Will streaming Apple Music come to Engine DJ in the near future, or should I just give up hope? Some of my clients request Indian/Desi music and OMG there is so much and such a high learning curve. Hardly any of the music is on Tidal and I cannot add a playlist from Apple Music transferred to iTunes because of Apple’s security (I cannot remember the exact cause). I found a lot of said music on Amazon but the DL speeds from Amazon compared to Tidal are ridiculous. I could load 7-8 Tidal tracks in the amount of time 1 Amazon track loads. Compared it over 300mbps WiFi and 5G UWB, same results. Also, Amazon only authorizes only 2 streaming tracks at a time. If someone could help me out or give me some hope, that would be great.
Regarding Apple Music, there is zero whatsoever rumour about that. And given Apple doesn’t do any cooperation with other platforms, I would not expect it to happen. Of course you can still buy tracks from Apple, those tracks don’t have any DRM encryption (the AAC versions at least, lossless is a different story).
My personal opinion: Buying and downloading tracks beforehand will make sure you aren’t in trouble when there is no wifi and/or 4G coverage in the outcrop you are playing (you encounter those sooner than you think. At least I do regularly…)
Another personal opinion on that specific booking: playing music you totally don’t know from a streaming playlist is a bad idea, because you just don’t know what is in the audiences collective mind. Im afraid you aren’t up to the job. Which isn’t bad, you cant know every song in the world, you just have to communicate this when taking bookings. (or ignore those peoples requests if these are just a few people in a crowded bar full of other people who don’t have any Indian link)
I had the same question once on a wedding between a Turkish guy and Belgian girl. The couple asked beforehand if we could play Turkish wedding/party songs in between what we normally do (western pop music). We refused politely, explaining we didn’t know this music. In the end we still got booked, and the groom’s nephew helped out with a USB stick full of Turkish songs, and told us what to play at what moment. The resulting mix between Western and Eastern pop songs worked out brilliantly, but we had to trust this guy blindly. Theres no way I could have accomplished the same ambience going by a few online top 100 playlists…