what is it?

Traditional DJing is quite closed. The DJ controls music selection and people rarely have a say. Some venues and DJs allow a patron to make a request, but without knowing what’s in the DJ’s crate this can be a rather futile exercise. Chances are a DJ won’t let someone thumb through their valuable vinyl or put their sticky fingers all over their keyboard.

OpenDJ is a concept that provides more openness to the crowd and allows input on track selection from the dance floor. A good DJ can read a crowd, but with advent of digital solutions (SSL, etc) DJs are carrying much more music around than before. Sometimes that perfect track gets missed in the list. With many more people digging through the DJ’s virtual crate, less tracks will get lost in the crowd.

By hijacking the power of Serato ScratchLIVE, iTunes DJ and the Apple Remote app for iPhone / iPod touch the DJ can provide means for the crowd to request and vote for songs. Best of all, the DJ can do all of this without relinquishing their laptop keyboard or having beer spilt in their records! In the end the ultimate control on what’s played is still up to the DJ, but this concept could add some cutting edge crowd involvement to a DJ set.