There’s always some new fangled technology that allegedly is going to wipe out DJing. And within days of Serato’s new Spotify enabled Pyro music app being available on a global scale, the internet is once again littered with end of DJ days scenarios, and apparently it’s all Serato’s fault. Again. Is the second or third time now?
For those out of the loop, Pyro plays your mobile music (iTunes and Spotify) in a smoother way than just shuffle play. Based on tracks you select, it does a great job suggesting others, and smoothly beatmatching and fading from track to track. Indeed, I was impressed with how it handled my Spotify Neo Soul selection with pretty smooth on-beat transitions on a taking-it-easy Saturday morning with broken central heating while watching the snow fall. I do not however see it living up to the claims of wiping out the DJ scene.
But that’s all Pyro is — a mobile jukebox that cares not for phrasing, EQ, filters effects, levels, real track selection based on how the floor is reacting… you know, all the things that flesh and blood DJs do. Pyro however is nothing more than a good and free background music player designed to spread the Serato brand into the consciousness of consumers and DJs alike (that’s more or less a quote).
So unless Serato is in the business of commercial suicide, the idea that they’d put out a zero revenue app to destroy their own money making business is plain nuts. Or perhaps they think they can take out the whole DJ industry and kill NI, Pioneer DJ and inMusic with this trojan horse. Now you see how bonkers the claims sounds.
EVOLUTION NOT EXTINCTION
Technology changes everything, and usually in a way that reduces the need for human interaction. Things evolve, possibly radically, but the original things stick around and end up happily co-existing with the new thing. Samplers and synths operate in the same studios as strings and singers. And after rushing towards controllers en masse, our DJ shops look like 1982 again with a growing number of reimagined old school devices sitting on the shelves. Hell, someone is even making reel to reel machines again.
But why does the old stuff survive when the new shiny comes along? Because of us, the human element of things. We can’t be replaced by technology, because so much of what we do depends on our gut — the reactionary nature of playing music to a floor full of human variables means that no app in the world will ever replace the ritual of the DJ. Sure, we’re not needed as much as we were in some places, but you were never going to get paid to do that house party gig where a pile of mixtapes would do a perfectly good job. That’s just evolution.
To claim that all DJs will go the way of dinosaurs and see Serato Pyro as an extinction level event makes no sense whatsoever, especially given all the other waves of technology that have been claimed to herald the end of DJing. Despite CDs, DVS, controllers, iPads, and mobile apps, we’re still here, reading about new gear and playing new music to crowds.
It’s time to understand that just like real musicians and instruments, DJs are here to stay. Yes, DJing has changed and continues to evolve at a scary rate. But the rise of superstar DJs, the imprinting of the DJ lifestyle at a societal level, and the proliferation of DJ gear to the point of buying controllers in the same shops that you buy toilet roll at shows that DJing is booming. And it’s most certainly not being killed by little more than a crossfading beat matching app. Get real.
THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT
Despite the DJ industry’s alleged best efforts, they still haven’t managed to kill the very thing that they have created brands and a huge industry around. All they have done is made it bigger, more diverse, and open to a greater number of people than ever before. Creatively you have exponentially more options, a growing mountain of music, as well as ways to make it yourself. DJs have never had it so good. And you still have all the things you had before on top of that mountain of new stuff too. Pyro is not coming for your turntables, nor is there any law than bans you from playing on whatever gear you damned well please.
So why the doom and gloom? Why the incessant chatter about DJing dying? I’d argue quite the opposite in fact. It’s just different to how it was in whatever you consider to be the good old days before (insert wave of technology here). But choice is good, although some varied choices might be better instead of boring cookie cutter iterations of controllers, mixers, and OEM turntables. I’ll even make the bold statement that in 10 years time, we’ll still be DJs, people will have more stuff than ever, but some will still be moaning about how technology is killing DJing. I’ve made a calendar entry to revisit this in a decade to see how things compare.
Remaining relevant in the ever-changing DJ world is down to you. As a DJ, you just have to adapt to how the scene is evolving. Embrace the change or stick to your guns, but understand that keyboard warrioring your disdain in full caps is not a productive use of your DJ time, nor will it change anything. Instead, play some music — hell use Serato’s Pyro as a way to have music played to you for a change. You’ll soon come to realise that Pyro isn’t a nail in the coffin of DJing. It’s just something else added to the rich melting pot that is DJing.
This sensible well-thought-out opinion might be too much for the internet.
It’s just what I believe. If someone wishes to disagree and counter my viewpoint with intelligent on-topic comments, I completely welcome it.
I downloaded Serato Pyro the day it came out, can’t say i’m worried about it taking gigs away. I do think it would be a great tool for setting up playlists as well as giving dj’s a sleeker way to incorporate Spotify into their backups (mobile djs).
I honestly didn’t think of it as a DJ replacement, but more of an app that’ll play my music in a continuous playlist for like work-outs, study sessions, long walks or whatever. Still sad there’s no Android version :(
I put Pyro on my iPad a few days ago.
Not really done much with it yet, but if it does make good track choices and blends them without train wrecks, then maybe it could be useful for finding good track combos and mixes that we’d never have thought of ourselves….
Here we are begging Serato to simply give us a way to auto cross-fade our background music in SDJ for ages………. to no avail. But they got the time & manpower to create this & give out to the masses for free. Let’s not get started on how long we’ve been waiting for day mode. FFS! – Serato get your priorities right!!!!
I totally agree. Serato, in my opinion, is either having a crisis to stay relevant in the DJ scene or trying to find new ways to make money.
If this pick ups, I’m certain they’ll find a way to charge people for “Pyro 2.0” or something.
We? We who? I hope serato never implement that in serato dj! No problem with autoplay, one track after another, like scratch live could… but autofade? Please no.
Why not? Nooooo, please no!! It’ll be the end of Dj’ing as we know it! Geez, your response makes it sound like ur affraid of it. Just a gentle fade between tracks for background music is all I’m asking for. And by ‘we’ I mean all those who have been asking for it. Obviously not you. Lol.
Don’t backtrack. You used ‘we’ like you were speaking for all serato users. You implied most people want it. The serato forum says different. Many want autoplay, yes. Fewer want automix. Most? Don’t care.
Guess you didn’t read my other comment, but ok. Jump to conclusions, mr jumper to conclusiony. Automix has its place. There are plenty of times i already use pyro, and will continue to use it. I’d like to have a desktop variant, that i could use at weddings (while people eat), i’d use it elsewhere too.
Though your tone implies that you’re going to ignore any sensible reply, i will echo what developers have said about it, and what many on the serato forum have said about it.
Serato DJ is a completely focussed application. Its job is to allow the DJ to mix tracks. It gives us such useful tools as master tempo, pitch, the coloured waveform view, sync (though unpopular, i get why someone would want to use it, even if they can mix without it – i’m not anti-sync). The library is fast, the application snappy, and as light on memory as it can feasibly be.
When you add features like automix, which only a niche subset of users actually want, you’re adding a significant payload of logic to the application. Sure, you can say ‘well when its not being used, it wont be loaded’, but that’s just not how these things work. You’ll be making the application heavier on peoples machines, but worse than that, you’ll be taking serato’s eye off the ball (the ball is, making the software nice to mix on, not making the software nice at mixing).
Serato are great precisely because they don’t add every single feature that other applications add, because they rationalise each feature they add. It’s not a feature competition for serato, its a stability competition, and they win it hands down precisely because that is their aim.
Add features like automix, and you compromise the ethos. So yeah, I am like ‘noooo’, but not because it’ll be the end of djing as i know it, but because it’ll be the end of serato as i know it.
Better?
Is it okay to use the app to have music constantly playing when I am practicing scratching?
Nice article, Mark and right on the money. Although I think you’ll find it’s a pretty small percentage of the DJ population that gets into a Y2K frenzy whenever a piece of technology comes along to make our lives better. Most DJs I’ve come across are very positive about Pyro.
DJ’s be prepared to hear “I’m a DJ too, I use Serato Pyro”. I’ll use Pyro for when i have to poop, now time to buy an apple watch to control it from the bathroom.
The idea that Pyro in its current form is going to “kill DJing” is obviously nonsense (is anyone even making that actual claim?), but a much more advanced evolution of it is likely to kill some DJing further down the road and a forward thinking company would want to be the one to perfect that tech so they can sell it to bars/clubs.
Ean Golden wrote an article for DJTechTools about 3 years ago called “The Future of DJing: Outsourced to Robotic Intelligence?” that is more along the lines of how I think things will eventually go. I disagree with his comment about people wanting to see a real DJ in the booth even if they’re not really doing anything, in the same way that people want a real pilot sitting in the cockpit of a plane. I don’t think people would care if there was no DJ in the booth as long as tunes they liked were pumping out of the speakers.
I want a pilot on the plane.
I think people will go to see Djs just as they do bands, maybe in bars and places that the music is not important, but as long as people are still going to dance festivals and dance clubs. The questions are almost always the same.
First “What type of music is playing tonight?”
Second or First “Who is playing?”
If the Dj does not impress or the masses of people all start deciding they think the Dj is useless then these festivals and clubs won’t exist.
Put a speaker in the middle of a park on a sunny day and play music with no Dj or anyone obviously controlling it.
Some will dance but for the most part the music is just part of the atmosphere.
But put a small stage and a person with some music to manually mix or even just be in charge of and people will start to crowd around.
Then start to read the crowd and get some energy bouncing around…
Well you all get my point.
As long as you have a live animal banging rocks together others will be interested in what that animal is doing.
Nice piece, Mark. Well done.
I think Pyro might be a good minimum skill level for a new DJ to aim for before they start trying to get gigs
My first gig was a weekly at a local bar, and it ran for nearly six years until one day, I get an email from one of the owners, saying, “Thanks for all your work over the years, but we’ve decided to go with satellite radio now except for special events, so you won’t need to come in this Friday. kthxbye”
(I’m paraphrasing, but it was just as short, and just as short-notice.)
They kept one of their 3 or 4 steady DJs on standby after that, and shot themselves in the foot. For almost another six years, the satellite radio was their “cost-effective” music solution, but it was painful to see the atmosphere after that. Aside from the disconnect between the people there and music that was selected and timed FOR them up to that point, there was only a volume control behind the bar, as if the bartenders have time to pay any attention to the sound. And without someone dedicated to the music to also mind the EQ, the flat settings had none of the adjustments made to account for the changing dynamic between busy & quiet times, variations from song to song, etc.
Apparent cheapness notwithstanding, I compare this approach to music for business clientele with the lights and ceiling fans: ON or OFF.
They lost some clientele, but in time, most also forgot there ever were DJs most nights.
I think a lot of these discussions about automated DJ’ing platforms focusses too much on strictly dance clubs and music venues where the DJ is given a spotlight, and on whether or not the DJ/iPod/app is a passing fad or not. … But look at the business owners making decisions based on perceived shifts in the market economy, and who often know or care little about this or that style of music, especially when numbers add up but taste and atmosphere are subjective. I don’t doubt these smaller, bar-type gigs will continue to become more scarce when bartenders want to plug their own iPhone in and the owner doesn’t have to pay extra, but not would they appreciate the value that a good DJ provides the business and clientele.
“..where is that app for bathtime…ah there..”
Apps like this will never replace the human element, and for a passionate dj who actually does do it for the love is yet another goad to improve themselves to be so much more than an application will ever be.
If this app scares you; Practice more.
Cool! Thanks for the invite. :)
Pyro is pretty amazing. Lots of questions. It adds to the tools available to be able to create, another color on the color palette imho.
I do see the fresh factor of having a friends and family get together and letting Pyro do it’s thing.No hassle, invite friends and hang out, music will be played regardless, why not a Pyro Party :-)…
.I just see potential in everything…
I very much like the idea of Pyro (and anything that helps me discover new music) just to keep a nice flow going to my music library when I’m casually listening.
My pioneer head unit in the car even has a “DJ mode” that supposedly takes technology from the PioDJ camp and applies to ‘make a DJ style mix out of your music’ – it applies FX and tries to match songs and truthfully- it’s embarrassingly bad.
If Pyro works to make my library more enjoyable to listen to, and cut out the silences between tracks (especially when I’m listening while snowboarding etc) I’m all for it.
Don’t really see this replacing any legitimate DJ gig- maybe the occasional house party that would’ve been ‘favour for a friend’ deal anyway.
this reminds me of mixmeister , I love that natural blending towards the end of a song with the same or similar tempo, and when the end of a song echo’s out…dope for mix cd’s and when DJ’s want to a live break at gigs, let this baby mix for about a half, and your ready to go again….this could be used with a lot of stuff…..great work guys !!!!