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Pacemaker DJ app to directly license music after Spotify drops API access
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 14 May 2020
Following Spotify’s really fucking annoying decision to boot third party DJing apps off its API, another of those apps – Pacemaker – has announced its future plans. Unlike Djay, which plans to switch to other streaming services, Pacemaker is going to start directly licensing music itself.
The first DJ app to partner with Spotify, way back in 2014, Pacemaker is less a tool for serious DJs, and more about automating the mixing of playlists.
Of Spotify’s change in policy regarding DJing apps, Pacemaker CEO Jonas Norberg says in a new blog post: “Spotify has been a great partner and we’re saddened by the news, but we of course respect their business decision”.
He goes on: “For a long time we’ve been looking at how to bring the Pacemaker experience to more users, and it’s now clear that the only viable way forward is by licensing music directly into Pacemaker. We haven’t started music licensing before now as it is a daunting task for even the most well versed and something that needs absolute commitment, but we’ve now been given the perfect reason to do so!”
“We’re working on licensing a deep catalogue based on the tracks that are used in Pacemaker mixtapes”, he goes on. “This will ensure that the majority of the hundreds of thousands of mixtapes in Pacemaker that our users have invested so much time and energy into will continue to work. There will be a few tracks missing occasionally, but should this happen, our AI will step in and mix the neighbouring tracks together, smoothing the experience. And we’re going to continue our licensing efforts, filling the gaps”.
Once Pacemaker switches to its own catalogue, the free version of the app will effectively be shut down – requiring users to sign up to its existing £4.49 a month premium option after a seven day free trial. While it will no longer source content from Spotify, it plans to offer the option to match playlists from that streaming service and Apple Music.
Spotify will actually withdraw access to its API for DJ apps on 1 Jul. Whether this is an indication that Spotify plans to launch a service like this itself isn’t clear. Earlier this week it did launch a new feature allowing users to sync their listening remotely.
