DJ Streaming Services - should you subscribe?

We live in an age now where streaming services are everywhere! There have been DJ streaming services around for sometime now however I have never jumped ship from more traditional methods and used any....is 2023 the year to change this?
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[@mingyeap6043]

Hi Karl, I am currently using a soundcloud go+ subscription and just to confirm with you the offline storage is only for listening not for connecting and djing with Rekordbox, a Soundcloud Dj account is needed for offline storage of tracks for djing which costs x2 the monthly subscription, hope this helps to clarify info for everyone?

[@djkarlthomas]

Ahhh thank you for correcting me!! That’s not so good then. I will pin your comment!

[@goosebumpsfm]

I occasionally use Tidal + Rekordbox integration, same thing with regards to offline store. works great when I'm DJ'ing at home (or anywhere where internet isn't a problem).

[@djkarlthomas]

Nice one! Thank you for watching

[@jonmcdowall354]

I was using SoundCloud go+ subscription too with virtual DJ and was charged twice every month and no free trial :(

[@Messi10949]

In going to use soundlcoud dj

[@justinvanmierlo302]

i like using tidal for seeing what i like and what catches on, and then buy the song for myself and download. it saves me money i think because most songs are a couple bucks a piece. and my library would be quite extensive. also discovering new tracks while on the go with my phone and galaxy buds.

[@djkarlthomas]

Ah nice approach!! Thank you for watching and sharing!

[@Marvelpic]

I’m like you love collecting Records and CDs and downloading music. The whole streaming is great for listening but for DJing I’m not too sure.

[@DJ_EVISON]

As a DJ who has just got my first residency, having to rely on your venues wifi settings, is too much stress for me to take on board at this stage 😆 I love being able to know what music I’ve already got for my set, enough to last 5-8hrs. Zip DJ has been quality 🙌🏼

[@djkarlthomas]

Nice one mate!! Completely agree with this too! Love Zip!

[@BomberandCompany]

I remember back in 2010 when DJ's had a difficult time transitioning from CDs to MP3s. Djs would haul around a 20lb backpack of burned CDs and flip through folders and folders of CDs to find a specific song. They did this even on tour from UK to Paris, Amsterdam, etc. LOL It was just difficult for oldschool djs to adopt new tech. Same thing from records to CDs as well. Imagine if we saw DJs doing that nowadays HAHA. As much as we hate to admit it, we gotta adapt to new times.

[@djkarlthomas]

I remember those days!!

[@bluex217]

I mean tbh personally I'll adapt once every rare remix, mashup && bootleg I've spent 10 years and thousands collecting is available on 1 streaming service. CD's to MP3's didn't limit your selection of files because you can spend the time to burn them but I can't control that a streaming service can't offer most of the files that make my sound

[@FredGreenGB]

I use to carry round entire rigs . The bag of records was the easy bit . Tbh the cdj had me stumped so I jacked it all in and became a plumber instead. I wish I had stuck with the DJing tbh... You can walk into a residency with a usb card and an account. Must be awesome.

[@djkarlthomas]

@FredGreenGB it is easier from that perspective however the clubs aren’t what they were!!

[@AvenueCrew]

I love remixing songs and adding my own touch to the music, this would not work for me. However, I have used Tidal for my mobile gigs. I prefer owning the music, some songs maybe taken out from the streaming services at any go.

[@djkarlthomas]

That’s a really good point! I agree with owning your music, way prefer it!

[@Zama.]

I think one important consideration for many DJs is the ability to record mixes from streamed music. I thought you were not able to record mixes natively in the Dj software since you didn't own the music, although that was from looking into this a little while ago. Do you know if that is true?

[@epicdroneimages1128]

@@Zama. I’m curious about this too

[@IanCassanova]

Just recently I found out that Tidal have started to charge double the cost to intergrate their streaming service with your DJ software, they call it something like DJ extension! I have soft spot for Tidal but I would rather spend that £20 a month to buy the music and have it on my HD & hopefully the artist may get some publishing if they have a decent deal from it.

[@djkarlthomas]

Oh wow! That is insane money! Yes for that money you are better off paying for downloads but that is just my opinion.

[@TheRealCalijokes01]

Sound cloud got more urban stuff I like plus they seem to be less control so it’s nice to find under rated somgs

[@izzyduzzit00]

I just got tidal but also have tons of music from dj pools. My thoughts are I can now play any song that comes to mind. Can’t do that otherwise

[@djkarlthomas]

Nice one!

[@thorstenmoll6637]

Any song that come to mind is for pup and wedding djs.....the songs you play should reflect your style and personality...if they don't you are in the wrong profession.

[@sergioknuf]

@@thorstenmoll6637 He is a wedding dj

[@jozaythewordsmith2784]

This was genuinely helpful, I definitely will be using Tidal

[@djkarlthomas]

Nice! Thank you for watching glad it was useful!

[@pavel-g]

Few things to keep in mind. In order to use the offline folder, pc connected to you equipment running rekordbox in performance mode is required, you can't use this folder with just cdj 3000 for example. As a Beatport subscription user I would say that it's not that flexible (atm). Can't filter playlists by BPM or Key, can't access "My Beatport" from players and so on.. This will probably change over time.

[@djkarlthomas]

Excellent insights!! Thank you for watching and for providing this useful info!

[@lucysummers7977]

THANK YOU - this was so helpful!

[@djkarlthomas]

Glad you thought so! Thank you for watching

[@Matthew-qe2wq]

Hey, As I mentioned when I replied to your post yesterday, as a beginner, streaming services (in my case tidal) which normally offer free trials or student discounts I think it's great. It's a lot cheaper, I can use it for just listening to music outside of DJing and I don't need to worry about if a song is there or not as the chances are it's on there. I think there are downsides, as you said you don't own the music and it's reliant on the WiFi connection, which it you already have the tracks in rekordbox, isn't too much of a problem. There are definitely downsides and I'm sure there are more that you didn't mention which will probably come to me when I finish writing this but for the meantime I am happy with it. I think in future when I potentially get jobs that's a different story

[@Matthew-qe2wq]

As yes a downside is you can't record your sets.

[@djkarlthomas]

Nice one mate, thank you for your thoughts and for watching! I’m glad you have had a positive experience from streaming! Can you save cue points? Was one thing I forgot to address! Thank you for the extra piece on the record sets!

[@Matthew-qe2wq]

@@djkarlthomas yes you can save cue points

[@laidbackmedia]

Thats if you depend on Rekordbox or Serato to manage your recording@@Matthew-qe2wq

[@andrewword9946]

Thanks for this video... very nice explanation

[@djkarlthomas]

Glad it was useful! Thank you for watching

[@MrJamessigley]

Thanks for this review. Just what I needed!

[@djkarlthomas]

Nice one mate, thanks for watching and glad it was useful!

[@FredGreenGB]

I am an ol turntable guy so I do not own any mp3s. I have recently bought a rev 1 just to get back into mixing ( well pressing a sync button 😂) . I have been using streaming services for a few years for my own listening and I like apple music because of the ease of use . I found I cannot use apple music unless on djay pro and the rev1 is best on serato so I am trying SoundCloud.....Let me tell you that Macbooks and soundcloud are not best buddies imo . So I'm thinking of trying Tidal as the format seems similar to Apple layout .

[@djkarlthomas]

I can’t say I use streaming services so can’t really comment. Hope you are enjoying the Rev 1. Whilst I use soundcloud I use it to find tracks to download vs stream. Have fun with tidal! Thanks for watching

[@brianmoreau8016]

Just getting into djing I’d have to say streaming seems more appealing then building a collection from scratch right now. But what streaming platform is better? I’m using beatsouse right now and enjoying the content. Think I’ll try beatport also. Comparing the both from a new DJ. Thanks for the tips. ✌️

[@djkarlthomas]

All fair enough. All I would say is that for me there is something to be said about owning your own music. Also if you want to play out in venues you need the offline locker as wifi can be really poor in some places and this is essential if you don’t have your tracks stored somewhere. Beatport will be good for electronic music whereas beat source is good for a greater variety of genres. Thanks for watching

[@zian293]

I use tidal very often with serato but indeed sometimes (5-8% of the time especially when using serato stems and mixing long sessions) crashes….not sure if its from my laptop (windows) or is because of the streaming service….

[@Navysealsniperfifty]

I think it's tidal.. Happens to me all the time. Looking for something better

[@djpip27]

I dislike the idea of people being able to ask for "any song". Sometimes as a DJ you have to make the call that a track isn't suitable to be played and saying "I haven't got it" is an easy and sometimes true fact that can't be argued with. As streaming becomes more popular, now that excuse doesn't wash, so it can be harder to argue with drunk people who "think they know better". Historically when I have tried streaming the dealbreaker has been the internet dropping out and then things not working. If you have the ability though to have a local music collection and compliment it with streaming tracks (and importantly it can go into some form of "emergency loop" mode) if the internet does go down or keep the whole song in memory and still play, then I don't see it being an issue. You just need to experiment with your chosen software and check it does this before it happens to you live in a gig! No-one wants to be in silence.

[@Matthew-qe2wq]

Do they need to know you are streaming though? If you say you don't have it they won't know

[@BJT420]

just a quick comment. Tidal doesnt allow offline music actually. So you are forced to get a good internet connection

[@djkarlthomas]

No offline locker??! Are you sure? If you check this link it states otherwise for offline tidal.com/pricing

[@BJT420]

@@djkarlthomas unless I haven't figured out a way how to yet. Everywhere that I try to check for an offline mode, it prompts me to sketchy converter apps. Unless I'm missing something big, it's an absolute shame. Wish they would allow offline !

[@djkarlthomas]

Ah yes you are right- I have done a bit more searching and you can’t dj with tidal offline. Other streaming platforms like beatsource however do offer an offline locker.

[@BJT420]

@@djkarlthomas I need to make my own streaming software lol. I love the variety of tidal but hate the no offline! Just figured I'd update you on that, as I'm between a rock and a hard place lol! Cheers

[@jaysdjservice5621]

I thought if you download songs from tidal they are offline

[@Drumtech08]

#1 Never pay for subscriptions #2 own your music #3 never depend on internet for a live show

[@djkarlthomas]

Straight to the point 👌🏼

[@Th3FishRoom]

Tidal won't let me log in

[@shivvarma3442]

Great video

[@djkarlthomas]

Thanks!

[@andrewpamplona5414]

Beatsource has razormaid, ultimix, dmc, and etc remixes on their platform?

[@stanbarratt9474]

have you tried beatport lossless streaming?

[@ninjalightning2631]

NIce vıdeo ,Subbed My my we came a long way since going to record store buying albums I'm resident DJ play many Genre from jazz to house to Latin Thinking to go with Beat source basic My question is can just start streaming without making playlist with in the app ,Live? Thanks

[@djkarlthomas]

Thank you for watching! With regard to your question…I am not sure as I don’t stream, I download music. Sign up and give it a go. With traditional pools you don’t have to make playlists- you can simply have a long list of downloaded tracks in your software if you wanted

[@rainbowgaming8441]

tip not every place you dj will have wi fi and i found out the hard way many times everything was going great and they hit us with they had no wi fi at all or it was shoty and lost wif fi or it dropped for everyone that was using the wi-fi there has to be 4 to 5 wi-fi lines or your going to lag out ........where some guys kid is hugging the wi f-fi on his cell phone its all ways good to have music backed up on hard drives streaming is not all ways a good thing or even 100 percent good out of gigs there has been about 90 that have not had good wi-fi and we could not use online

[@Messi10949]

Should I used soundcloud dj or soundcloud go. There are pros and cons, but which one is better?

[@djkarlthomas]

Really depends on what you want to do with soundcloud. Soundcloud go is good for djing/ playing the tracks but pro is better for uploading tracks and building an audience. Not sure what soundcloud dj is….not heard of it

[@philippebernier6871]

I honestly prefer to own my music, so I signed up to bpm supreme but it turns out 70% of the songs I was looking for weren't there, so my question is how can I build my own music collection without it being in an illegal way or to subscribe to a record pool?? an answer would be appreciated

[@djkarlthomas]

Buy individual tracks the old fashioned way from sites such as beatport or traxsource.

[@WestCoastWalker-zj6ob]

Do you recommend Beatsource over Beatport or should I get both?

[@djkarlthomas]

Depends what type of dj you are. Beatport is strictly electronic music only whereas beatsource has a mixture

[@WestCoastWalker-zj6ob]

@djkarlthomas ok I'll probably go with Beatport thank you.

[@Uncutbird]

Can someone tell me if I can actually stream offline using Tidal and how - this weekend I had the sweats as where the Gig was had no wifi and my hotspot was on 1 bar on 4g so loading time took forever - I’ve thought about getting a dongle but if I can just go offline then that’s better

[@MixTheTake]

Just past this weekend happened to me. It really pissed me off because Tidal wasn’t online with the servers through Serato and I have to go full download mode now since they aren’t dependable based off the attitude in customer service. Considering canceling my subscription to them

[@stevebaker803]

Hi Karl, I'd like to use beatport streaming music in my sets when I DJ over Mixcloud. Is this allowed as I'm unsure after reading the small print?

[@djkarlthomas]

If you are djing on live stream then should be fine however with streaming services you may struggle to save your sets. Plus I don’t think you will be able to record your mixes.

[@stevebaker803]

@@djkarlthomas hey thanks for the reply. I have virtual dj and have just realised you can't record a mix due to drm. I wondered if it was the same if i hit the broadcast button? Thanks again for getting back to me 👍

[@djkarlthomas]

@stevebaker803 only way to do it is try. I never use streaming services as I prefer to download and own all my tracks

[@bboymac84]

That’s why I like using my phone or iPad because I can use 5G from my phone service instead of dodgy WiFi. It’s much faster!!

[@SurfSk8Snow100]

What if there’s crap internet ? Will the track stop playing to buffer ?

[@djkarlthomas]

Yep unless there is an offline storage locker.

[@maximiliankolarsky253]

is it true, that the term of service of all streaming services you talk about prohibit playing comercially?thx

[@djkarlthomas]

Sites like beatsource and beatport are designed for DJs so expect you to use their services to play to crowd

[@shearcreatif]

only for home listening.... not for gigs

[@djpapajohn]

I see many people saying "i never ever" This streaming service is a BACK UP!! You can NEVER EVER own EVERY track YOUR client's may want to hear. I can see many of these people (so called DJ's) play for THEMSELVES & not their crowds... Stop being so closed minded and listen to what streaming service may fit you best as a BACK UP. Noone is saying to ONLY DJ with streaming services...

[@iamptm]

Pass on streaming. Download or pass. That's all :)

[@VHarvey]

I use Tidal but it crashes all the time .

[@djkarlthomas]

Thank you for the intel!! Really important to know that!

[@prouddaddyofdos]

What u running it with?

[@alanaban1840]

I also use tidal. With not problem/ the wifi could be a problem / I have had little issues

[@bluex217]

Hear me now! I will never ever ever ever DJ using only a streaming service. When was the last time a creative, eclectic DJ obtained all of their music from one source? You can have every original song in the world anyone's ever danced to in your databases && storage buckets, but you still won't have all the rare remixes, mashups, bootlegs etc. that I use all the time.. What DJ who has spent 10 years and thousands of whatever currency on finding specific sounds that fit their style is suddenly going to limit themselves to 1 source for their music? I find only the newer DJ's are wanting to use TIDAL. It may be a classic case of the older not wanting to adapt, but in this realm the older will win. The younger will sound so BORING by comparison. Also, if you have passion for DJ'ing you likely have passion for your music. How can you have passion for a collection of things you don't own. I'll never get it

[@djkarlthomas]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts- as a collector of music for many many years, I can certainly relate!

[@post22unboxing22]

They can take down and you are screwed

[@post22unboxing22]

KZbin to mp3 or aac

[@djkarlthomas]

You should never rip music from KZbin if you consider yourself a pro DJ

[@brianmoreau8016]

If they take it down then you can stream another platform. Do you really think DJ pool streaming will be obsolete or the future?

[@laidbackmedia]

By that time I have saved my quota of 1000 tunes to play offline if needed. Works out about 34p per tune. No brainer guys.

[@post22unboxing22]

@@djkarlthomas some song have take down for example when the best buy want to stream song was good that you can't get back but KZbin have it if I can get it on CD will but some that not the case so KZbin rip your fine for that so if you that don't like have no good gig so there