What new opportunities will come from digital DJ technology?

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Haydn
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Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 5:36 am
Location: London

What new opportunities will come from digital DJ technology?

#1 Post by Haydn » Sun Nov 21, 2004 12:15 pm

I mean digital computerised products like these -

http://us.hercules.com/products/showpag ... 00&b=1&f=1

( I showed some info on this product to an established DJ and he was really interested)


http://www.dj1800.com/


It seems that digital DJ technology will result at least two new trends:

1. Established DJs go digital, and have to learn how to use the digital hardware and software.

2. A new consumer market develops, allowing anyone with a laptop and a decent pair of speakers and some DJ software to be a DJ. These people will want to learn the hardware and software, and might want help with the music side of being a DJ as well.

I'm trying to work out what new opportunities will arise from this new market.

Any ideas?

Nate Dogg
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Joined: Sat Dec 14, 2002 3:29 pm
Location: Austin, TX

#2 Post by Nate Dogg » Sun Nov 21, 2004 3:58 pm

Overall, I think going digital has made DJing easier. It is easier for music fans of all stripes to acquire and organize music, whether it be casual fans using iPods or dance DJs.

As far as the opportunity/market side, I am not sure the ascent of digital media and the internet has making DJing more lucrative. There are plenty of DJs with collections that consist of mostly ripped songs from other people, file sharing, etc... So, owning a lot of music does not mean as much as it used to. There just is not the barrier of entry into the market that there once was, this lowers the value of DJs in general, the supply of DJs is greater than the demand.

I imagine this is true in the wedding DJ market too.

Of course, hip hop and electronic music DJs are a different story. There are opportunities for the creative ones in those groups. But, much less for DJs on this forum.

Nathan

Toon Town Dave
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#3 Post by Toon Town Dave » Sun Nov 21, 2004 4:06 pm

Skipping over how to sort out licensing, one possibility would be the "hits" compilations that a lot of general purpose DJs buy could be replaces with on-line libraries where the DJ never owns a copy of the song but rather streams it from a library of nearly every recording they'd need.

A couple weeks ago, I was out of town DJing at a workshop and was mentioning that there was a dance back home that I would normally have DJ'd. We kind of jokingly came up with the idea of setting up a remote camera to observe the room and run the music remotely.

I should add that simply having a large music collection (legal or otherwise) is only part of the equation. DJ's have long had cheap access to top-40/hits/etc stuff. As specialty DJs, we are a little different in our music is often a little less common and sometimes scarce on CD or through file-sharing/legal downloading. It would be cool to have Reuben or Jesse or any of us DJ an event in another city without ever travelling. It could be much more cost effective for event organizers and open up opportunities for some of us.

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