This is a pretty funny example because if you follow the DJ scene much, you know the barrier for entry is literally on the floor now.
A 10 year old with an iPad app can beat-match and “DJ” a 2h mix together in a way that 20 years ago required thousands of dollars of gear. The tragic part is that unless someone’s got some familiarity with what “good” mixing sounds like, they wouldn’t be able to tell they’re listening to an amateur.
Is this better? I donno. I play saxophone. But if there was an digital sax that let children sound as good as I can with no training, I’d definitely be feeling like some of the time I used learning good embouchure and breath control could have been better spent.
Truthfully, picking what song goes next feels like a job well suited for an AI, or even just a basic recommendation system based on up and down votes.
Of course there's a real time component to DJing as well. Paying attention to the crowd and how they're reacting to your mix. That's the magic that's harder to automate.
I'd like to see it. As someone who's DJ'd a fair amount for large crowds (1000+) my value always seemed to be in choosing tracks that lit up the audience and made the set progress to a satisfying peak.
The technical aspects were always not that important.
I’m in my 40s - one of my high school jobs was working at a photo lab and studio - I even became a photographer there, taking kids photos and whatnot. It was fun - I almost considered a career in photography.
The truth is, had I done so, I’d feel a lot like you described.
As things get easier, true craft and skill are less appreciated and lost as the application becomes more democratized. From the perspective of the expert/skilled individual, this is terrible. On the other hand, it’s amazing what happens when everyone has a mindblowingly good camera on them almost always. In the end, we are collectively better for it, but individuals absolutely do see their value diminished.
Photography's a great example. Experts like you could make the difference matter I'm sure, but these days I feel like the shots I get on my 14 Pro are close to the quality I'd get from a DSLR. Like with so many other hobbies, it seems like the barrier for entry to produce something "good enough" has quickly become almost non-existent.
> In the end, we are collectively better for it, but individuals absolutely do see their value diminished.
