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DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

musicweek.com

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Re: DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

#51

Post by c16 »

input_sh wrote: post #49
nanna wrote: post #45

I recently learned that DJs today just press a button to mix two tracks. Growing up mixing and beat matching used to be a skill to be proud of. Now it's just a button. So I was told.

There's no skill involved in pitching the two nearly-identical-in-BPM tracks and nudging them into rhythm. Put any sync button DJ in front of a proper CDJ setup, give them a couple of hours to practice and they will be able to pull off a set. Most importantly: it is the least important part of the job. Nobody in the crowd gives a shit about whether or not you're using the sync button, it makes no difference to them.…

> Put any sync button DJ in front of a proper CDJ setup, give them a couple of hours to practice and they will be able to pull off a set.

Please observe Grimes at Cochella: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E01QyNHBpcc

Re: DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

#52

Post by nukem222 »

input_sh wrote: post #43
Gigachad wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The venue pays a license fee to play music. Not entirely sure how they work out how to distribute the pay though. Lot easier with streaming but with physical media and music on USBs I'm guessing they just use the sales data on music and split up the licensing assuming what's being sold roughly matches what's being played.

> Not entirely sure how they work out how to distribute the pay though. They don't. Your money goes into a pot of money that also includes every radio, every TV channel, every song used in an ad etc. Every month (or year), your local music association (there's one in every country) sums up the play counts and redistributes the pot accordingly. This is all to say that the only people that actually get paid from this p…

> Even a relatively minor hit on the radio is valued more than a super-popular song in clubs because it is guaranteed to have a higher play count.

Well that just seems broken.

Re: DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

#53

Post by nukem222 »

CharlesW wrote: post #21
o1o1o1 wrote: post #20

Apple Music would be interesting to me if I could add my own legally purchased music. Mixing your own sets was possible with the iPod, even more so with a good operating system like Rockbox. This is old and still too limited a feature to be marketed as new, well done Apple marketing department.

Apple has this in the form of a poorly-marketed feature called iTunes Match ($25/year). https://support.apple.com/en-us/108935 I no longer subscribe to Apple Music, but I have 169.5 days of purchased music that I can stream anywhere. Tracks that exactly match an entry in their catalog are presumably just represented as a pointer, and tracks which aren't available in Apple Music are uploaded.

Readers should note that it's super buggy. Occasionally your music will be unavailable, even though it can match it to tracks that ARE available on apple music (it just says "not available in your region" and is greyed out). Sometimes it also "matches" to the clean version of the music (may god damn people who think that censoring music is a good idea) and there's no way to correct it. I've lost an impressive amount of music just forgetting what's mine and accidentally deleting it when trying to figure out why it's not playing.

It was half-baked when they shipped it and it still has the same launch bugs. Still, it's better than spotify.

Re: DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

#54

Post by terabytest »

feketegy wrote: post #44

I never understood Apple’s obsession with DJ-ing, like that cringe showcase of the Macbook’s touch bar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsUZSod82bA

The large catalog of mixed DJ sets on Apple Music is the main reason I’m considering switching from Spotify.

Re: DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

#55

Post by te_chris »

Mashimo wrote: post #46
nanna wrote: post #45

I recently learned that DJs today just press a button to mix two tracks. Growing up mixing and beat matching used to be a skill to be proud of. Now it's just a button. So I was told.

There are even vinyl DJs around. You can use sync, but I don't think it's that widespread.

I mean I DJ vinyl but if I’m playing digital I’m absolutely using sync

Re: DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

#56

Post by te_chris »

sollewitt wrote: post #16

Djay’s killer feature is algorithmic stem extraction. The streaming audio services that have integration (Tidal, now Apple Music) don’t allow this processing. It’s an arbitrary technical limitation that I suspect is rooted in a licensing agreement from the rights holders. tl;dr this is great for playing with sequencing, but a lot of modern djays will want to be able to do stem separation even when exploring, and live…

It works on serato

Re: DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

#57

Post by easyThrowaway »

I've been testing this for a few days on the latest build of rekordbox.

It seems...fine, on par with other similar integrations (Tidal, Beatport), but it's unclear which audio quality it's using to stream the tracks. I'd say it's using 256kbps/aac files? Bit of distortion while timestretching heavily compared to the lossless version of the same song. Also, no offline storage option?

Re: DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

#58

Post by 4ggr0 »

c16 wrote: post #51
input_sh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no skill involved in pitching the two nearly-identical-in-BPM tracks and nudging them into rhythm. Put any sync button DJ in front of a proper CDJ setup, give them a couple of hours to practice and they will be able to pull off a set. Most importantly: it is the least important part of the job. Nobody in the crowd gives a shit about whether or not you're using the sync button, it makes no difference to them.…

> Put any sync button DJ in front of a proper CDJ setup, give them a couple of hours to practice and they will be able to pull off a set. Please observe Grimes at Cochella: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E01QyNHBpcc

"give them a couple of hours to practice" != Spontaneously having to figure out a different workflow in front of thousands of people :D

(yes, she reacted suboptimally, just don't think it's fair to use here)

Re: DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

#59

Post by 42772827 »

Mashimo wrote: post #46
nanna wrote: post #45

I recently learned that DJs today just press a button to mix two tracks. Growing up mixing and beat matching used to be a skill to be proud of. Now it's just a button. So I was told.

There are even vinyl DJs around. You can use sync, but I don't think it's that widespread.

I was in a tiny bar in Seoul a few years ago where the bar tender was also the DJ. This guy would go from making drinks to picking up a pair of headphones and cuing up the next track, pulling vinyl from a shelf. One of the coolest things I’ve seen.

Re: DJ With Apple Music launches to enable subscribers to mix their own sets

#60

Post by bargainbin »

imchillyb wrote: post #13

Yet another layer of abstraction for the DJ. Apple owns the rights to the music catalog. Apple controls the access, and can limit or remove access to the music catalog. Apple owns the rights to the tools and any subset of tools or virtual devices. Apple controls the access, and can limit or remove access to the tools and any subset of tools or virtual devices. What was it Agent Smith said? "Me, me, me..." This model…

Overly nihilistic view. As someone who was a working nightclub DJ for 5 years, these kind of tools lower the barrier for entry into the hobby and trade and also serve as a great backup plan.

It’s not intended as a replacement to a curated collection of white labels, bootlegs and edits which you build up and over years.

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