In a technical breakthrough and DJ-ing first, Beatport has announced the introduction of a new feature to its Beatport DJ app designed to allow DJs to collaborate on sets remotely, from anywhere in the world.
Using the service up to four DJs and play simultaneously with the combined streams available to each DJ's audience despite – potentially – each being thousands of miles apart.
It's called Party Mode and it's a new feature inside Beatport DJ that delivers unique, latency-free, connected DJ sessions. Beatport describes the feature as "the first of its kind, and is set to revolutionize how DJs connect, learn, and enjoy the art of DJing."
It works by allowing multiple DJs to connect to the same shared session. Plus 'up to 1000' viewers can also join the stream and watch. The service automatically creates ad populates a shared playlist for the DJs to share and make their selections from.
Needless to say some level of communication between the (potentially) 'competing' DJs will be essential so the service includes chat functionality for discrete communication between the DJs and for them to talk to their global audience.
Meanwhile that audience can see the Beatport catalog of tracks being used in the Discovery module at the bottom of the screen while watching the DJs in the shared Performance module above.
The DJs perform together with mouse and keyboard or can use Touch Mode on a device such as a Microsoft Surface tablet. There are also plug-and-play third party DJ controllers that come pre-mapped for Beatport DJ.
Beatport suggests that the feature will have a number of uses.
Firstly there's the shared experience of seeing what tracks another DJ will pick and being able to contribute and collaborate on a set together.
Next there's the possibility of using the service to practice and plot a set for a future live, in-person session. So two DJs set to play together at a festival say, could rehearse from their homes before getting on the plane.
DJ education establishments could use the system to teach DJ skills.
And of course there's the ability to stream to a global audience, all attending the same gig from wherever they are.
The system was first demonstrated late last year with a session between Jamie Jones (who played in Miami) and Loco Dice (who played in Berlin) with an audience at each location able to see and hear the audience and music being played from the other.
Find out more at beatportal.com
