The "Removing The CD Player" Debate

It's all about the equipment

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Lawrence
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#121 Post by Lawrence » Wed May 28, 2008 12:15 pm

Mr Awesomer wrote:If anything I was suggesting a CAPITALIST approach... he who best equips themselves and offers the best product at the best price wins.
I might be mistaken as to your intent, but it at least looked more like you initiated a Soviet-style bullying into a centralized concept under the guise of limited resources, where a centralized authority (namely, you) determines the only acceptable product; not a capitalist-style accommodation of consumer free choice at a nominal added expense, where the market naturally selects the best format, and the others just fall into disuse until they are not economically supportable. I did not see where you argued that the economic, naturally-selected point of disuse had arrived; instead, I saw lots of posts in which you argued that DJs who still use CDs should "get with the program" and be forced to use a laptop (a centralized product) and that they will thank us later for making the decision for them (a classic Soviet justification). And the best way to force them to do so was to deprive them of the choice of how to operate their "business."

To continue the DJ-in-economics argument, the economic pie gets bigger and the barriers to entry as a DJ get smaller if a venue allows new DJs to DJ from CDs, just as it did for a venue to have an "Auxiliary" input for laptops when people first started using laptops. In contrast, the barriers to entry artificially increase if you eliminate the least expensive form of DJing. Also, to touch another concern of yours, to the extent that the barriers to entry can be diminished by downloading free music that someone else has ripped to MP3s, you will unintentionally encourage the very "Napster DJs" whom you loathe even more than CD DJs. "Hey, I spent a thousand dollars on a laptop so I can DJ; I can't also afford to buy my music, too."

And these economics are all premised upon your insistence that the cost of a dual-CD player is small. If it were a huge burden to accommodate that choice, then I would see more of a dilemma. But there is no such problem. Moreover, I would suggest that this minimal cost is best borne by a venue that uses multiple DJs, not by individual DJs who would need to get duplicative setup to those owned by other DJs. But that, too, is not a choice I would profess to make for every venue, in every town, in every market (area) of the country, no less the world.
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Mr Awesomer
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#122 Post by Mr Awesomer » Wed May 28, 2008 12:29 pm

You read way to much into this.
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Toon Town Dave
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#123 Post by Toon Town Dave » Wed May 28, 2008 12:42 pm

kitkat wrote:
Mr Awesomer wrote:Another option for those who insist/need to stick to CDs:

Get your own dual CD setup!
Of course they could, but that's only if they care that much.
Certainly. If the DJ wants the gig that much, there's no reason not to own some gear. If the DJ is sufficiently valuable to the venue/organizer, there's no reason not to accomodate the DJ.

As was pointed out, CD players are not that expensive compared to what we spend on music or laptop computers or accessories. The real win for venues having CD players is convenience so the DJ doesn't have to lug the gear around. Then again, if the DJ is wanting to minimize the amount of stuff to carry, a laptop computer becomes appealing too.

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#124 Post by GemZombie » Thu May 29, 2008 8:26 pm

Mr Awesomer wrote:
remysun wrote:Perhaps, if DJs looked up from the screen more?
Perhaps, if DJs looked up from their book of CDs more?
Perhaps, if DJs looked up from their crate of vinyl more?
Indeed... I find I'm able to look up more from a Screen then if I'm DJing from CDs... it's faster, therefore I get to interact more.

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#125 Post by remysun » Sat May 31, 2008 2:20 pm

kitkat wrote: However, people in general often being trend-following morons, I predict at least a few frustrated scenes with dancers asking each other, "Why does the music suck in our town lately?" because a CD deck was taken away before the scene had enough quality laptop DJs to make up for losing 1-2 quality DJs who never bought a laptop. *shrug*
Thank you, Katie. That's exactly what I'm trying to say on behalf of people I've talked to that stopped coming to our scenes, although to be fair, I've heard some interesting stuff from some of the Ann Arbor laptop crowd. I'm mostly against the playlist, because when the song pool is too small and in the same order, it gets tired really fast.

I realize that anybody who is saavy enough to be in this forum is probably light years ahead of the people I'm complaining about. You guys shouldn't make it look so easy. :D

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#126 Post by remysun » Sat May 31, 2008 2:24 pm

Mr Awesomer wrote:
remysun wrote:Perhaps, if DJs looked up from the screen more?
Perhaps, if DJs looked up from their book of CDs more?
Perhaps, if DJs looked up from their crate of vinyl more?
Definitely. The misperception is that DJs are good listeners to know all that music, but the universal truth is that they need to look at what's going on around them, and that might be more important than good ears.

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remysun
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#127 Post by remysun » Sat May 31, 2008 2:26 pm

Mr Awesomer wrote:Another option for those who insist/need to stick to CDs:

Get your own dual CD setup!
And something tells me NOT to pawn it anytime soon.

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#128 Post by remysun » Fri Jul 25, 2008 1:51 am

An epilogue to this thread. My sister got married on July 11th, and the DJ was playing his laptop, impressing himself with the ability to match beats. Must have been a friend of my brother-in-law.

But he didn't or couldn't play the Filipino or Thai CD that my dad had requested, and as a result, my parent's friends all bailed out at 8pm.

And he let my dad sing-along to "Unchained Melody". I hope dad made his ears bleed.

So when I get married, other than a friend who DJ'd my birthday party, I'm not too keen on having a wedding DJ at all. I might just throw that money at an iPod. Ipod, my CD mixer, and no obnoxious MC going, "Hooyah!!"

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#129 Post by J-h:n » Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:59 am

remysun wrote:An epilogue to this thread. My sister got married on July 11th, and the DJ was playing his laptop, impressing himself with the ability to match beats. Must have been a friend of my brother-in-law.

But he didn't or couldn't play the Filipino or Thai CD that my dad had requested, and as a result, my parent's friends all bailed out at 8pm.
What sort of DJ can't play a CD? I'm pretty new to laptop DJing, but even I have figured out how to insert a CD in the optic drive and play a song off it in the middle of a set. Nothing to it, really. So either the DJ didn't feel like playing that music or he was a flamin' incompetent. Any way, what you're describing was everything to do with him and nothing to do with the equipment. Most likely, he would have sucked regardless of medium.

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