Would itunes be suitable for DJ-ing

[Gio850]

Sorry to ask such a stupid question but I'm considering buying an Apple laptop and buying itunes from the Apple store to play at a dance through an active speaker system.
I need to be able to make up many one hour playlists of my own selecting of songs, and play them without an internet connection.
No mixing necessary, but would be nice to be able to stop a playlist in the middle and switch to another playlist and back again.
Less important but nice, would be the ability to resave a song at a different bpm than as bought from itunes, to make it more dancable.
Would be nice if there were columns in the playlists to tell the bpm and perhaps a column for a comment of my own. Less important but nice would be the ability to display that comment automatically on an electric sign as the song began.
I totally don't know what I'm doing here, have never used itunes, ipod etc, so any answers would be appreciated, especially if itunes are good for DJ-ing w/o an internet connection, if other "playlist organizing software" would be advisable (examples), any other tips. Thanks.

[raveen69]

i think it will be a great idea. I used mine a few times to DJ home parties and a wedding last year and it was great. I use a program called "DJAY (http://www.algoriddim.net/)" while it was great while it was free (pre v2.0) the new one is even nicer and i did end up purchasing it. There are alot of other programs that you can use to DJ with the mac also.


http://pure-mac.com/mp3.html (http://pure-mac.com/mp3.html) look at the DJ Section.

[Jay Carr]

Also check out Tool Player.

[Gio850]

Thanks Raveen, that's good news. i'll see what I can find out about "DJAY" or just get the free version to see what it can do.

[Gio850]

Thanks Zalister, I haven't found Tool Player yet, my computer search skills not that great, but did find the DJAY 1.2 version at
http://www.macmusic.org/software/version.php/lang/en/id/8512/
in case anyone else is interested.
Anyway, I can't download it yet...gotta get an Apple computer first.
I'm looking at the Mac Book w/ 2.4GHz and 250MB and hoping the screen size is okay for DJ work.

[styrafome]

Would be nice if there were columns in the playlists to tell the bpm and perhaps a column for a comment of my own.

View/View Options, turn on Beats Per Minute, turn on Comment

[cwatson81]

It would be an excellent app for DJ'ing. I have seen it done many of times. Make sure you turn on the crossfade in Preferences -> Playback

[Gio850]

Thanks styrafome and cwatson, i assume the bpm and comment columns you refer to are in the itunes playlist software. I should wait and see if that's all i need then...keep it simple. Can't wait to get that computer and get started. Any ideas about getting comments to an electronic sign?

[styrafome]

Well, opening iTunes in Script Editor reveals that comment is a property of track, so it appears that it's possible to AppleScript the track comment to any app you can script to display and manipulate text. As long as you or a friend knows how to AppleScript.

[Gio850]

Thanks styrafome, yes I know someone who would do that for me. That answers most of my questions. I'm ready to spend some money and get to it. "Thank you" to the forum and it's helpful members.