What is the next "Big Thing"

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Jeff Romard

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Sep 4, 2006
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For us old folks that have been around a while we have seen a complete change in technology. Mixers to controllers, Records and Tapes to CD to Laptops. Hot, Heavy lights to LED. It seems the last few years there hasn't been a lot of major change more updates than really new toys.

What do you think is the next big thing? the next big change?
 
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What do you think is the next big thing? the next big change?

From the DJing angle, I think streaming content at gigs will potentially move from being a risk/amateurish move right now to more accepted and stable.
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Music wise, I think groups will continue to become more hyper-segmented. I think about how high school kids now are listening to music on things like Soundcloud that never charts or does anything else at a regional level or beyond.

Even as a Spotify user myself, I worry that the algorithm is only showing me things I will like vs. things that are relevant. From a DJing perspective I tend to pop into Top 40 radio from time to time to make sure I'm hearing what the public is. I'd miss a lot of songs if I only lived in my curated lists. This is also happening to the audiences we play for and it will be harder and harder to find a broadly applicable hit that everyone knows.
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As for production elements... I have no idea. I assume cold spark will move from special/novelty to either table stakes or played out. It might hold on longer because it's still fairly difficult to do in some areas so it'll remain cooler in the places that use it a lot.
 
From a DJing perspective I tend to pop into Top 40 radio from time to time to make sure I'm hearing what the public is. I'd miss a lot of songs if I only lived in my curated lists. This is also happening to the audiences we play for and it will be harder and harder to find a broadly applicable hit that everyone knows.

I agree. I also use Sirius Hits 1 and a few Internet radio stations I find the local top 40 is a few months behind sometimes..

Remember the good old days you could just use MTV/Much Music?
 
I was thinking the same thing, but the thought of that saddens me as it may be another nail in the coffin of this industry....IMHO.:sqfrown:

Please feel free to bash my opinion.:sqeek:

I've thought for a long time that if I can be replaced by a large speaker and a Spotify playlist, that I don't deserve the gig anyway.

Access to music being easier is only a real threat if that's all we're offering our clients.
 
I was thinking the same thing, but the thought of that saddens me as it may be another nail in the coffin of this industry....IMHO.:sqfrown:
This "industry" has more alleged coffin nail holes than a post zombie apocalypse graveyard..and yet we continue.

Please feel free to bash my opinion.:sqeek:
Saying it's your is sufficient...
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Try the veal
 
I think convenience always wins out in the marketplace. So yes, I would agree with the streaming prediction. The problems of today will be replaced by different ones and there will always remain those that will prefer the problems of old.

On the gear side, I think we will see greater use of networked audio and remote control capabilities. Imagine if all your speakers had wifi and you just set up a hot spot and never ran cables again. Before that happens though, we will see Cat 5/6 cabling replace XLRs. Technologies like AVB and Dante are becoming mainstream in the pro and commercial worlds already.

Battery technology is growing by leaps and bounds. Graphene-aluminum batteries are about as close to the ideal battery as I have ever seen. It may take 10 years for the infrastructure to produce such batteries to reach the level of lithium-ion is today. They offer 10X+ the energy density, charging speed only limited by the charger, no memory effect, no toxic materials, etc. You may be able to operate a full sized powered speaker for an entire gig off a single charge with almost no weight penalty. Entire rigs can be run off battery giving us complete freedom of location and faster set-up and teardown.

On the lighting front, I see laser projectors dropping in cost and replacing gobos. The price of projection mapping systems is also dropping and the implementations are getting simpler. These create a great wow-factor that could differentiate the higher-end shows. I also see the use of combo effects increasing. I imagine someone will eventually offer one with the form factor of a stick speaker. Heck, you could even hide fog machine in the base. I can envision this being in modular sections that you just stack on top of each other. You can design your own stick light by choosing which modules to stack.
 
While streaming may certainly become more widespread, the fact the the Internet is still not available / reliable / stable in alot of areas (to include Metro areas) - will prevent this from becoming as big as it could get.
 
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I've thought for a long time that if I can be replaced by a large speaker and a Spotify playlist, that I don't deserve the gig anyway.

Access to music being easier is only a real threat if that's all we're offering our clients.
I could not agree more. I’ve always felt that if a laptop, iPod, cdR, Napster, or Spotify can replace what I bring to the table, it absolutely should.

I remember DJs tells me I was going to “ruin the industry” by showing people they can play music on their laptop😁

Lol…that’s not how I ruined the industry😁(figured I’d beat Rocky to the punchline😁)
 
I could not agree more. I’ve always felt that if a laptop, iPod, cdR, Napster, or Spotify can replace what I bring to the table, it absolutely should.

I remember DJs tells me I was going to “ruin the industry” by showing people they can play music on their laptop😁

Lol…that’s not how I ruined the industry😁(figured I’d beat Rocky to the punchline😁)

Remember 20 years or so ago in another DJ inspired world we were all talking about Ipod weddings? I had one tell me she was going that route because of cost. The Groom called me at 7PM to see if I was still available for the dance portion. I don't recall what song they wanted for an intro but it wasn't Rock You Like A Hurricane...That's what they got from the Ipod...Oops. I wasn't available unfortunately I don't know what they did or how it went after that
 
One thing that we can't control are those who will look for a cheap way of doing things instead booking a high quality professional DJ. Some just can't justify spending that much money for a DJ to do an event for them. Our job is to try our best to convince them they would have more of a successful and enjoyable event. Whatever the event is. You can't win every battle. That's just like the client booking a cheaper DJ and either at the event or after the event they regret that decision.
 
You say you have no Library? No Problem!
No laptop? No Problem!
Software stupid? No Problem!

The Rise Of The Machine - BeatportLink for iOS
 
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While streaming may certainly become more widespread, the fact the the Internet is still not available / reliable / stable in alot of areas (to include Metro areas) - will prevent this from becoming as big as it could get.

Well, there are many calls from various levels of government to offer universal wi-fi/internet to entire cities/areas.