IndustryStandard
I find this perspective really interesting because when my mates were DJing on Vinyl in the early 2000s, DJing hadn’t crossed my mind. I couldn’t afford it, and I didn’t understand what the equipment was doing. I just saw buttons and decks spinning.
But I do remember all of those guys seemingly spending hundreds of pounds every month (as students, or in jobs for young people). Many of them didn’t have cars assumedly because they spent all of what would have been that money on vinyl.
I only learned to DJ digitally on CDJ-1000 mk3 7 years back so had to keep burning CDs and by that point the leading edge of DJing was already well past moving to loaded USB sticks but ultimately the cost was similar to buy tracks on beatport today - £1.30 ish is a fraction of what vinyl was (often £15-30)
I have a lot of respect for people who can memorise tracks (i.e. they hear one, and run to the next one knowing exactly what to play). To be honest, the reason I feel like the quality of my sets have increased in the last 12 months is because I’ve learned how to organise the music using Playlists and Energy ratings. Lately I’ve learned how to mix in key by reading information on the screen but I previously didn’t have much bother doing that by ear.
Doing that legwork (organise by type, and staring the energy level 1 to 5)when I first buy / load tracks takes extra time but it makes the performances more enjoyable for everyone else, and it works for my capabilities as a person. For various reasons my memory doesn’t work well with names/titles.
I know when I play in front of my mates and they’re playing on vinyl I have a lot of respect for what they are doing because they have absolute walls of the stuff in big garages, house extensions or basements and it’s something physical - they’re holding the music. They’ve chosen it out, put it in a bag, no key information, no BPM info. They just know. They take care of it, it can even get damaged!
It seems like the two types of DJing are totally different even if to produce the same result. I don’t think digital DJing is to be hated it’s just a progression but I do think the ability for digital production and sales means there are millions more tracks that are (IMO) below the par. When you’re a good DJ it still pays you to niche down and have a sound you’re known for and that genuinely does thin stuff out into smaller corners of beatport overall, once you’ve made that decision to do it. In my corner of Prog there is a lot, but also not ‘that much’ in the grand scheme of things because I’ve chosen to aim for a specific sound and vibe. Where a lot of DJs fall down IMO is they try to play everything they love across multiple genres - which is fine but when you’re trying to become something I think a decision has to be made about which direction to go.
