Your Questions: Can You DJ Directly From Spotify?

Phil Morse | Founder & Tutor
Read time: 1 min
Last updated 28 March, 2018

Spotify DJ Mixer
A Spotify app called ‘DJ Mixer’ was briefly available that let you DJ direct from Spotify’s library, but it was withdrawn for violating Spotify’s conditions.

Digital DJ Tips reader Gert writes: “I was just wondering if it would be technically possible to connect an online music library like Deezer, Spotify or Tunify from where you could be able to play tunes on standard CDJs. I guess you’d have to ‘temporarily download’ the file into a CDJ’s memory to be able to pitch and mix it. If that would be possible, you’d only need an internet connection and a subscription to the service instead of a whole collection you’d have to buy. Are you aware of such kind of service or don’t you think it exists (yet)?”

Digital DJ Tips says:

Good question, and it’s something I’ve wondered about before (more a question of “when”, not “if” I feel). At the moment this is not possible, and indeed the Spotify app pictured above did let you do this from within the app, but it got pulled shortly after release for breaking some condition in Spotify’s API rules. But with some Pioneer gear already able to play music directly from, for instance, a mobile phone’s library, surely it won’t be long before someone cracks this and lets you play locally downloaded music from Spotify etc. It would certainly be a godsend for mobile DJs who may get strange requests that they hadn’t anticipated.

Worth pointing out that Virtual DJ has had a tie-in with Grooveshark for quite a while now that lets you do what you are describing within its software. For a US$10 monthly subscription, Virtual DJ allows you to search and download tunes from Grooveshark’s library, and DJ with them as if they were your own music files.

Is this a feature you’ve wished for? Do you know of any other services that let you do anything similar to this? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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