Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:14 am
The problem with Reuben's suggestion is not with making a legitimate, sound business decision to stop purchasing or setting up CD players in a market where only a small minority of DJs use CDs. I can understand how reasonable minds could differ on this point, although I would continute to provide CD hookups even though I now DJ almost entirely from a laptop, myself.
And the problem also is not with his underlying point that laptop DJing has many huge advantages over CD DJing. I made the shift a while ago, but I am still adjusting over a year later to not having all the habits and patterns of finding my music on burned CDs that I had developed over the previous decade. Although I COULD reproduce all my CDs into playlists so I could find stuff the way I used to find it, I still have not done so because it takes time to do so, and... well, there are so many good things to watch on television these days.... Thus, I can certainly understand why some people might want to not go through that transition burden, even though I would encourage them to try.
The problem with Reuben's suggestion, as usual, is with Reuben's bullyish tactics and tone that suggests that people who are not devoutly computer saavy (or who just don't want to bother switching over) are morons who should be ditched if they refuse to switch over because they are not as smart as he is: that they should take after him in order to be "cool" and "in," as if the only permissible choice is the choice that best suits his preferences, not one of the several adequate alternative choices that can work just as well for others. Instead of convincing people through persuasion or just keeping it in terms of a non-invective business decision for his own venue, he tries to bully everybody into applying his way of thinking worldwide, regardless of whether it makes sense in any particular market. Not, "you would love it if you changed, but I won't force you to do so," but "you're stupid and slow because you do things differently than me, and I'm going to force you to be more like me."
However, if you take away his sports-talk-radio-host-turned-geek bravado, he makes a legitimate point that the burdens of retaining CD capabilities are starting to outweigh the benefits, even though I happen to think the time has not arrived for ditching CD players, entirely, quite yet. So long as a venue already has a CD player, I don't see the immense burden of continuing to use it so long as at least one of the DJs uses it. However, if it comes to the point of needing to pay to repair or replace a broken CD player for only one CD-DJ out of a pool of 30 laptop-DJs, then it makes sense to ditch the CD player.
And the problem also is not with his underlying point that laptop DJing has many huge advantages over CD DJing. I made the shift a while ago, but I am still adjusting over a year later to not having all the habits and patterns of finding my music on burned CDs that I had developed over the previous decade. Although I COULD reproduce all my CDs into playlists so I could find stuff the way I used to find it, I still have not done so because it takes time to do so, and... well, there are so many good things to watch on television these days.... Thus, I can certainly understand why some people might want to not go through that transition burden, even though I would encourage them to try.
The problem with Reuben's suggestion, as usual, is with Reuben's bullyish tactics and tone that suggests that people who are not devoutly computer saavy (or who just don't want to bother switching over) are morons who should be ditched if they refuse to switch over because they are not as smart as he is: that they should take after him in order to be "cool" and "in," as if the only permissible choice is the choice that best suits his preferences, not one of the several adequate alternative choices that can work just as well for others. Instead of convincing people through persuasion or just keeping it in terms of a non-invective business decision for his own venue, he tries to bully everybody into applying his way of thinking worldwide, regardless of whether it makes sense in any particular market. Not, "you would love it if you changed, but I won't force you to do so," but "you're stupid and slow because you do things differently than me, and I'm going to force you to be more like me."
However, if you take away his sports-talk-radio-host-turned-geek bravado, he makes a legitimate point that the burdens of retaining CD capabilities are starting to outweigh the benefits, even though I happen to think the time has not arrived for ditching CD players, entirely, quite yet. So long as a venue already has a CD player, I don't see the immense burden of continuing to use it so long as at least one of the DJs uses it. However, if it comes to the point of needing to pay to repair or replace a broken CD player for only one CD-DJ out of a pool of 30 laptop-DJs, then it makes sense to ditch the CD player.