It’s been a heck of a year. But the release of new music hasn’t slowed down, and the demand for DJing has continued to grow as more people stuck at home searched their lost and lonely lockdown souls for the type of meaning music gives us all. DJing is here to stay, albeit in a new form, so embrace the changes by leveling up your DJ skills with one of our online DJ courses. And check out a few things 2020 brought us.
Track stem separation
Sure, the ability to play back separate elements of a track has been around for a while. But with the launch of new AI tech like DJay Pro’s Neural Mix and Virtual DJ’s Real-Time Stem Separation (among others), the future of DJing has truly arrived. Again. As the ability to mix individual components of a track becomes more accessible, expect for a wave of acapellas being played back over tracks for which they weren’t written.
Virtual events and live streaming
With the Great Plague of 2020 seemingly posing less and less of a threat as the year winds up, may we all raise our heads and breathe a collective sigh. And then may we thank our virulent overlords for one good thing to come from the year - the mass adoption of livestreaming and virtual events as a source of income and exposure for lockdown DJs. Might not be much for most of us, but we’ve crossed that bridge now. Onwards towards a future where we can all live in the countryside and make a living spinning our favorite records.
Copyright rumbles
In 2020, Facebook banned all playback of copyrighted material, severely limiting the ability of livestreaming DJs to access their (often) primary audiences. Mixcloud cut a deal with rights holders for over a million tracks. TikTok played them without permission and with a come-and-get-us attitude. Twitch asked out loud if we can’t all get along. A range of reactions to a sticky subject: who pays for streaming of copyrighted material? As usual, it’s a terribly weedy path to navigate and we won’t get into it here. But let’s just say as of 2020, copyright is square in the spotlight.
The art of DJing is getting way more interesting, and apparently converging ever more with the fate of our chosen tech platforms. DJing might seem to be developing into something of a winner-takes-all competition for access to walled garden content. But make no mistake. If there’s one activity that relies on the type of tasteful human curation that currently can’t be emulated, synthesized or procedurally generated, it’s the act of DJing. Choose to be a part of it with one of the DJ courses by DJ Courses Online. And hey, have a great festive season.