Pioneers monopoly on the club DJ market
My thoughts.
If you don’t want to pay the $ then don’t buy the product. Plenty of other choices out there… If you want it that much then pay? Simple price theory yeah?
Pio gear isn’t mandatory.
I guess the point that I forgot to make is that I think all their gear below the 900s/2000s isn’t very good. Its either obsolete technology wise (Who still listens to CDs as a medium? So why should we, as DJs, use them when DJing should be ahead of the general consumer market) or shitty to play on (CDJ-350? come on).
I feel that DJ’s choose to use the CDJs because most big performers use it.
The only real reason big performers use it in my opinion is because they do not have to carry a bunch of shit everywhere. They only need a USB drive with their tracks, and their cans. Almost every club, if not every big club already has CDJs. If you have a medium that almost all big DJs like to use (at least EDM wise) such as the CDJs they’ll prosper for a long long time.
I don’t understand why it matters than the gear below the 900’s are not very good? Cause that ain’t the gear thats “industry standard”
Its gear that is stripped of features and made with poorer quality to target a lower price bracket.
If it was really good then all it would do is cannabilise 900 sales which would erode their profit margin.
I learnt to mix on CDJ 1000mk3’s but I would never personally want to own them. I got better things to buy with my money and I am more than happy rocking DVS on 1210’s.
Plenty of excellent big name DJ’s will bring their own laptop + soundcard to play DVS.
Listening to a CD is pretty boring, they generally just sit there being a piece of plastic.
I still listen to music that has been licensed to me via CD. I know many other people that should. The medium of delivery isn’t important.
I suspect you think my 1200’s are obsolete, too? Perhaps I should throw all my vinyl away …
Not just that, but the big shots in the industry dont even carry their equipment and also use them because thats what they have been on for a long time and thats where they’re comfy at.
A monoply means that a company makes the consumer only use their product and there are no other choices. There are plenty of choices. If you think something is superior and everything else is inferior and not worth it, thats your opinion, it doesn’t make the company have a monopoly on the market. Ita like saying Sony makes the best TVs and all the other TVs suck so Sony has a monopoly on TVs.
No a monopoly does not mean that. Microsoft was declared a monopoly in the legal sense. However Apple where selling more expensive products that included there OS. Its a difficult case as apple don’t sell there OS in the same way microsoft do. Lets not get into that.
However the claim was that people had to buy there software and systems to be able to operate in business. At the time Apple sucked at networking and in my opinion still do. BTW I am writing this from a macbook pro! However Microsofts market share was over 90% I think it is still around that figure. Even though there are free alternatives people still feel asif they need windows and so do manufactures.
So from this do Pioneer have a monopoly in clubs?
Do they have over 90% market share?
Do clubs buy pioneer because they feel
they have no choice?
From this I would say yes they do have a monopoly. Like microsoft I feel that strong hold is loosing its grip tho. Hip Hop djs are going back to vinyl with timecode and there are loads of edm guys coming though on midi controllers. Pioneer have in no way innovated with there midi controller offerings.
I can’t see any1 getting a monopoly with midi controllers I can see NI having a very significant share of the market tho
I have made the prediction many times that the 1200 will outlive the cdj! and I stand by that
One place pioneer are still doing well on is there mixers even if cdjs go away in the next 15 years mixers will stay as vinyl is still the only way to go for scratch djs. The nexus 900 is an excellent platform for dvs. I think pioneer will dominate the mixers market for a long tie to come
Not at all, turntables allow us to interact with music in a unique way. (I guess you could argue the same for CDs as you have to insert a CD instead of selecting a track from a digital storage device but once playing, it is the same).
Much agreed. CDs do not offer anything unique except a hassle and IMO less reliability than a USB drive. 1200s (or any TTs), using vinyl or DVS, are (arguably) necessary for a part of DJing that isn’t going anywhere (turntablism).
Performance has nothing to do with a monopoly. The actual definition of monopoly is “exclusive control of the market supply of a product or service” A club DJ has a choice, a club owner has a choice, if pioneer is the best and I’m not saying it is or isn’t, but if a DJ or club owner considers it the best and only wants “the best” then they buy Pioneer. It has nothing to do with Pioneer’s business pratices that is somehow cornering the market. If they make a great product that people want to buy it means just that, they are making a great product that people want to buy. Pioneer is considered “industry standard” but being “industry standard” doesn’t make it a monopoly by the true definition of the word.
matt blaze you do make a good point. I don’t think the word has such a clear cut definition as it used to. I refer back to microsoft being declared a monopoly. So do you personally feel that this was an unfair and unjust ruling against them as they did have competition in the form of apple (who they even gave 100 million to, to keep them in business) there where also others. It just business’s felt they had to use microsoft products to be able to perform there business to its maximum. I would argue that club owners feel they have to have pioneer to get the maximum from there performers as like microsoft its the industry standard.
I was going by the legal definition based on past court cases. Thinking about it tho maybe they where wrong to declare microsoft a monopoly as people still had free choice. Its not there fault they had the best product at the best price point. Same with Pioneer. However going by the microsoft model yes they do have a monopoly going by common sense no they don’t as there are plenty other good products out there such as the denon dns 3700 almost half the price.
I think its too late now for any other manufacturer to take over the cdj market. The mixer market could easily be taken over by providing a mixer that has all the normal gubbins on the back but also a panel above ins and out of all the stuff on the back so djs can easily switch over. As I cannot see a mixer in the foreseeable future that supports both traktor scratch and serato.
If I win the lottery 2nite i might build such a mixer
If you wanna lose the software, xone in the middle accompanied by some technics. But also with this, like you said love the gear, don’t love the €
I really don’t understand where this thread came from, but I’ll chime in that I think the problem is that Pioneer’s products suck.
The mixers are not in the same league as similarly priced competitors (Rane, A&H, Rodec, Formula Sound, etc.) and boutique makers (E&S, Alpha). They feel like toys and eschew quality for BS effects that never sound good and are only fun to play with if you’re really drunk or fucking stupid. At least they figured out that it’s easy to make a digital mixer not sound like crap, like the DJM500 and 600 did.
Their CDJs are the best on the planet. Period. That doesn’t make them good. And they’re so insanely overpriced that I honestly don’t know why anyone owns them.
Pioneer is an amazing marketing firm that forgot to outsource the engineering to someone who gave a damn.