Music as a DJ has sure changed for me. When I started deejaying in 1995, Vinyl was exiting and the generation of Dual CD players had arrived. Sure some DJs would still lug crates of records but many mobile DJs transitioned to Compact Discs.
In the mid to late 90s there were Digital Audio Tapes (DATS) and Mini Discs but these formats never caught on.
Digital music in WAV and MP3 format found its way into world file sharing with services like Napster, Gnutella, Morpheus and Limewire entered our world. The age of digital music was upon us and computers started to find their way into the Setup of many DJs.
Deejaying from a computer has been more of a standard over the last decade. No longer were DJs dragging case logic books full of CDs. Instead a computer with hard drives full of music made their way to parties. I remember in 2007 waiting in a Black Friday line at Comp USA to buy a 1 TB hard drive to store all of my music. The cost of this drive: sale price of $399. Today I can buy a 1 TB hard drive for as little as $50.
Times are changing again but now the something unknown. Digital Streaming services such as Pandora, Spotify and Apple Music are here. Some different DJ software’s have an online streaming music built into them.
I bring this up because many venues are built in such a way where they receive poor Internet signals. Streaming music for professional events is very risky. What would you do if your first dance paused mid song due to a poor Internet signal?
Some DJs talk about their use of a portable hotspot. Wow this is certainly an option, if a location gets a poor Internet signal for your phone, chances are a hotspot will also receive a poor signal. Additionally as you may notice at a sporting event, the more people using local Wi-Fi will slow down the Internet speed.
As you plan your next special event be sure to inquire with your DJ how they get their music. You don’t need to know where they purchased it from however I encourage everybody to know if their DJ streams music only. A true professional will invest the money needed to physically purchase each song in their library.
