As you may know, earlier this year Spotify announced that DJ applications will no longer have access to music via Spotify Premium – which would have been fatal to the Pacemaker community. We evaluated our alternatives and understood that we had to take on the mammoth task to bring music directly to Pacemaker via our own licenses and remove the dependency on Spotify Premium or any other service.
I’m happy to tell you that we have now achieved this goal, and millions of directly licensed tracks are now available in Pacemaker.
We’re a small team and licensing music is an ongoing process. Right now our catalog includes content from Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, and it should cover a lot of the tracks in your mixes, but I know that many of you are crate diggers with a liking for the rare grooves. For you, chances are that there will be gaps to fill – and also gaps in your old mixes where tracks will be missing.
To solve this, our main focus during the coming months is to add more content from interesting labels, and over time, more and more of the amazing mixes in the community will start to work again. If you like, you can help us in the process by using an in-app feature that lets you indicate the tracks you would like us to license. We’ve also added a feature allowing you to mirror your playlists across from your Spotify or Apple Music accounts.
We realise that this might be frustrating but please support us through this process – you’re an important part of our community – and Pacemaker will be on a much more stable foundation on the other side.
Spotify has agreed to allow the Pacemaker app to keep working with Spotify as it does now, while we transition into the new experience where music will come directly via our own licenses.
Some time ago, it was announced that third-party DJ applications will no longer have access to music via Spotify from July 1st. At Pacemaker we’ve been working on bringing music directly to the app via our own licenses, which will remove the need for a Spotify Premium subscription, making the Pacemaker experience better than ever.
Unfortunately licensing music is a mammoth task and it takes time. Spotify has kindly enough given us more time and so the Pacemaker app will keep working with Spotify as it does now while we transition into the new experience with music coming directly via our own licenses.
Once we transition to the new experience, if you’re a Spotify user, you’ll still be able to sync your playlists to Pacemaker so that you can easily mix with the music you love. Apple Music users will also be able to sync their playlists, which is the most requested feature to date. We’ll work to add support for more music streaming services post launch.
We’ll update you again as we get closer to our launch.
It was recently announced that third-party DJ applications will no longer have access to music via Spotify. This decision will affect Pacemaker but we’re working on bringing music directly to the app via our own licenses, making the Pacemaker experience better than ever.
Pacemaker was the first DJ app to partner with Spotify when we launched Pacemaker for iPad back in February 2014. Since then we put millions of tracks at the fingertips of users, removing another big barrier and making it possible for more people to experience the joys of djing – creating hundreds of thousands of DJ mixes in the process.
Spotify has been a great partner and we’re saddened by the news, but we of course respect their business decision.
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. 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.
When crafting new mixtapes or listening to existing ones, no music streaming service will be required. Instead everybody will be able to listen to or create mixes based on the millions of tracks that we’re licensing, as long as they’re either a Pacemaker+ subscriber or using a free trial.
If you’re a Spotify user, you’ll still be able to sync your playlists to Pacemaker so that you can easily mix with the music you love. For Apple Music users, we plan to add support for you too, matching your playlists to our catalogue – with the possibility for us to add more services after launch.
We’re still working on the finer details so stay tuned for more information.
Your regular dosage of improvements with a few new features!
Pacemaker 2.5.6
Here’s what’s new!
– iPad: Longer Loop Lengths
Loop beats in a track like a pro using the new 2 beat, 16 and 32 beat options on iPad. 🔁
– iPhone: Explicit Songs Filter
You can now turn off the playback of explicit tracks in Pacemaker for iPhone. Switched on, we’ll mix over tracks containing explicit content 🎧 – toggle this in the settings screen.
– Minor and major bug fixes
We’ve squished other bugs throughout the app.
Our friends, the band Royale Avenue would love to hear their track ‘The Rhythm Is You’ included in your mix. Your mix should hold a minimum of 10 tracks. Use hashtag #therhythmisyou. Competition closes Sunday night October 7th at 11:59 PDT.
Winner will be selected based on amount of plays, likes and effort.
Around the world, tributes have been pouring in for Tim Bergling who was better known under his perfomance name of Avicii, after it emerged that last week that he had passed away suddenly at the age of 28. His first major hit “Levels” was released in 2011 which reached the top 10 in over 17 countries in and around Europe. We at Pacemaker are saddened to hear this news, especially as we too are based in Stockholm where Tim was born, but we know his music will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come across the world. 💔
A significant number of people in the Pacemaker community have left their own tributes releasing mixtapes celebrating his work in bringing electronic dance music to the mainstream. We’d like to share these with you below:
Say hello to Pacemaker’s new Community Manager: Phillip, who had a chat with Emőke to introduce himself. Meet your new best friend in the app – the amazing @phillip!
@phillip
Hey Phillip! Everyone is super excited to find out more about Pacemaker’s new Community Manager! Please tell us a bit about yourself, who is Phillip?
Thanks for the warm welcome Emőke! Back in 2008 I discovered Pacemaker when the company Tonium originally launched the Pacemaker Device, a handheld DJ device that let you mix music on the move. It was so unique, there was nothing else like it at the time. I love the original device and still use it today. At the time of course, I had no-idea that this device would lead to me eventually working for Pacemaker, but over the years I gradually met members of the Pacemaker team.
You’re no stranger to the community, since you’ve been already working with us behind the scenes…
That’s right. Since 2013 I’ve worked as a customer support assistant for Pacemaker, therefore it’s possible if you’ve emailed or tweeted us (@Pacemaker) with a technical question then we might have already spoken. Some members of the Pacemaker community might also recognise me helping out with testing in our Pacemaker Beta program.
What are you most excited about in your new role as Community Manager?
From helping with customer support, I know the Pacemaker community has always had some really talented and really passionate people within it and I’m really excited to meet more of these people in this new role. You’ve certainly made a lasting impact on the Pacemaker community Emőke, so I’m sure I’ve got a lot to live up to!
What do you do in your spare time outside of working for Pacemaker?
I love music and performing as a mobile DJ in my local area is something I’ve done for a number of years. As well as this I’ve helped out behind the scenes at a number of festivals and events, usually operating lights and sound equipment. Pacemaker is such an awesome company to work for because of all the new music you can discover on a daily basis.
What kind of music do you prefer and what kind of mixes can the community expect from you in the future?
I genuinely love listening to a range of different genres of music and having performed at weddings and private parties it’s great to be able to switch up the mood of a party by playing everything from 80’s disco to the latest House and RnB. Hopefully the community will see this in my mixes. If I had to pick a single genre or artist though, the genre would be House music. I might have a bit of an addiction to the duo known as Disclosure. I think I have seen them in concert about 3 times now. 🙈
What’s your favourite feature of the Pacemaker app?
I think the Pacemaker studio is awesome. Being able to zoom in and make manual adjustments to the transitions really allows for some serious creative possibilities. I can’t wait to share more mixes with the community like you’ve done Emőke.
You’ve also shared your very first mix as community manager in the app. What could you tell us about the selection?
That’s right! So with this first mix, my aim was to take you back on a musical journey through the years. I’ve tried to select some of my favourite tunes from each decade, starting with some 90’s classics and gradually bringing you back to the current day, perhaps with a few surprises on the way. 😛 Hopefully there’s something for everyone in there.
How many mixes can you create and share in one year? According to our Pacemaker users… never enough! We were curious to see who posted the most last year, so here comes the top 10. It’s still not too late to start sharing if you want to make it to the top this year! 😎
If you tap on their profile picture, you can listen to their latest mix.
We absolutely love it when the Pacemaker community has a lot to discuss. No matter if it’s just a supportive thought, an amazing transition or an outstanding track that needs to be complimented, comments are highly appreciated. Let’s see which 10 mixes sparked the most comments last year!
If you want to (re)listen, just click on the mix in your iPhone.
