Keep DJ Event Planner. Add the part it never had.
This isn't really a versus. DJ Event Planner runs the business behind your gigs better than almost anything. It just doesn't answer the lead that came in while you were mid-set. That's us.
What DJ Event Planner is great at
Credit where it's due — DJEP has been the multi-op workhorse for roughly two decades, and the depth shows.
Contracts, invoicing and e-signatures
The paperwork engine is mature, battle-tested and DJ-specific. This is the core reason people stay for a decade.
Deep event workflow
Planning forms, timelines, equipment, employee scheduling — multi-op operators run their whole calendar on it.
Honest pricing
$20–50/mo (verified June 2026) for that much functionality is genuinely fair.
A 20-year track record
It's not going anywhere, and its user community knows every corner of it.
Side by side
Honest marks both ways — including the rows where DJ Event Planner wins outright.
| Feature | DJ Event Planner | Bright Ears |
|---|---|---|
| Finds gigs for you (the Hunt) | No CRM for leads that arrive; it doesn't go find them. | Yes Scans your cities for venues that book entertainment, scores the fit, drafts the pitch in your voice — you approve. |
| Answers new inquiries for you | No Inquiries land in your inbox; the reply is on you. | Yes Drafted in your voice, from your rate card, aware of your real availability. |
| Speed to first reply | No As fast as you can get to a keyboard. | Yes In minutes once you tap Approve. |
| Reads The Knot / WeddingWire / Bark / GigSalad lead emails | No Directory notifications sit in your inbox like any other email. | Yes Parsed automatically via one forwarding rule. |
| Spam & scam filtering | No Not part of the product. | Yes Junk is filtered before your phone ever buzzes. |
| Follow-up until booked or dead | Partly Scheduled emails exist; chase-until-booked with automatic stops isn't the design. | Yes Sequences run until booked or dead, hard-stop the moment they reply, one-tap opt-out compliance. |
| Approve from your phone | Partly There's mobile access to the CRM; it's built for the office desk. | Yes Push notification → read the draft → approve, edit or decline. |
| Contracts & e-signatures | Yes Mature, deep, DJ-specific — the reason people stay a decade. | No Not our job. Keep DJ Event Planner for this. |
| Invoicing & payments | Yes Battle-tested over roughly 20 years. | No Same answer — keep DJEP. |
| Event workflow & scheduling | Yes Planning forms, equipment, employee scheduling — unmatched depth. | No We stop at the booking. |
| Setup | Already your system of record — nothing changes. | One email forwarding rule. No password sharing, no OAuth, nothing migrates. |
| Verified pricing (June 2026) | $20–50/mo | $25–149/mo · subscribe to activate |
Competitor details and pricing recorded from public sources, June 11, 2026. Spot something stale or unfair? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Where Bright Ears fits
Bright Ears is not a DJ Event Planner replacement, and we don't want to be one. We don't do contracts, invoices or event workflow. We do the two jobs DJEP doesn't: the Hunt proactively finds venues that book entertainment in your cities and drafts the outreach in your voice for you to approve — and when an inquiry arrives (website form, plain email, or a The Knot / WeddingWire / Bark / GigSalad notification), we filter the spam and draft the reply from your rate card and real availability, designed to go out within minutes of your tap. Follow-ups run until the lead is booked or gone quiet, with one-tap opt-out compliance.
Setup is a single forwarding rule — no password sharing, no OAuth, and nothing about your DJEP setup changes. When the gig books, you run it in DJ Event Planner exactly the way you do today.
“I want to automate this. I've looked into DJ Intelligence, SMPL, and DJEP — none of them integrate with Zapier.”
Range across published tiers on the vendor's public pricing page.
Need more? Move up a plan in one click. At your cap, drafting pauses for the month — never a surprise bill.
Frequently asked
Is Bright Ears a replacement for DJ Event Planner?
No. We don't do contracts, invoicing, planning forms or event workflow — DJ Event Planner is excellent at those. Bright Ears handles the lead-response layer DJEP doesn't: filtering, answering and chasing inquiries until they're booked or dead, with you approving every reply from your phone.
Does Bright Ears integrate with DJ Event Planner?
No integration is needed, which is the point. Bright Ears works on the email layer: one forwarding rule sends your lead notifications to your Bright Ears address, replies go out under your business name, and the client's answers route straight back to you. Booked gigs go into DJEP the way they always have — there's no API hookup to break (DJEP has no public API anyway).
Does DJ Event Planner have AI replies?
Not as of June 2026. DJEP's strength is workflow depth, but the codebase is roughly 20 years old and there is no AI drafting or automatic lead response built in.
What does running both cost?
DJ Event Planner runs $20–50/mo depending on tier (verified June 2026). Bright Ears starts at $25/mo for up to 15 inquiries answered — the complete assistant, follow-up sequences and weekly report included — with Pro at $79/mo (up to 60 inquiries, auto-send autopilot) and Studio at $149/mo (up to 150 inquiries, hunts all your cities). Against a $1,500–3,000 booked wedding, one save covers both for a long time.
Can I add Bright Ears without touching my DJEP setup?
Yes. Starting Bright Ears changes nothing in DJEP — subscribe to activate, add the forwarding rule, and drafts start appearing. It's month-to-month: if it's not for you, cancel anytime and delete the rule, and everything is exactly as it was.
Add the AI that hunts gigs and answers leads in front of your DJEP
It hunts venues for you AND answers every inquiry — you just approve.