Here’s something that blipped on my grapevine a good 6 months ago now, but has just been confirmed. Spotify will be leaving the DJ streaming arena, which means that Algoriddim’s djay, Serato’s Pyro, and the Pacemaker app will soon lose your favourite streaming service.

As far as djay goes, the service will stop July 1st. This gives you 3 months plus to make alternative arrangements. Thankfully, djay has just added TIDAL and SoundCloud (which was a huge clue in itself), and has provided full instructions on how to migrate your Spotify playlists over to TIDAL and SoundCloud. TIDAL is also offering a full 3 months for free to soften the blow. Now you’ll have something to do while you’re self isolating.

Don’t worry — moving to TIDAL is easy, and certainly a more complete transition than I expected it to be. Another story will follow tomorrow detailing my experience.

HEADING OFF THE FULL CAPS RANTS

There are two things I need to underline here. Firstly, this is Spotify’s decision to withdraw from all DJ streaming platforms. Some of you will knee-jerk blame Algoriddim for ruining their DJ existence, but believe me when I say that this is the last thing that they wanted to happen. It has been their USP in an increasingly crowded DJ streaming market. So be sure to direct your anger at the right people i.e. not Algoriddim. Be thankful that the service wasn’t shut down mid gig.

The second thing that always grinds my gears is how some believe that adding streaming is the software maker’s choice. If it was, everyone would have gone with Spotify by now. So when people spout the inevitable request for Apple Music to be added, just remember that such a decision is entirely in the hands of Apple, who to date haven’t allowed any third-party integrations of their library into software whatsoever. And from experience, Apple Music doesn’t is seriously lacking in similar content. It is after all a music store, not a streaming platform.

So yes, we’re sad to see Spotify leave the DJ building. But alternatives exist, and are possibly better for some too. TIDAL for example has video streaming. At least it’s one less subscription to worry about.

It’s OK to be annoyed, but it’s a wasted emotion. Use the three months of free TIDAL to migrate away from Spotify and embrace the future. It’s not like you have a choice.