price within one business day.

Prices for entertainment at a company reception in Amsterdam

A live saxophonist over a DJ set is the most booked upgrade at a reception. Golden Sax is the fixed combination from EUR 1,600; Tom Jaxx joins any DJ as a solo saxophonist for EUR 750 on top of the DJ rate. In a band, each musician beyond four adds EUR 500. Travel within roughly 50 kilometres of Amsterdam is included; beyond that it appears as a separate line, because travel hidden inside an act fee makes quotes impossible to compare. BumaStemra and BTW (Dutch VAT) are itemised separately, 9 percent on the artistic performance and 21 percent on technical services, so finance can check the quote line by line.

Per guest: a DJ at networking drinks for 80 colleagues is about EUR 13 per head, a jazz trio at 120 guests about EUR 13, and at 250 guests that drops to under EUR 7. In almost every budget that is less than the bar snacks.

Live music for a networking event: how the evening should run

At a networking event a DJ has a different job than at a party. The brief is not to fill a dance floor but to fill the gaps between conversations and make the room sound like something is happening, even with thirty people exchanging cards. That takes a DJ who builds in steps and can tell the difference between a room that wants to dance and a room being pushed.

The arc that works: lounge, soul and downtempo at conversation level for the first hour, disco and funk with more body in the second, and only in the last half hour the point where it is allowed to tip. Put a live saxophonist over those final forty minutes and a company reception almost always turns into dancing without anyone announcing it.

For a DJ-led reception we most often book Demi Elisa, who plays feel-good house, afro and Latin, and Savoy when the room runs from 25 to 65: soul and swing sliding into modern pop and dance. For the wider corporate brief, from dinner to dance floor, see corporate event DJ in Amsterdam, and for the saxophone combination DJ with a live saxophonist in Amsterdam.

Jazz trio for a client reception

When the reception exists so people can talk, which is true of nearly every client, opening or press event, a jazz trio is the safest booking there is. Three musicians at conversation volume fill a room without occupying it, and nobody has to raise their voice to finish a thought.

Dupa Trio plays jazz standards, bossa nova and contemporary jazz with trumpet, guitar, bass and vocals; Microsoft booked them for its gala at the Rijksmuseum. Fourtunes does the same with more pop and soul in the book and can shrink to a solo pianist when the room is smaller than planned. If the reception runs into a seated dinner, the full picture is on our page about cocktail and dinner music in Amsterdam.

Friday drinks in the office

Friday afternoon drinks, the vrijmibo in Dutch, are the most underestimated booking on this page. They start around four or five, the room is your own office floor or a roof terrace, and it is over by eight. That is exactly why a compact act works better than a full band: there is rarely a stage, the power comes from a normal office circuit, and there are people working on the floor above you.

What we usually send is a DJ who can build volume in steps, or a soloist for the first hour with a DJ after. If there is a quarterly update or a short speech, the microphone comes out of the same set, so you do not need a second supplier.

Many international offices book Friday drinks on a recurring basis, the first Friday of the month or four times a year. When they do we keep the same DJ, so the act already knows the building, the noise limit and the taste of the room. When a Friday session outgrows the office, a band for the staff party is the step up; the options are on corporate band Netherlands.

Music in an office, hotel bar or rooftop: space, power and load-in

Most networking drinks in Amsterdam do not happen in a venue but in an office, a canteen, a showroom, a hotel bar or on a roof terrace. That is standard for us, but it needs four answers up front.

• Space: a DJ needs about 2 by 2 metres, a duo 3 by 2, a jazz trio 4 by 3, a four-piece band about 5 by 4. No stage needed, as long as the act is not standing in a walkway.
• Power: two free circuits are enough for a DJ or a trio. Do not share one with the coffee machine or the caterer's hot plates.
• Load-in: we ask for the loading window, the lift and the distance from parking to the room. A set carried to the sixth floor takes longer than one wheeled into a hall, and that decides our arrival time.
• Acoustics and the building's noise limit: concrete, glass and low ceilings make everything louder than they are. We tune the PA to the room and stay within the limit your venue or building management applies. Tell us the limit and we build towards it, instead of someone asking us to turn down halfway through. How those limits work is set out in our guide to noise limits and permits in the Netherlands.

Entertainment for international teams and English-speaking guests

Amsterdam networking events are rarely Dutch-only rooms. Our acts and our office work in English, from the first email to the announcement before the speech, and the repertoire is built for mixed rooms rather than one radio station: soul, Latin, house, jazz standards and pop that a guest from Dublin, Lisbon or Singapore recognises. If your room is mostly international and you want a band rather than a DJ, start on English-speaking corporate band Netherlands.

The acts we send to Amsterdam receptions most

Our first recommendation is usually Golden Sax: live saxophone over a DJ set, with a book of deep house, disco, Latin and lounge. It can play at conversation level and it can lift a room, which makes it the safest choice when you do not yet know whether this reception will dance.

For an evening carried entirely by a DJ we name Demi Elisa. For a talking room of clients or press, Dupa Trio. For a mixed crowd from 25 to 65, Savoy. When the moment after a speech has to land, at an opening or an anniversary, we bring in Drumpet Disco: live trumpet and drums on top of a DJ set, from EUR 2,000. For a saxophonist without a DJ, over a lounge playlist on a terrace, see saxophonist hire in Amsterdam.

If the reception becomes a real party, the acts and budgets for the whole corporate calendar are on corporate entertainment in Amsterdam, and everything we do in the city is on live music in Amsterdam.

What you get on paper before you sign

A company reception is almost never organised by someone who does this for a living. It lands on the desk of an office manager, a marketeer or an HR advisor, and they mostly do not want to be the person it goes wrong for. So this is standard in our quote, not something to ask for.

• A business invoice with BTW (VAT) itemised, on a purchase order number or cost centre, with your payment terms. Musicians are never paid in cash on the night.
• Musicians named in the contract, not only an act name, so you know who is standing there on Friday.
• A replacement from the same line-up in case of illness. Our deputies know the repertoire, so you fix nothing on the day.
• Our own sound and light with a technician, from EUR 850, tuned to your venue's dB limit. No second supplier, and the speech runs through the same system.
• One contact person. Whoever answers your first email is reachable that afternoon. Usually that is Noam.
• A quote within one business day, itemised, with videos of the act.

That is how we have run more than 300 events since 2018, for Heineken, Microsoft, Salesforce, Booking.com, IBM, Canon, City of Amsterdam, ING and Tommy Hilfiger.

Where we play receptions in Amsterdam

We are an Amsterdam agency and play receptions across the Netherlands: Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven. In Amsterdam we produce regularly at Westergasfabriek, the Gashouder, Thuishaven, Kantine25, the Anantara Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky and A'DAM Toren, and we know the hotel bars at the Pulitzer, Hotel de l'Europe and the W Amsterdam where a trio belongs in the corner rather than on a stage. Outside the city Drumpet Disco played a company reception at Cafe Iran in Almere, and Dupa Trio played for Microsoft at the Rijksmuseum, where the run sheet mattered more than the setlist.

When to book

A normal reception is booked three to six weeks ahead and the choice is wide. Two periods are the exception. Christmas and end-of-year drinks fill the second and third week of December, and those weeks are already tight by October. New Year receptions sit in the first two weeks of January and are usually booked in December, which often still works, though the strongest DJ diaries are gone by then. For recurring Friday drinks we lock the whole year at once.

Ask for a price for your reception

Send the date, the room and the headcount and you get a fixed price within one business day, with a named line-up, videos of the act and a quote that itemises BTW and travel. If you are still choosing between a DJ, a trio and a soloist, say so in the email and you get advice back rather than a price list. Calling or WhatsApp works too and is usually faster.