Hi guys, I’m sure these are noob questions but I couldn’t find black and white answers in the forum.
Can someone please confirm the following, regarding using streaming services to perform live:
IF I build crates in Serato using songs from Soundcloud, Tidal or Amazon Music (SC Live 4), then export those crates to USB, can I play those songs offline using Engine in standalone mode? I think the answer is ‘no’. It’s only really saving the metadata for each song, right?
But as long as I have wifi (and the required subscriptions), I can play live using Engine, from USB which will be basically streaming the songs from the internet but with the BPM, key and cue points saved from the work I did setting up the crates in Serato, correct?
Then, if I ‘download’ songs from Amazon Music Unlimited, it saves them in some weird format that only plays on the Amazon app. With Amazon compatibility in the SC Live, does that mean that Engine can play those downloaded songs offline, assuming they’ve been saved on USB or SD?
How are most of you mobile DJs managing this? Do you have several streaming subscriptions at once or are you using song pools like BPM Supreme, etc? The thought of having to rely on streaming (especially given the often spotty internet performance where I live) scares me. Of course I’d always have 1000 proven songs on USB back up in case the streaming wasn’t smooth but I’d love to hear about your methods.
No, Amazon Music Unlimited compatibility in SC Live devices only means that the device has a chip to enable streaming from amazon. Offline playback is not advertised and in 99,99% cases that means not supported.
Most of other mobile DJ’s use streaming for those odd requests that are not in your library - and so should you. Streaming inherently adds more points of failure and last year we already had a case where Tidal streaming was down for a day. If you don’t have a track collection on some kind of media to fall back to, you can only blame yourself for the inevitable case where your streaming will not work on a paid gig.
Currently the streaming services limit offline playback for personal use only. This is the same not only with music streaming but with video streaming services (i.e. Netflix won’t allow you to broadcast a downloaded movie from your phone/tablet to your TV).
As a mobile DJ, what I do is use the streaming services as a compliment/backup to my music on my hard drive. I subscribe to Tidal and use either local wi-fi (if available) or my phone as a hotspot. The majority of what I play from is my hard drive, and rely on Tidal for tracks that I don’t have or couldn’t find from the DJ Pool, or for last minute special requests.
It would be great to be able to temporarily download a streaming playlist for performance purposes. Hopefully that’s in the near future.
Right on, thanks! I’m starting to catch up now. So I’m getting a couple fresh USB sticks and it seems 3.2 is the current standard but when I looked at the tech specs of the Live 4 it’s only showing 2.0. As long as whatever stick I buy has backward compatibility to 2.0, I ought to be fine, right? Do you also happen to know if there’s limit to the size of USB stick the Denon will read? I’ll be backing up my playlist to two sticks and probably an SD card as well. A small price to pay for not having to lug crates or CD cases anymore!
Currently all of my music is on a 1TB SSD drive installed in an external case. I use it with my Prime 4 and my SC5000M’s. Both read the drive without issue. I also have a 256GB USB 3.0 drive.
My only recommendation is to buy quality storage devices. I’ve had success with Crucial SSD’s and SanDisk USB’s.