There’s so much more to DJ’ing than pressing play on a track. The sync button didn’t make the DJ unnecessary or automated, it enhances the ability to do more or focus on other tasks.
I see that line rolled out every time the S word is mentioned, I’m still yet to see all this enhanced creativity it’s apparently creating, DJs are getting worse not better 
…. As for all these ‘other tasks’, you’re there to DJ, what else are you doing?
For the other part of your comment, we have Sync, we have key mixing, we have auto mixing with ‘smart crossfaders’ and we have access to streaming libraries of millions of tracks. Take that technology and add in a little bit of AI with facial recognition camera and some data based algorithms (pretty much easily accessible tech these days) and you have the perfect excuse to get rid of a DJ.
Turn on a computer, key in some basic info about the type of event, use localised data like popular songs, demographic of people, location then add in an app for song requests… you then have Mr Auto DJ. The camera can gauge the crowds reaction using facial recognition. The venue loves it because they have no ego DJs to deal with, nobody to continually pay, no gear to move around and no hardware to keep serviced or repair.
My advice is open your eyes and see what is happening in the world around you with AI, then start being careful what you wish for, because the more people begging for less work to do will be getting their wishes granted and far more in the not too distant future.
You might have the odd niche event who want named dance DJs on, or hipster bar for vinyl mixing… but we’re gonna be left with an awful lot of DJs and not a lot of work. Bread and butter events will be dead.
I see your point. But don’t be afraid, people want to be entertained by humans. Real human interaction with well prepared entertainment/shows are hard to beat. My feature request was just another step or tool for better preparation because I like to use smart playlists. We should be striving forward and bring new ideas to create even better shows. And I for one would like to have the best tools for it. I appreciate that I can DJ tracks from streaming services, and I don’t miss the days where only a selected few could get the latest tracks in the store. And I don’t believe that AI-DJ can ever replace us.
Yes, not just nichè but very nichè - it’ll be interesting to see how many votes the request gets.
Moin @STU-C,
you hit the nail right on the head:
Imo the main proficiency of a DJ to control an event / a session is gauging the crowd’s reaction and choosing the right music accordingly …
IT may assist the DJ but never make the final decisions
Brgs BeatMaster
I honestly think anyone who thinks this isn’t coming is going to be in for a nasty surprise.
Im not talking your House music night, or hip hop scratch battle etc… im talking the bread and butter bar/club and events work. A DJs work can fairly easily be replicated by a machine now, the level of data mining is insane and will only become more and more.
Take an example of a city, any city… then look at a streaming company like Spotify, all they have to do is check what is being listened to by certain age groups of certain ethnicity then they can tailor a set of music for that crowd (that already happens with their playlists now). That then gets installed at a venue where the organiser keys in some simple data ‘20th Birthday party’ ‘Indian wedding’ ‘retirement party’ etc, then an approximate age range of the people attending.
Once the data is there, the installed camera can simply look for pre-programmed reactions to certain music, get an understanding of what is working and what isnt then further enhance that initial playlist.
If you want to know just how powerful this AI thing is, i have two examples. The first one, the company i work for are shedding 55000 employees, with AI being the number one factor for this reduction, thats 1/3 of the workforce. My second example, ive just bought a new car, it has a camera in the front windscreen that monitors the road, it then sends data to a server and that server then feeds data to other vehicles in the area, it literally tells me that the visibility is about to get poor on a specific road im driving on, it can also warn me of standing water, all because other cars are gathering data alongside mine and providing it to this server.
If i was a DJ demanding more and more and more of this automation, meaning i have to do less and less and less… id be having a serious think about the long term potential impact of these demands. At some point in the near future, every single function on a DJ console will have the word ‘Auto’ preceding it, and when it gets to that point, start worrying if you plan to earn a living from being a DJ.
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Absolutely, and it needs raising as one to start with 
I understand all of that.
But I think by stepping away from Vinyl & CD’s, the DJ job is not about trying to get a mix right anymore. The most successful DJ’s/Producers pre-produce their mashups, mixes and shows. So yes, I agree that the local Bar & Restaurant jobs might be in danger of getting replaced by your AI scenario, but if you consider yourself an entertainer, a great promoter or both, I think you’re pretty safe for a long time.
No one will ever be excited about a AI-DJ.
Im not entirely sure thats correct, a tiny portion of festival performing DJs may have elements of their show pre-recorded but the vast majority of successful DJs are still mixing tracks together live for the audience. You have an extremely distorted view of this, im guessing you’re one of those people who think famous DJs are faking it?
Again, this only accounts for a tiny portion of the overall DJ scene, we’re talking 0.00001% of the scene here… its safe to say that you, I or anyone else on this forum falls outside of that bracket, so my concerns relate to the 99.9999% of DJs who aren’t famous.
Anyway, put your request into the appropriate part of the forum and hopefully it gets some votes.
Combine that with data from all the smart devices people are using…tracking stuff like heart rate.
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Its a minefield mufasa :), data is king and anything is possible isn’t it.
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@STU-C you hit the nail on the head. One of the best skills is ‘knowing your music’
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Scary times indeed.
My day job is for a large media organisation. I probably shouldn’t go in to specifics but you wouldn’t believe the amount of data being captured. Both from clients (advertisers) & listeners.
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I work for the UKs main telecom company Ian, I get visibility of how many times a day people’s data is being targeted and the ridiculous amount of work being put in to protect it, the private data that is:)
People think they’re only here to rip people off with broadband bills haha.
Thats why it pays to have your tracks on some kind of media in the car I think, you can use your commute etc to delve into these tracks and learn them inside out, subconsciously.
That is exactly how I do it. Always new tracks first are going on my car usb stick, and I listen to them on the way. It shows me very good what tracks will fit when and what are the crucial points in these tracks.
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