Needle skips to network dips — DJing is all about "what ifs"
mark Settle·
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Needle skips to network dips — DJing is all about “what ifs”

* Image credit to DJ Rasp, who stumbled across the worst possible “what if” a few years ago. 

This week saw Denon DJ make the significant announcement of streaming in its standalone Prime 4 and SC5000 Prime players. In amongst the woahs and OMGs social media comments were a few voices echoing a sentiment that’s been heard since the very first rumblings of the possibility of online music being played in preference to actual media.

“What if the wifi breaks?”

It’s a fair point, and definitely something to be concerned about. On my travels as the owner of an online media outlet, reporting from DJ shows has led to some interesting late night moments where the race to get killer content posted via hotel wifi before anyone else has been met with every kind of internet barrier imaginable, especially in another country too. 

Those days appear to be firmly in the past now, as even my iPhone with 4G can deliver fibre level speeds from just about anywhere. And if used as a hotspot, it can bail you out of a tight streaming corner too. Let’s put it this way — the global telecommunications infrastructure is in a much better place than it was a few years ago to support streaming. But don’t take it for granted.

It’s all about the what ifs

As professionals putting ourselves into unfamiliar territories, we’ve always had to deal with all manner of “what if” scenarios since the dawn of playing out.

  • What if something breaks?
  • What if I forget something important?
  • What if there aren’t enough plugs?
  • What if my laptop crashes?
  • What if the USB drive corrupts?
  • What if I can’t connect to the house sound system?
  • Insert any number of bound-to-happen scenarios right here

Our setups are complex and ever-growing chains of powered boxes and cables set up in often chaotic environments, thus the chances of things going decidedly Pete Tong has always been high, if not inevitable. Holding up wifi reliability as a barrier to using streaming is no different to the existing minefield that is DJing.

In DJ Swamp’s case, setting his turntables on fire is part of his act. But what would you do if this happened to you by accident? 

The important thing is how you plan and prepare for the possibility a multitude of things going pear-shaped. A bag of extra adaptors and cables? Spare headphones? Backup carts and needles? Duplicate USB drives? Backup and spare EVERYTHING? God knows I’ve somehow cobbled together insane chains of adaptors and gaffer tape to be able to plug into ancient and poorly maintained house systems. 

One more Plan B

As professional DJs, we must be prepared for the worst of scenarios, and now that includes poor internet too. So if you choose the streaming route for your future DJ life, make sure that just like every other part of your setup, you have a plan B. And the more gear you have, the more plan Bs you’re going to need too. 

See also

So while some of you like me are suicidal lemmings early adopters of new tech, don’t assume that the local bar you’ve been asked to spin at is going to have stellar wired internet, or any internet at all for that matter. Do your due diligence before cutting the cord from your local music collection.

Benjamin Franklin stated it plain and clear:

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

And it’s never been truer for DJs. You may have confidence in your own setup, but unknown venue variables are just waiting to throw a spanner in your carefully planned works. So if you plan to use streaming services, make damned sure the venue has solid internet so that your stream keeps streaming, and that your plan B is utterly bomb proof as well. Denon DJ can provide the means to play streamed music — the rest is on you.

Bottom line — don’t blame the technology going it inevitably goes wrong. Blame yourself for not being able to deal with it when it does.

11 Comments

  3. I really, really want to see someone try to use streaming features on whatever equipment – players or DJ software – when playing a festival with 50.000+ people who each have their phones on, at a remote location with poor network coverage.

    No thanks! I’ll keep BUYING my music. And using hyper-redundant setups. And dragging 50kg of luggage with me.

    2. I think logically it wouldn’t be embraced by those stage DJs until it wifi available everywhere no questions asked. Also WiFi isn’t necessary to stream – LAN ports do it too. All of us DJs are hesitant to dive into something that can potentially ruin our set, night or public image. But there has to be a START to the next step in technology for it to become more utilized as a tool just like everything before it.

      What happens when my needle skips or breaks at a festival with 50.000+ people?
      – Here is a CD. It holds more music than a record and doesn’t need a needle to play.
      What happens if my CD is scratched or the player skips at a festival with 50.000+ people?
      – Here is a USB drive. It holds 100x more music than a CD and doesn’t skip or scratch. You can also use a personal computer connected to the DJ gear if you like.
      What happens if I don’t own music (like the rising generation of DJs) my computer crashes, the drive is corrupt or got lost right before the gig?
      – Here is Streaming which requires an internet connection but hosts more music than you will ever need.

    3. I’d have thought a DJ playing to a crowd that size isn’t going to have people walking up to them with requests. Definitely something to consider with smaller gigs/venues.

    4. Beatport Pro allows you take take tracks offline. That aside, the streaming options seem to be more geared toward the open format corporate/wedding/bar gig deejays.

    6. I remember when wired internet was snails pace slow, and even with a cable was unreliable, let alone having wifi. Now we’re routinely using and trusting wifi. It will get there, and be reliable enough before you know it.

  4. The last gig I did, I didn’t bother taking a long extension cable for power, as it was only a small venue.

    When I got there, guess what I needed? The power socket was on the opposite side of the room to where I had to set up, and the only cable route was up over an archway and down the other side. Luckily the client knew a nearby resident who had a reel.