Welcome to the DJ Tech Reviews DJ Statistics Survey 2022.
In this survey, we set out to answer some basic questions about modern DJ life. We asked over 500 DJs 12 questions about their DJing habits, behavior, and general work-life-DJ balance.
We then took this data, analyzed it and broke it down into some easily digestible charts, and added our input to the data.
This year we asked 519 DJs to take part in our survey.
Without further ado, let’s press PLAY!
DJ Statistics Study: Section 1
Before we dig into the core 12 questions we wanted to get a really clear idea of who we were actually talking to!
Let’s start with age.
We all know that you can be a DJ at any age and that certainly shows here. There is a wide spread of DJs of all ages, ranging from young teenagers all the way through to the 65+ age group.
However, the peak age certainly sits between 25 and 44 years old.
A whopping 68% of all those surveyed fell into that age bracket.
Next up. Sex.
No surprises here.
The DJ demographic was predominantly male. Hopefully, we’ll see some movement here and it’ll be interesting to see over the next couple of years if more female DJs are entering the DJ scene.
Where are You from?
Lastly, we wanted to see where everyone was from.
We knew the big 3 of the USA, UK, and Canada would come in super-strong but it was also brilliant to see such a varied bunch of nationalities take part in this year’s study.
DJ Statistics Study: Section 2
So here we go.
Each DJ answered 12 questions.
What follows are the data charts based completely on the DJ sample responses. It really does give a valuable insight into understanding the modern-day DJ in these changing times.
How long have you been DJing for?
We kick things off with a hugely popular question and one that generally pops up when fellow DJs meet up!
We averaged the answers out from the 500+ DJs to see how long everyone had been DJing.
The responses spread from 23% just starting through to 35% of you who have been DJing for more than a decade.
This is a testament to how appealing becoming a DJ still is, and how long we also ‘get the DJ bug’ for!
How frequently do you practice DJ’ing?
If you are a regular reader of our DJ Tech Review website articles you will know that we always try and hammer home the importance of DJ practice.
Practice certainly does make perfect.
We asked…
It is great to see a massive 54% of our surveyed DJs practice either every day or at least three times a week, and a further 28% practice at least once a week.
How long do you practice for? (per mix session)
Continuing with the super-important topic of DJ practice.
We also wanted to find out how long DJs practiced. How many hours is the average mix session?
The mix-time spread here was quite interesting to see.
Under 30-minute practice sessions were very low at only 7% whilst 47% of you opted for a mix session of between 30 and 90 minutes.
23% of the DJ group like to participate in a mix session of 2 hours or more!
Which DJ skills do you regularly practice?
Beatmatching, scratching, beat juggling?
What DJ skills are most commonly practiced.
We asked the DJs…
The core skill that came out on top with 19% was beatmatching.
Learning about using DJ software, looping, and other DJ techniques averaged out at a broad 61%.
What did surprise us was the very low 8% of DJs focussing on technical skills such as scratching and beat juggling.
What Type of DJ Are You?
Not surprisingly, there is a big spread of DJ types here.
While the biggest group, at 27%, identifies as bedroom DJs, we also have a solid percentage of wedding/corporate DJs, DJ/producers, radio DJs, and pub/bar DJs.
23% of the sample surveyed also identified as a club or touring DJs.
How often do you play out?
Arguably, this is the stand-out goal for most DJs and it is super-positive to see that so many of those we surveyed are getting the chance to play out occasionally, some even regularly.
A healthy 23% are playing out at least once a week.
Around 50% of you are playing sporadically and on the other end of the spectrum, 26% are still yet to play out.
How long is your preferred DJ set time?
Is there such a thing as a perfect set time?
Do DJs want longer or shorter DJ sets?
Our results found that the sweet spot for a set time duration is around 1 to 2 hours.
55% of DJs opted for this DJ set time duration.
What DJ software do you use?
Moving on to DJ software.
Rekordbox DJ and Serato DJ came took the top spots as your most popular platforms.
Traktor and Virtual DJ are battling away for third and fourth positions.
Engine PRIME is making some moves and It will be interesting to see where they will sit in 2023’s data.
It is also exciting to see a whole host of other platforms being regularly used in the DJ software space.
How often do you stream your DJ sets online?
We wanted to ask about this as the recent pandemic period saw a huge acceleration of DJs streaming their DJ sets online.
Is DJ streaming still popular?
Have DJs been put off streaming by the social media platforms’ copyright infringement restrictions?
We asked the question…
The numbers speak for themselves.
A whopping 47% of DJs now never stream.
What music genre do you play?
Moving on to music.
We could have predicted that the responses to this question would be very open and varied.
We were not let down.
Not surprisingly The most popular genres are House, Techno, and Hip hop
Open format, house music variants, and a varied selection of other dance music genres are also popular DJ sounds.
What DJ pools (subscription services) do you use?
DJ pools and subscription services are becoming more and more popular if you are wanting to access a bulk amount of music.
We asked our 519 DJs…
It was interesting to see that a whopping 78% would use a DJ pool or an online subscription.
Beatport was always going to be a popular subscription service with 20% of our sample group picking Beatport LINK.
However, the most popular DJ pool was BPM supreme followed by MY MP3 Pool, DJ City, and Digital DJ pool.
What is Your preferred DJ gear manufacturer?
This study is very much orientated toward DJ behavior.
However, we wanted to throw in a very open and general question about DJ manufacturer choice.
Pioneer DJ has been the gold standard for many years but other manufacturers are now certainly becoming more innovative and releasing highly competitive DJ equipment.
So, what manufacturers are DJs leaning towards these days?
As you can see by the feedback, Pioneer DJ still holds onto a big share of the DJ technology market, and deservedly so, but it will also be interesting to see how these numbers develop in another 12 to 24 months.
Pioneer DJ continues to be an innovative market leader, regularly releasing groundbreaking and diverse DJ hardware, and software.
However, what is changing is the fact that companies, such as Rane, Denon DJ, Hercules, and Numark are also now regularly injecting innovative and popular new equipment into the DJ tech space.
Exciting times for DJs and DJ technology.
Let the games commence!
