Spotify Acquires, Discontinues Serato, Traktor, Rekordbox DJ Softwares

The new owners of the three popular DJ softwares will discontinue all DJ software, and aims to replace all DJ sets with curated, automixed Spotify playlists by early 2020.

Say Goodbye To DJ Software

In a surprise move, the corporation behind the largest online streaming music platform has made a strong move to eliminate the tools that hundreds of thousands of DJs use to perform.

Announced early on the first of April at Spotify’s headquarters in Stockholm, the NYSE-listed company outright purchased three big DJ softwares from their corporate holders. Pioneer DJ sold to streaming giant the entire Rekordbox preparation and performance platform as well as the complete hardware division; Serato handed over Serato DJ Pro and Intro; and Native Instruments sold their complete Traktor division.

All three companies have made significant investment in in music production – and will expand their offerings in production software. An employee at Native Instruments remarked off the record to DJTT: “We always joked around the office that DJs who don’t produce couldn’t ever be successful – now nothing could be more true!” As a part of the deal, any tracks produced using Serato Studio, Komplete/Maschine, or a Toraiz device will get priority in Spotify’s recommendation engine.

DJ Software To Self-Delete

The deal between Spotify and each of the DJ software companies has been coming from some time. Surprisingly, if any of us read the long legal EULAs that pop up when installing any DJ software, we’d know that at any time the companies reserved the right to hit a remote “self-deletion” switch to delete the apps from DJs’ computers. The next update to each software will trigger the deletion – so for Serato DJ, next month; for Rekordbox, later this year; and for Traktor, sometime in the next two to four years.

We’re still not sure what will happen to DJ song libraries, but we have heard rumors that Apple Music and Algoriddim are in similar talks – so if your entire library is “safe” in iTunes, think again.

Vinyl-Only DJs Rejoice

There’s one group of DJs who aren’t worried: turntable-loving record collectors. After DJ software fades away, only these “real DJs” will remain, and you can expect to never hear the end of it from them.

April Fools, obviously.
Your DJ software won’t be deleting itself, no one bought Serato/Traktor/Rekordbox, and all of your DJ sets will (probably) not be replaced by Spotify playlists.