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Serato Releases an App that Automates House Party DJing

It's for those times when "no one wants to be the guy up there DJing to five people."
Photo courtesy of Serato

Music software company, Serato, released its newest program today aimed not at gear geeks, but at house party hosts—an app that does the DJing for you.The New Zealand-based company manufactures some of the most widely-used DJ software on the market, and claims credit for pioneering time stretching and laptop DJing.

Pyro is an iPhone app that takes a playlist created from your iTunes or Spotify account that it then fades in and out between tracks. Removing any awkward stops, or track mixups, it's simply a playlist and a press of the button. Here's how it works: the program uses an algorithm to beat match two tracks with the same or similar tempos, slowing or raising the speeds of the proceeding track to make the fit. And if two tempos are too different, Pyro has a built-in fader tool.

In a statement made to the Verge, Serato CEO and co-founder, AJ Bertenshaw, said the app is not intended to replace DJs. "If you think this is taking the job of a DJ, then you don't really know what a DJ does," he said. Instead, it's for when you have a few friends over and "no one wants to be the guy up there DJing to five people," he said.

The app is currently compatible with all iOS platforms (including Apple Watch), and Spotify, the latter automatically seeks out new songs on its recommended list after the current playlist cycles through.