3:08
A DJ or a playlist - does the client know?
On YouTube this video is called DJ or I pod? Please watch , what do you think???
What this lesson teaches
A response to an article a viewer found, and the question has only become more live since.
The idea
Instead of hiring a DJ: buy a music player, email everybody who is coming and ask for their requests, collate the playlists, work out a running order, put it all on the device, plug it into a PA, and let it play.
And he gives it its due - it is a natural progression to a degree, and yes, you will save money.
What it cannot do
His objections are specific rather than defensive, and they amount to a job description.
Atmosphere. His assessment: zilch. A room with music in it is not the same as a room being run.
Requests. You cannot walk up to a playlist and ask for something. That interaction - somebody coming over, being heard, and then hearing their record - is a large part of what people remember about a function.
The two-way thing. The punters react to the DJ; the DJ reacts to them. His claim is that you cannot get that from a device, whatever anybody says.
The prediction that proves the point
And this is the sharpest observation in it.
What will actually happen is that whoever made the playlist will end up at the machine every five minutes, choosing something else, because the dancefloor is not happy.
Which is exactly right - and it demonstrates that the job was never the playlist. The job is the continuous decision about what comes next, made from what the room is doing. Somebody has to do it, and if there is no DJ, it falls to a guest who did not want it and is not equipped for it.
That is the most useful way to answer this question when a client raises it, because it is not a claim about taste. It is a claim about who is going to be standing at the machine at half past ten.
How it turned out
His forecast - that it would die a death - was half right, and worth being honest about.
The playlist party is now completely normal at small, informal gatherings, and streaming has made it easier than he could have imagined. A house party does not hire a DJ.
But at the events this stage is about - weddings, big birthdays, functions in hotels - the DJ did not go away, and the reason is the one he identified. At a hundred-guest wedding there is nobody available to spend five hours reading a room, and the cost of getting it wrong is the whole evening.
And he asks rather than tells
Typically, he puts it to the audience - whether you are a working mobile DJ or in a bedroom, what do you think, let us get a discussion going.
Fair, because the honest answer in 2007 was that nobody knew. What has held up is not the prediction but the analysis: the thing a DJ sells is not the music, which anybody can obtain. It is the decisions.
Contents of the video
0:00 This is a video response to YouTube user The Illest Boyee, spelled T-H
Alright folks, this is a video response to YouTube user The Illest Boyee, spelled T-H-E-I-L-L-E-S-T-B-O-Y-E-E. Now then what they've said is they've searched on the internet and found this thing, the iPod versus the DJ. Now basically what the article says is that at some wedding parties, some bars etc, instead of having a DJ, what they're doing, which I suppose is a quite natural progression, To a certain degree, listen up please first, is the fact that of course the likes of an iPod you can store thousands and thousands of songs on an iPod. So instead of hiring a DJ, what some people are doing, buying an iPod, sending emails to all the people coming, going to a wedding, asking them for their playlists, collaborating all the playlists, working out a good structure of an evening, putting all of the songs on the iPod, letting it play.
0:57 These are my thoughts on the matter
And they've got something that big with a PA system as opposed to a DJ with a microphone. Now then, these are my thoughts on the matter. And that is, saving money wise, yes you can save money, but from point of view of actually having some sort of atmosphere in a room is zilch. From having, or sorry, from being, for actually being able to approach someone and requesting a record is zilch. It can't happen with an iPod. Yes, you will be saving money, but the whole idea of having a DJ, having a person, not a machine, is that there is a two-way situation going on. The punters, the people, like to react with the DJ. The DJ reacts with the people. You cannot get that with an iPod. I don't care what people say, but what you'd probably end up doing is having whoever sorted the music out on the iPod
2:24 A working mobile DJ, what do you think?
Going up to it every five minutes and choosing another song because the dance floor isn't happy. So on that basis, I'm afraid the iPod will die a death. Yes, it could save you money, but believe me, I can't see it being a good thing at all. What do you think? Again, if you're not a mobile DJ and maybe you're just a bedroom DJ, you could put your comments underneath about what you think may happen. What are your thoughts on it? But if you are... A working mobile DJ, what do you think? Do you think it's a good idea or like me, do you think it's a waste of time? I think it's a waste of time because personally I can't see it working. If I went to a wedding and there was an iPod in the corner instead of a DJ or a band, I would class that evening as basically, well, you might as well just stick CDs on because maybe there is atmosphere from the actual songs.
But you cannot take away the atmosphere you will get from a DJ being there and the communication, the rapport between the DJ and the crowd. What do you think? Put your comments underneath. Let's get a discussion going here. Practice and enjoy.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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