You know how Serato rolls — first the public beta, and then the full release. T’was ever thus and verily here is the full release of Serato DJ 1.9.2.

A press release follows:

Serato DJ 1.9.2 is now available with a focus on stability, as well as important interface improvements for ease of use.

• Library changes including updates to search and sorting, visual optimisations and upgraded Smart Crates.
• Significant stability improvements and bug fixes to Serato DJ and Serato Video.
• All Serato DJ trials have been reset. This means if you have trialled Serato DJ in the past, you can give it another try for free.
• We’ve launched subscriptions which gives you all our Expansion Packs from 99 p/month, Serato DJ for USD9.99 p/month or the Serato DJ Suite from USD14.99 p/month.

Michael Redwood (Serato Product Team Manager) says: “We understand that for the majority of DJs, reliability and ease of use in often stressful environments is what matters the most. Serato DJ 1.9.2 is the first in a series of updates focussed on improving this, as well as working on lots of important feedback from our community who help make Serato DJ the very best platform for working DJs.”

Library Changes

• Smart Crates are now able to be Subcrates.
• Secondary library sort. Ctrl/cmd+click a column title to set custom secondary sort order.
• Saved loops are able to be named.
• Key support in Smart Crates
• New option to reset played tracks on exit

More improvements listed in the full release notes.

Stability Improvements & Bug Fixes

• Fixes for various crashes
• Lower CPU performance with Serato Video
• Various library bugs fixed

Plus many more listed in the full release notes

Subscription Plans to Serato DJ

As well as purchasing full Serato software licenses, there is now an option to subscribe to all our Expansion Packs from USD9.99 p/month, Serato DJ for USD9.99 p/month or the Serato DJ Suite from USD14.99 p/month.

BETTER

It would seem that the message has hit home — stop adding new stuff when the existing stuff isn’t working well. In fact, some users were so pissed off at the performance of Serato DJ that they set up a hashtag (#fixserato) and even bought a domain to point to a Facebook page. That’s an angry mob if ever I saw one… well in DJ terms anyway.

And as Michael Redwood says, this is the first in a series of major fixes. Gotta make that code base solid, especially with V2 looming — well at least numerically. We’re convinced that Traktor is going to end up as v2.999.999 and still not be at V3 until long after we’re dead and buried.

MO’ MONEY

And so to subscriptions. As someone who has the full Adobe Creative Suite, I pay the £40+ per month because these are essential tools of my trade. I no longer miss the money going out of my account and know that whatever magic Adobe chooses to unveil, a message will appear telling me it’s available to download.

And that’s how I feel about DJ software subscriptions too. If you’re a working DJ, $14.99 is nothing per month. And even if you’re just a keen enthusiast, it still gets you perma-access to everything that Serato makes now and in the future. You could of course opt for the basics at $9.99, but it really is worth the extra stretch.

It is of course an attempt to stop people from peering into the rekordbox shop window, and to generate some new cash flow to fund the fight. The trials keep getting reset with each new update too.

Here’s hoping that Serato can fix up and look sharp fast enough to keep the threat of rekordbox at bay, and do it while Traktor continues to take an extended nap too.