quarta-feira, novembro 30, 2005

In the beginning there is always something more than Jack!

Designers must be next because Doris can easily control kerning and choose a sign with a litle help from the machine. And Monica will be able to use the newest three axis scanner to copy and re-design a nice acrylic chair.

I spotted a small corner in the bar, next to the whisky and vodka machine, where there was a screen with someone dressed like a bartender touching it every ten seconds. For me, he was checking every order into the processor and calculating bills.
In the beginning it was strange when the dance area was crowded and everywhere I looked I didn't see a DJ. There were lights blinking and even smoke machines.
Different night, different bar and different people dancing to no DJ. The bartender was again there. Curious I got, and walked to somewhere I could get a clear view to that omnipresent touch-screen. Turns out, that guy was a bartender and a DJ at the same time.

In Holland there are around ten big companies that make DJ software. I know an application that works on Windows XP platform and any personal computer with a touch-screen can run it. The interface is very similar to the one from the more known Traktor DJ Studio and not only bartenders are using it. I witnessed already DJs (that is... guys that don't serve drinks that night) using it. The companies that sell this services do more than programming, or they would stop getting money after every dance-entertainment-business bought one copy. They also establish protocols with the institution that controls copyrights in Holland and every month, in return for specified fees, they mail a new CD-ROM with 400 MP3 tracks to the paying bars.
By using this software, club owners no longer need to waste time looking for the right music to play in their discotheque and, better yet, there is no cocky DJ to pay every night they want dance music. The bartender can easily replace the synchronized beats that keep a "vinyl DJ" so distracted while you are trying to flirt with him. Midi-controler-or-not, playlists-or-not, auto-mix-or-not, random-or-not, everything is possible!-or-not!
It's not possible to play non-authorized songs. And I don't obviously mean autor-authorized, but software-company-and-intellectual-property-institution-authorized. Those systems are connected to the internet and content management is enforced.
For a kid that usually goes out on weekends it's easy to understand what kind of environment does a place normally have just by knowing the brand they use for DJing. "Oh! Fuck... It's Xenox... Lets get out of here."
A regular MP3 CD won't work unless the system is illegally cracked. Even if you want to hear your own music (you produced) and/or the track has no copyright limitation. And if that kind of impediments to free culture are not illegal, they should be. But thats just my opinion and nobody really cared in the first place. So if you just started to think about it, ask for advices.
This is just the beginning.