Over the last 10 years, DJ technology has changed the art of the DJ at an unbelievable rate. New technology has now allowed not only new types of sounds and production to be created but it has made its way to the DJ booth itself to really revolutionize how artists are performing on stage. By 2010, softwares like Serato and Traktor had already produced a generation of laptop DJs, but with faster and more reliable USB technology coming in, plenty of DJs started carrying their whole record collections on a USB Drive vs a CD or record collection. Additionally, with the ease of music availability it also made DJing much cheaper, opening it up to bedroom DJs and virtually anyone that wanted to be a DJ. Technology like Rekordbox has made life for DJs even easier enabling them to organize tracks on the fly.
The DJ movement has made many DJ tasks easier such as beat matching and effects cueing. However, with ease comes controversy as innovations such as hot cues and the famed sync button has many wondering if live DJing will soon be a thing of the past. All of this created with new technology improvements from companies such as Pioneer and Denon. Many of these new features were once frowned upon by the old guard of DJs as making the skillset too easy, however now the majority have embraced this technology as industry standard.
In 2021, a DJ can show up to a gig with a record collection in their pocket, infused with date that lets them flick through tracks by artist, genre, BPM, or any tag system they can invent or create. Press sync and you’re a rockstar. Given the rapid advancement in technology for DJs and how its changed performances worldwide, one can only imagine how technology will shape the DJ landscape 10 years from now.
Troy Gilmore
Vice President
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