Live bands, DJs with sax or trumpet and jazz for company parties, from EUR 850. One contact, one invoice.

How it works

What music actually does at a company party

A company party has two music jobs and they rarely want the same act. The first job is the room while people arrive, talk, eat and toast, and that wants music at a volume a table of ten can talk over, usually a jazz trio or a soloist. The second job is the floor, the part where the year gets celebrated and people dance, and that wants a party band or a DJ that reads a mixed crowd of all ages. The mistake that ruins more company parties than any other is asking one quiet act to do both, or putting a loud band under a dinner. Match the music to the moment and the night runs itself.

Which music fits which moment

Band or DJ for a company party

The honest answer is that a band and a DJ do different things, and most strong company parties use both. A party band like Benga Band brings live energy, a frontline that works the room and a moment people film and remember, with funk, soul, Latin and pop and its own sound and light. A DJ holds a floor for less money, runs all night without breaks, and covers a wider span of genres. For a compact room or a tighter budget a DJ does more for less. For a milestone party where the music is part of the message, a band earns its fee. The setup we sell most is a band for the peak hour and a DJ to open and close, quoted as one package.

The acts we book most for a company party

For a real dance floor our most-booked act is Benga Band, a full party band with its own production included. For a brand launch or a conference night that needs one burst of energy, Drumpet Disco puts a live trumpeter and a drummer on stage with a DJ, which lands as a festival moment rather than background. For the dinner and networking stretch Dupa Trio plays jazz at conversation level. Golden Sax adds a live saxophonist over a DJ set, and Savoy, our roster DJ, closes the late floor by bridging soul and Motown into modern dance for a crowd that spans generations.

Building a whole company-party evening

Most company parties are a sequence, not one act. A typical evening runs jazz during arrival and dinner, a host or award segment with the music turned down, then a party band or a DJ for the floor. We design the full run of show and coordinate it through one contact, timed to your AV team's cues. A common combination is dinner jazz, then a dance band, then a late DJ, packaged as one transparent quote so you compare formats by what each moment needs rather than by supplier.

Prices for music at a company party in the Netherlands

A DJ starts at EUR 850, or EUR 1,500 with its own sound and light, the most cost-efficient way to cover a whole evening. A soloist for a quiet reception starts at EUR 600 and a jazz trio for dinner and networking starts at EUR 1,400. A full party band of four pieces and up starts at EUR 3,000 with sound and light included, and each extra musician adds EUR 500, so a fuller six-piece sits around EUR 4,000. Most company clients combine a dinner act with a dance act and a late DJ, which we package into one quote. Send us your date, venue and headcount and we come back within one business day.

Music for a corporate dinner or networking drinks

When the brief is a seated dinner, a networking reception or a quieter company gathering, the answer is jazz, not a party band. A trio sets a tone people can talk over and lifts between courses, and a soloist or duo suits a smaller room. For the band-led corporate picture see our corporate band Netherlands page, and for the full evening across formats see live music for corporate events. The complete roster sits at ons artiestenbureau.

Company party entertainment: the acts you can book

Entertainment at a company party is a choice between act types, not between genres. We book six formats, and most evenings use two or three of them in sequence. The table below shows which type belongs to which part of your night and where the fee starts.

The hybrid formats are why companies search for entertainment rather than for a band. Golden Sax plays live saxophone over a DJ set, moving from deep house and disco to the floor, led by Miguel, who has played ADE and Tomorrowland. Drumpet Disco puts a trumpet player and a drummer next to the DJ, which turns an ordinary dance floor into something people film. Demi Elisa plays feel-good house, afro and pop, the act for a drinks reception or a staff party that runs on a DJ all night. For the purely band-led version see our band for a company party, for a DJ-led night in Amsterdam see corporate DJ Amsterdam, and for the English-language brief see corporate entertainment Amsterdam.

Booking artists for a company party: how the business side works

Booking on behalf of a company is mostly about removing risk, and that is where most of our time goes. You get a normal business invoice with VAT itemised, 9 percent on the artistic performance and 21 percent on technical services, carrying your purchase order or cost centre reference if you send one. You do not get an anonymous stand-in: the act you saw is the act that arrives, and if a musician falls ill there is a named replacement from the same line-up on standby. From the four-piece up our bands bring their own sound and light and play within your venue's noise limit, which in rooms like Westergasfabriek or Kantine25 is the difference between an evening that runs to the end and an act that gets cut off. And you have one contact from the first email to load-out, not a sales team followed by a production manager you have never spoken to. That is how we work for Heineken, Microsoft, Salesforce, Booking.com, IBM, Canon, ING, Tommy Hilfiger and the City of Amsterdam.

Where we play and how travel works

We are an Amsterdam agency but company-party work takes our acts across the country every month. We produce regularly at Westergasfabriek, the Gashouder, Kantine25 and the Kromhouthal in Amsterdam, De Doelen and Hotel New York in Rotterdam, TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, and the High Tech Campus and Strijp-S in Eindhoven. Travel within roughly 50km of Amsterdam carries no fee. Further afield we itemise a transparent travel line in the quote rather than hiding it in the act fee.

Common mistakes booking music for a company party

• Asking one quiet act to cover the whole night. A jazz trio cannot fill a dance floor and a party band cannot play under a dinner.
• Leaving the booking to the final week. The strongest acts fill the December party season many months out.
• Forgetting the speech and AV cues. An act without MC discipline will play over a director's address.
• Booking a loud band for a compact room. Match the lineup to the space and the headcount.
• Treating the evening as one format. Most company parties need a sequence, jazz then a band or DJ.