I Tried Using These 2 AI Tools to DJ My Parties. A Real Person Is Better
DJs provide a special service. They use fancy-pants equipment and deep knowledge of beats to sway crowds and elevate vibes to the maximum, thanks to years of experience under their belts in making booties shake.
Getting into the groove at a party is all about the music. Rock, punk and R&B rhythms can be mixed seamlessly with everything from classical jazz to hardcore gangster rap by the right DJ, and a kicking music selection can take the function from fun get-together to all-night rager.
I tested a few apps and services, including Spotify's AI DJ and the music streaming service's new verbal request feature. This feature allows you to ask the artificial intelligence embedded in the app for mixes based on artists, genres or even just pure vibes.
Here's how to use AI to DJ any party, any time, with zero notice.
Spotify AI DJ with voice requests
DJs are notorious for their lack of noblesse oblige when party-goers make requests for specific songs and genres in the middle of their sacred sets. You could eff around and find out real quick that the DJ in the club doesn't care for your musical tastes, so using Spotify's AI DJ and making requests via voice feels downright decadent.
The best way to use Spotify's AI DJ is to set your playback in the app settings to Crossfade, which allows you to vibe seamlessly with no breaks between tracks. The AI DJ can either automatically create a custom, dynamic playlist from your verbal instructions or use a premade playlist you've selected, which can then be altered on a whim.
When I tested it out, Spotify's AI DJ did not miss with the selections, and verbal inputs can be as wild as you want or as subtle as you need in the moment.
I tested the app on a day-drinking endeavor at home with a few friends, and the AI DJ easily moved between several different moods while incorporating extremely specific criteria.
But Spotify's AI DJ doesn't hype the crowd or change the vibe at just the right time to prevent the engagement brunch from going sideways. It also doesn't use any fancy transitions or mixing like a real DJ would.
More than simple song selection
In pursuit of that true DJ experience, I tried Djay, a 2024 Apple Design Award winner, which claims to use AI in some way to automatically generate DJ sets with full, fancy transitions from your favorite songs on Apple Music.
The process of getting Djay set up could arguably be a little challenging if you don't have Apple Music already on tap and your password management is trash, but things went smoothly after the five minutes it took to load all my saved rumpshakers into Apple Music so Djay could access everything.
Djay / Screenshot by CNET
Despite promising to automate the experience of a real DJ set with AI that "intelligently identifies rhythmic patterns including the best intro and outro sections of songs to keep the music flowing," I found the Djay app to be deeply underwhelming.
djay / Screenshot by CNET
Transitions seemed to be limited to crossfades, and the song matching was simple-minded and often jarring, with one track fading into another in a clunky, haphazard manner.
If there is an AI at the heart of the automixing in Djay, its intelligence may be a matter of opinion instead of an observable fact. If that sounds harsh, it's nothing compared to the crassness of simply slapping one Al Green song next to another with a clumsy fade up and out in between and calling it "intelligent."
Bottom line: I couldn't find a replacement for a real-time, high-functioning AI DJ that can automatically adjust to room vibes and offer specific sound solutions, but Spotify's AI DJ with the new voice request feature comes close.
If you're looking for a DJ to turn up the lit factor on your next party with wild remixes, surprising mashups and satisfying transitions, a real person on the ones and twos is your best bet for now.
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