Beatport & SoundCloud Finally Arrive In Denon DJ Prime Gear

Announced what seems like an age ago, as of today it is possible to use Beatport Link and SoundCloud Go+ streaming services with Denon DJ’s Prime range of standalone DJ gear – the Prime 4, the Prime 2, and the Prime Go, plus the SC5000 Prime, SC6000 Prime (and M variants) media players.

The update comes as part of Engine OS 1.5, meaning these two streaming services join Tidal as options for DJs wanting to DJ with streaming music on Prime DJ gear. Beatsource Link, the other service from the makers of Beatport Link that is aimed more at open-format and commercial DJs, is promised to follow soon.

The streaming services aren’t the only improvement made in Engine OS 1.5, though: There is also much-improved BPM detection which can work accurately with a wider range of music, according to the Engine OS team. And in another much requested improvement, a new Quick Source menu allows for faster switching between different music sources. There are various mic improvements, and the Prime Go gets crossfader disable and split cue functions, too.

More about the streaming service implementations

With SoundCloud Go+, DJs can access their entire SoundCloud Library including their own tracks, created/liked playlists, albums, liked tracks, play history, followed artists as well as SoundCloud’s own curated playlists, up to 256kbps AAC quality.

Meanwhile, Beatport Link gives DJs access to over nine million electronic tracks, which is most of the Beatport catalogue, including Top 100 playlists, latest tracks by genre, user playlists and Beatport curated playlists. Beatport Link provides Engine OS with BPM and key information directly, which means that users can see vital track information in the list view when browsing and searching for tracks without having to load/analyse first.

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Link streaming is at 128kbps AAC for basic subscriptions, rising to 256kbps AAC for higher subscriptions – although the main reason for paying for a higher subscription, namely offline locker functionality removing the need to actually be online to use the service, hasn’t yet been implemented (it is promised).

As with all streaming services in Engine OS, performance data from both SoundCloud Go+ and Beatport Link, such as BPM, key, hotcues, and loops, are saved to your source drive for recall the next time a track is loaded – just make sure you have a USB or hard drive attached if you’re spinning exclusively from a streaming service if this is important to you.

• Engine OS v1.5 is available today for users, and is a free and recommended upgrade. More info at the Engine website. More info on SoundCloud Go+ is here, and on Beatport Link is here.

Engine OS talkthrough video