TBH I’ve tried it once for a techno party. Once in almost 50 years of DJing. I didn’t like it. At all.
Good stuff in there! Wrong thread though. ![]()
AI might soon have the ability to read a crowd, the camera technology already exists to read faces and I can’t imagine it’s too hard to have it learn what an empty or full dancefloor looks like. As I said above streaming services are already mining data at an alarming rate so it’s already got a head start on what the person on the dancefloor listens to.
Think of it like this: I (the bar manager) run a late license bar in London that caters to an 13-30 Afro Caribbean crowd who largely come from south of the river. My AI driven DJ software is connected to Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Beatport and Soundcloud go. 90% of the people in the bar are using those services and keyed in their personal data when signing up.
AI DJ program can then provide its location and basic crowd demographic to the services and receive suggestions back based on most played tracks, popular searches etc. if a track doesn’t work (less movement on the floor, or monitoring crowd noise for tell tale positive reactions) then quick mix it out and play the next track.
As far as dance music goes, look at festivals and the way they are going, more and more ‘DJs’ who are male or female models prancing around behind the decks, you can replace them with a 100” screen showing the same, who’s gonna care when most of them are there for the light show and posh champagne anyway?
Weddings are even easier, ask the bride and groom for their favourite Spotify playlists, or even better ask them to make one of them and their families favourite tracks, the DJ program can do the rest, finding linked music you like, I can ask Alexa to do that now, and 99% of the time it’s playing stuff I like. The only thing that has to be right is pressing play on the first dance and turning the music off for the speeches and cutting the cake, the events manager can do that, it’s hardly strenuous.
AI is coming for the industry and I envisage at least 75% of DJ work will disappear, leaving a tiny portion of work with millions of people all wanting the work.
With pretty much every new technology I’ve seen the same discussion come up: “this is not real DJing / now everyone can DJ“. People said it when CDs appeared, when key lock was introduced, when sync became a thing, and so on.
That never really turned out to be true. There have always been great DJs and less stellar ones, and that won’t change. I do think AI will have a bigger impact than previous innovations, but if you truly know how to DJ, you’ll be just fine.
Timing is everything and there’s way more to a great night than a full dancefloor.
I just feel for all those casual DJs who’ve been working the bars over the years. Bar culture is screwed anyway with them closing at an alarming rate and this tech will impact it further. Yes excellent DJs will stand more of a chance of surviving but there’ll still be loads of very good DJs who won’t get work.
Most of my DJ work has been in bars who have said “play what you like” so I’ve been very lucky in that respect, but it was on the decline before I quit and I think it’ll be gone within a couple of years.
We will see how it pans out anyway, but I will advise anyone in the scene to work hard to preserve the craft and not let it disappear.
Hey STU-C, I think sadly you’re right. Perhaps people dont get that it’s a change that can not be compared to other changes, given that it gets rid for the first time of a fundamental factor in the equation > the human.
But, on an ‘business’ level, the dj killed the live band playing. Ive got tons of really good musician relatives, and it’s extremely difficult to get gigs payed correctly when the bar, party organiser can get a dj for much cheaper and less hassle. Do you know small bars having regularly small concerts in 2025?
Video killed the radio star… Djing killed the live musician, using is music
. Ai will kill the background music jockey in bars. AI does not even need free beers
camera technology? pffft thats so CCTV-era; behind what the tech can do. It’s scary what we can program machines to do
Consider this: AI scans for smart watches and heart rate over the wifi, or creates a bluetooth surveillance mesh of all phones and mobiles, and monitors activities to make suggestions to the DJ.
too many folks messaging? up the tempo. ordering up ubers? Free shots!!!
not enough alcohol in the bloodstream? make them dance more/harder to get them thirsty…or adjust the hvac temp to get people to sweat. perhaps some of each or both.
Or- oh look, this one is ovulating and this one has really high testosterone…what can we do to get them together to make future club patrons? server bot delivers cocktail, on the house to ovulation-girl, with a “happy birthday” fanfare, so testo-boy’s attention is caught for a moment looking at her….ahhh, a potential match made in silicon
These are 3 potentials, from mild to severe AI incorporation (along with other automations, obviously) The first two could happen this weekend; the last, at some point in the not too distant future. But I wonder if we can make enough energy and get it to where it needs to go for that last level of AI…
Time will tell how this unfolds, and I hope I’m still around to see how we decide to go with it, or if we lose whatever control we think we currently have of it…
You might want to consider using a platform that prioritizes privacy a bit more. ![]()