This week I have to admit I'm writing the newsletter last minute! And that's because I have been busy DJ'ing in my free time! And why not, we live once and we need to do what we enjoy! However, I can't seem to get away from A.I. & Data no matter what I do. We are being surrounded by it and I'm all for it!

One of the software I use for DJ'ing is called VirtualDJ, and it has been implementing great features driven by A.I. and data, which has made becoming a better DJ 10x easier!

I want to tell you about some of these, and hopefully you'll see that the possibilities with AI are endless.

1. At a fundamental level, the DJ plays music for an audience, and one of his main jobs (besides playing music people like) is to transition from one song into another as seamlessly as possible without breaking people's dance flow too much. Don't you hate it when you are getting down on the dance floor, and the DJ just switches to a totally random song and kills the mood! Well, AI is here for that!

VirtualDJ has a feature called Live Feedback, which recommends a track based on what other DJs have played most of the time, right after the playing the current track.

In yellow it's showing me that if I don't have an idea, I can play James Hype - Ferrari after playing I'm Good by David Guetta & Bebe Rexha!

To take it a step further, it has a feature called GeniusDJ, which offers smart track suggestions based on what thousands of DJs play. The GeniusDJ engine will provide you with a folder of track suggestions to choose from instead of just a few songs. The algorithm is based on the feedback of what hundreds of thousands of other DJs play around the world.

1. The above example is just using data and analysis to give you the next song. Another new feature, called Stem Seperation, is where VirtualDJ and other similar software are taking it to the next level.

Stem Separation uses "advanced AI technology to separate any song into a multi-track, during the mix, in real-time. Allowing DJs to adjust on the fly the components of their tracks (vocals, instruments, kicks, hi hats, etc) to create new mash-ups, remixes and transitions."

What this means is that with a click of a button you can remove the vocals of a song, or maybe you don't like the instruments, you can get rid of them too!

You can see examples and learn more here: https://www.virtualdj.com/stems/#:~:text=VirtualDJ%20uses%20advanced%20AI%20technology,%2Dups%2C%20remixes%20and%20transitions.

TLDR: Just like A.I. is not getting rid of writers, A.I. is not getting rid of DJs. Rather, it is democratizing the process of becoming a DJ, and creating more of them! Separating the vocals from the instruments used to take real advanced skill, and now it took me 5 mins of practice to learn how to do it!

And if you don't think the world needs anymore DJs? I wouldn't disagree with you. BUT, I will encourage you to think about how A.I. can enhance your hobby/job/side hustle.