Methodshop.com has profiled the burgeoning trend of “iPodding” or “MP3jing,” where professional DJs eschew their traditional vinyl records and turntables and use a pair of iPods instead.
Writer “Jlove” documents what recently happened at an East London club called Dreambagsjaguarshoes during an event pithily called noWax.
“On noWax nights, mp3j’s bring their iPods and wait for the automated projector above the DJ booth to flash their number. They then plug-in and mix three songs back-to-back against another mp3j. noWax is a public competition very similar to ‘Rap Battles’, a la Eminem’s movie 8 Mile. Whoever doesn’t get booed off stage and mixes the best set of songs wins,” explained Jlove.
London isn’t the only place where this is happening — New York City clubs are also catching on to the MP3J trend, where some have started “iPod Nights” that allow amateur DJs to come up and spin for the crowd.
MP3Jing has a few drawbacks, according to the author. It’s not as fun for the crowd to watch someone playing with a pair of iPods as it is to watch someone working turntables; pitch control can be a problem as well. On the other hand, it’s a lot more portable than carrying around decks and crates of records.
Jlove even offers Apple a couple of suggestions for future iPod designs, like a scratching feature and beats per minute auto-sensing.