You’re no doubt hearing a little chatter about a new Serato thing that has appeared without much of a fanfare. That’s because it’s not for DJs, and is technically a side project for our friends in New Zealand. Serato Pyro is a music player for iOS, one that mixes your iTunes library so you don’t have to.
Pyro uses a good chunk of existing Serato tech — beat grids are used for beat matching, and the seamless mixing is achieved with Pitch ‘n Time. Essentially you set up a playlist and Pyro does the rest. And should that run out, then Pyro digs into your iTunes library to intelligently pick and mix more tracks to keep the party going unattended.
Obviously, the knee-jerkers out there will complain about taking away jobs from DJs. But unless you hire DJs for your dinner parties, then this simply isn’t the case. If anything, this is likely to make people a little more curious about DJing and seeing what can be done beyond the very automated basics of Pyro. More than anything, this is about spreading the Serato name beyond the DJ scene, and making the hitherto unknown brand more well-known in their native New Zealand.
Another thought that comes to mind is that this is the start of a real DJ app for Serato. When I asked, they said that yes it does use Serato IP, but there are no plans to turn it into much than it already is. This isn’t about DJing, but is all about making unattended play better for casual listening. And while it only works with your local iTunes library right now, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see cloud play and streaming appear at some point.
Right now, it’s free and for New Zealand only, so you’ll just get the landing page outside of NZ, but you can sign up for updates. Check out this ideolog post for more detail.
Have it installed. Really like it. Makes some odd decisions at times, but to fill the silence – or what iv used it for this morning, tunes in my headphones while at my desk programming – it’s perfect. Would use it for dinner parties / when i have guests, definitely.
Actually, as much as I’d like to think it doesn’t, these new technologies do hurt the perceived value of what we do and, as a result, our ability to get gigs.
I can tell you this as I’ve seen it in my business as a photographer as well as a DJ.
If iPods were seen as a budget alternative to DJs, will an app that can actually sort and blend not creep even more into our customer base.
The answer is yes.
They will tell you that you have to differentiate yourself and sell the experience.
Well, this means appealing to a higher end clientele as, in most cases, budget to mid-range folks won’t pay for ‘experience.’ They pay for perceived necessity for the most part.
We’ve watched this happen in photography over a period of nearly 10 years and it’s only quickening. The same will happen in the DJ industry I’m sad to say.
YO! well said.
Just a heads up. I can’t find this in the app store as of 1/8/16