Here Are The Results From Our 2024 Census, The Biggest DJ Survey In The World

Phil Morse | Founder & Tutor

Read time: 3 mins

As a leading global DJ school, every year here at Digital DJ Tips we conduct a unique survey with you, our community. We take a snapshot of your DJing, the gear you use, your favourite software and music, your aspirations, and more.

We do this both to help us better serve you by knowing you as well as possible, but also to share the results with both the wider DJing industry, and of course, with you.

So here it is: The Global DJ Census 2024, easily the biggest survey of its type conducted anywhere. Here we’re publishing the highlights of the results of that survey. Scroll on for a revealing look at where the industry is at, and where it is headed – at least, as far as you, the nearly 15,000 people from our community who completed this year’s Census are concerned. Thanks to all of you for being a part of it.

Alongside the census, we run a prize draw, which is contributed to by many major names in the DJ tech world. So this year we’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Pioneer DJ/AlphaTheta, Rane, Denon DJ, Novation, Focusrite, Adam Audio, and Alto Professional for your generous contribution of amazing prizes.

Obtaining the full survey results PDF

In this article, we are running the highlights of the results.

Do you want to see the full results, including actual percentages and numbers itemised, and the other categories that we haven’t included here?

If you’re already a Digital DJ Tips member, check your inbox – we’ve emailed you a link to download the full results PDF. Not a free member yet? Click here to join.

If you’re in the industry and we don’t send you this annually, please note that you’re just as welcome to have a copy of the results as everyone else. So if you would like to obtain the full survey results PDF, please get in touch, and we’ll happily provide you with a copy.

DJ Demographic Info

You’re a bunch of all ages, although the majority of our community is between 25 and 54 years old. There are plenty who are older than that and a handful who are younger. I suspect a lot of younger people are too busy partying and having fun to fill in long surveys, if I’m being honest!

Another way of looking at DJing is that it’s grown up. You look in the window of any music shop, and you’ll see a DJ controller or two (at the very least) alongside the guitars, drums, and keyboards. It’s taken its place alongside all other ways of expressing yourself through music, and the people who do it now span across all ages, which is great. Not so great, maybe, is that it’s still predominantly a male game with not really much change in the 5% or so of women in our audience. But girls, it’s good to have you here!

Certainly, as far as we go here at Digital DJ Tips, you’re an English-speaking bunch, but I guess that’s not surprising for an English-speaking DJ school, with the majority of you in the US and the UK – Canada, Germany, and Australia trail behind. You’re doing pretty well in life generally – our audience earns good money as a whole, but it’s not from DJing. For you, DJing is generally just a fantastic hobby.

(With apologies for anyone who plays golf, I always say that the Digital DJ Tips community are “too cool for golf”, so they take up DJing and spend all that money there instead!)

DJ Type & Experience

They say “once a DJ, always a DJ,” and it’s definitely true for you. Our community is well experienced as far as years in the game go, with the vast majority of you having done this for over a decade. But still, we have lots of people just starting out or having done it for fewer years. Nonetheless, you do feel you’ve got a lot to learn, and I think that’s quite normal. DJing is one of those games that no one ever feels they’ve totally mastered. I think that’s part of the fun of it.

As far as where you do your DJing, there’s a real mix in our community. Plenty of people are happy to be bedroom DJs, indeed, that’s our biggest single group. But also, plenty of people are mobile DJs, in second place, with appreciable numbers playing parties, holding down club residences, and so on.

Learn to rock ANY crowd like a pro: The Complete DJ Course

When it comes to your aspirations, an awful lot of you want to make music. But an equally large number have tried to make music and maybe struggled a little bit with that. And also, a bunch of you are interested in livestreaming your DJ sets – that hasn’t died down at all. Ultimately, the dream of course is to be a superstar DJ touring the world, so thank you to everyone brave enough to put their hand up to that question! But it also seems that settling for a nice residency somewhere is a more achievable goal for many of you.

DJ Set-ups

The vast majority of our community use a DJ controller with a laptop for their DJing. And the next biggest group are people using all-in-one standalone DJ gear. Pioneer DJ dominates by far, as far as brands go, with Denon DJ, Numark and Traktor being the only ones with any other appreciable share.

You certainly like to have great DJ set-ups as a community, and are not scared to spend money on them: More than half of you have spent between $1500 and $5000 on your current kit. What’s more, two-thirds of you are looking forward to upgrading your set-up within the next 12 months. DJ gear is clearly very important to you!

When it comes to changes in DJ technology, you’re all very excited about stems, but there’s not much else that’s happened in the DJ tech world in the last 12 months that’s caught your eye. As has been the case for a few years, you’re pretty evenly split between Windows and Mac computers, and you’re also pretty evenly split between Rekordbox and Serato when it comes to your DJ software, although VirtualDJ and Traktor are not far behind.

Don’t have our free gear guide? Grab it here: The Digital DJ Gear Buyer’s Guide

Music Styles & Sourcing Of Tunes

Nowadays, most of you describe yourselves as multi-genre mixing DJs, which is not surprising because everyone from mobile DJs to open format DJs are playing all kinds of music nowadays, and trying their hardest to mix it well. This is great! However, the more old-school styles (mixing a single genre or not mixing at all) are still popular ways of DJing in our community, too.

House, hip-hop and pop music dominate the genres that you play out, and the majority of you buy that music from online download stores, with Beatport, iTunes, and Bandcamp being your top three. Only about a third of you subscribe to DJ download pools, but among those who do, BPM Supreme and DJcity are your favourites. The majority of you also use a music streaming service in your day-to-day lives, and while Spotify dominates, Tidal is a respectable second among DJs (not surprising as it is the only mainstream streaming service available inside DJ software).

Read this next: Where DJs Get Their Music In 2024

Social Media

Instagram, Facebook and YouTube are your favourite social media channels, with TikTok, X and Snapchat bringing up the rear. When it comes to online comms, around half of you use WhatsApp, Messenger etc, although 20% of you prefer to communicate by old-school email.

Read this next: Five Steps To Becoming A Better DJ In 2024

Let’s close with some trends…

One of the most interesting things about conducting this annual survey is spotting trends year on year. And so here are a few things we spotted comparing this survey with last year’s Census, and going back even further:

Many more of you are having a go at music production – Just a handful of years ago most of you hadn’t even tried this, but a whopping majority of you said you really wanted to. Now an awful lot more have had a go. I think this is a useful trend among us DJs trying to differentiate ourselves from others, but also as a way of expressing ourselves creatively, especially when the basics of DJing are getting easier and easier
You’re still in love with laptop DJing – Despite having plenty of money to spend on this hobby, plugging a laptop into a controller is the choice method of DJing for the vast majority of you. It seems like you are in love with the features that only laptop DJing can bring. And so – unlike professional DJs who just want the same gear everywhere they go to do the same thing – you’re far more open to the new things that always come first in software
You’re getting the hang of stems and asking more of them – You’re becoming far more discriminating about things like features and sound quality, and also controls on hardware when it comes to real-time stems. Mark our words, this is going to be a big growth area in the next 12 months, and we think it’s going to come to standalone too, although maybe not in the way you might expect. All we’ll say for now is, think easy stem preparation ahead of time
You’re both scared of and excited about artificial intelligence – The most intelligent thing I can say about this is that DJs are not going to be replaced by AI. DJs who’ve not mastered AI are going to be replaced by ones who have. So don’t be scared of it, and do have a play (for instance, try asking ChatGPT to make playlists for you) because you’ve still got time to be an early adopter in this area

Learn to DJ with us: The Complete DJ Course

Finally – and this is something that you won’t see in the figures – we are always heartened by the number of you who take your DJing seriously enough to take DJ training in order to improve. The thing we hate the most is when people do not take this amazing art, craft and hobby of ours seriously – and that clearly isn’t our community. Thanks for taking part in this year’s survey, we salute you, and see you next time!

Thanks to our sponsors

One more time, a huge thanks to our sponsors this year: Pioneer DJ/AlphaTheta, Rane, Denon DJ, Novation, Focusrite, Adam Audio, and Alto Professional.

Phil Morse

Phil Morse is the founder of Digital DJ Tips. His DJ career has taken him from a 15-year residency in Manchester, England, to the main room at Privilege in Ibiza - the world's biggest club. He is also an award-winning club promoter, and has taught music tech and DJing since 2010. He regularly speaks at DJ seminars and events worldwide. His book, “Rock The Dancefloor!”, is a global best-seller on how to DJ.

Last updated 21 February, 2024