About a year ago Pioneer announced a new social media network for DJs called Kuvo which links clubs, DJs, and audiences together. The system has been implemented around the world in many countries where clubs, DJs, and audiences alike have been connecting and sharing music with one another through their online social network. As of October 15th, Pioneer re-launched the Kuvo platform which makes us wonder what has changed and why Pioneer really wants the world to know Kuvo exists. Read more inside about the re-launch of Kuvo and how the network aims to revolutionize everyone’s club experience…again.
Kuvo’s Re-launch
Kuvo soft launched earlier this year and officially re-launched at the Amstedam Dance Event convention. Right now the system is only being used in a handful of cities but Pioneer is offering to have Kuvo installed at no charge for a limited time to select clubs. Once installed, the system opens up more opportunity for a greater bond between DJs, playing in Kuvo clubs, and audiences with the Kuvo app on their smart-phones.
For Clubs
- Club goers can find exclusive Kuvo clubs within the app.
- Clubs can be followed and rated via the app.
- Promoters can send messages regarding events directly to Kuvo users.
For DJs
- Playlists are uploaded in real-time.
- Audience can like and comment on tracks, giving DJs instant feedback.
- DJs can send messages to fans through their track’s metadata.
For Audiences
- It is easy to follow and receive updates from both local and touring DJs.
- Tracks played throughout the night can be bought straight from the app.
- People can see who is DJing and what they’re playing before even walking into the club.
- Photos can be shared and cataloged within the app to record the experience.
Kuvo has a lot to offer and it is clear that Pioneer wants the brand to succeed, even with its slow growth in the past year. Globally, almost 2,000 people are on Kuvo as clubbers and only 278 clubs are registered. Currently over 100,000 DJs are registered for Kuvo but it is hard to say how many are actually playing out considering the small amount of clubs that actually support the system currently.
Kuvo: The Social Way to Play and Party
While not much has changed since the original launch besides the website and app, Kuvo has matured as a product and network. Many clubs have the Pioneer hardware already and just need an internet connection to be on board with this new social style of djing. The re-launch is aimed at the club experience but could potentially be a bigger impact at festivals. More and more festivals are being streamed online so it would make sense to have Kuvo implemented so people around the world could connect in new ways with their favorite DJs even if they are not at the event.
Learn more and sign up for Kuvo here.
What do you think? Is Kuvo really going to transform a club experience?
Reading “People can see who is DJing and what they’re playing before even walking into the club” made me almost vomit. So no more trusting the DJ to anticipate the mood and choosing the right tracks at the right time?
When I prepare a 1 – 3 hour set I preselect a lot of tracks. I may even plan my first hour track by track. But when I realize that the tracks won’t work I choose different tracks on the fly. So why in the hell should a DJ (not a live performer who has a fixed set of tracks to play) preselect tracks for the night and show them before he even sets foot into the club. Is it realy that what matters nowadays?!
Either I trust the DJ because I’ve already seen her or him or I trust the club in choosing the right DJ. I don’t effing care which tracks she or he plays, I just want to listen/party/freak out to an enjoyable set.
That’s not what it means.
It means that, before you get inside the club, you can find out who is currently DJing and what they are currently playing.
That’s exactly what I wrote.
Go ahead and add the music police to this. You can bet they will use this to see what clubs are current on their licensing and what DJs are playing outside of that licensing. Just think of those remixes we make to be DIFFERENT from other DJs… they’ll have their hands all in your pocket. What they SHOULD have done with this app is put nothing but DJs on there, a vetted background, give them ratings (1 to 10 stars), and make it a DJ union! Each rating has a different pay range. Clubs and regular people can look up they type of DJ they want for their specific event and book. Elite clubs would have contracts that allow them slightly discounted rates but they agree to ONLY book DJs on the app. Would save a lot of undercutting and crap DJs. It would show clubs that there are levels to different DJs and you get what you pay for.
The part I like the most is about the path to better pay for Publishing/Performance royalties making their way to the right people. If you are behind this, but not per say KUVO, check out AFEM (http://www.associationforelectronicmusic.org/). The rest is cool, but someone could probably just write a Facebook app that can tap MIDI or something;)
The reason for the huge number of DJs being on Kuvo is not because they use it, but because you need a Kuvo login to use the new Rekordbox software. You can’t download it without one.
[…] because of lack of qualification then I suggest doing some volunteer work. Why? Because nowadays experience is more important then qualifications. You will be surprised to know that many graduates can not […]
“Globally, almost 2,000 people are on Kuvo as clubbers and only 278 clubs are registered. Currently over 100,000 DJs are registered for Kuvo but it is hard to say how many are actually playing out considering the small amount of clubs that actually support the system currently.”
Those ratios really need to change to allow an effective level of interaction. Also, @deanzulueta:disqus , I always wondered why the Pioneer Corporation parent company allowed two very similar brands to refer to two very different things: KURO followed a few years later by KUVO, for plasma televisions (now long discontinued) and a music community.
Does it work with non-Pio gear then? Because Richie Hawtin isn’t exactly known for his usage of Pioneer gear.
Yeah thought it was odd getting Richie on, Of course im sure it comes down to the fact he was paid to talk about it right enough 😉
This is someone’s dance club metrics program that is designed to track everything, but is a solution looking for a problem.
No, normal people in dance clubs do not care enough about the songs playing enough to get the playlist later. The people who do this are upcoming DJs with no sense of personal style, they just want to be popular (by playing all the popular hits.
No, the number of people commenting on a track does not indicate popularity of the track, and it certainly doesn’t track how people groove.
I see this as someone’s big data solution being applied somewhere it’s not wanted to people who don’t know they don’t want it, because certain business people think optimization of experience comes from only having the best experiences back-to-back… they forgot about the fact that emotions are very hard to quantify and need to be dynamic in order to provide a meaningful experience.
In short: Fail
Never ever!
Why does everything have to be a “revolution”? I go to the club to forget about all this dumb shit and just dance to some tunes for a while.
You guys disagree but i think it is a great idea…
If you are a producer you would like to get paid, and underground dance music does not pay enough to the producer…
Would someone like having his music played and see the royalties going to those ho rule mtv top 10!!!
As a producer wouldn´t you like to have your tracks sold to people other than dj´s????
The system would work wonders to rights societies, paying royalties to those ho should be paying and in the right amounts… Not based on statistics..
Now you guys can bash me eheheh
Nobody should bash you, that’s a really good point! I didn’t put that in the article because there is a lot to talk about royalties but you are absolutely right. This app could open a lot of people up to tracks by lesser known producers and give both DJs and producers more fans. Also, royalty tracking would be perfect because every set is always recorded into Kuvo!
I already buy my tracks. If some company is trying to renegotiate the social contract that dance clubs have with music, they should recognize that battle as already lost.
People have Shazam, and they can talk to a DJ if they want a specific track name. KUVO appears to be everything DJs do not want; Copy my sets and sell them to other people without including me? SURE! Post my set list so someone else can play them instead of me? SURE! Make me pay royalties for each time a song (or part thereof) is played? SURE! Give some Brogrammer all the credit for spending my time and energy putting my tracks together? SURE!
What are the upsides to using this program again?
The Kuvo system currently doesn’t have the DJ pay for tracks that are played. Based on the meta data it offers a place for users to buy the track.
In the article I am not trying to convince people to jump on board with Kuvo. I just wanted to show what Pioneer was doing and showcase what Kuvo does. Personally, Kuvo offers a lot of interesting possibilities to share music and heighten the experience of the club and I think it is really interesting. Yet, I don’t know if I would actually pull my phone out in the club or want all my tracks recorded. The idea of Kuvo is really interesting just not sure if it is all for the right reasons. I’m with you 100% when it comes to protecting DJs and artists.
Will not support.
Yeah, I think it’s time to write an app that exploits app writers looking to exploit something.
oh yeah
when we do all the things, what we can do, and forget to entire our thoughts for the necessary things, maybe it becomes an silly culture
hey yo
namaste bitches
in Pula (croatia) we had an old antique arena for dj-battles
mmmm…. nooo no thanks this sounds more like a gimmick to get people to buy music then anything else. Plus as djs we are really careful as to what we play and whats in our music collection. I mean we have a carefully built arsenal of music and some of that music are close guarded secrets, that we only share with a very small group of people if we share them at all. So to be willing to share my musical secret weapons with everyone just so they can go and buy them idk something about that doesn’t feel right to me… not after I’ve spent hours searching and listening for the perfect beat that delivers the kind of sound I want to put out. I’m all about technology and exploring new ideas and stuff but just sounds like a marketing tool for making sales to me.
I agree, u can’t just share your secret remix track with everybody. If I have to use this, I’d name my secret track “ID” haha
If its your remix/edit they are not going to be able to get the track unless you, or someone you gave it to, makes it available. Just the fact that someone knows what it is doesn’t give them anything at all.
I see where you are coming from Moises. The cool thing about Kuvo is you can set the names to whatever you want in Rekordbox so that those secret tracks are kept as IDs as romeo0119 said below. I’m kinda there with you about the whole making sales argument but on the flip side, I love sharing my playlists after sets so other people can find those hidden gems for their own collections. Sure, other DJs can get a hold of my tracks too but I personally love the aspect of sharing music with commercialism kept to a minimum.
I think a DJ has the right to share their songs with whomever they choose
yea, there’s a lot of “ripping off” that goes on in dj land. and more people that will defend the stealer than the creator. thank you for your comments here on this topic, and for explaining what this software truly is. but I ask, aren’t set lists just “ideas”…isn’t it ok to steal ideas from someone if they don’t have the capital to realize them. I mean if the djs are to dumb or lazy to make money from their lists, what’s wrong with someone taking their thoughts i.e., “which songs sound good and go good together” and doing something tangible with them? you can’t patent ideas, they are free game right??
I see what you are saying but this doesn’t actually record the sets. It records what tracks are played and organizes it into a playlist based off the meta-data.
The DJ could always change the meta data to protect tracks and if Pioneer wanted to sell sets they would have to curate the tracks based on the playlist.
Sure, Pioneer will come with some commercialism but other apps like Richie Hawtins Twitter.DJ accomplish sharing music without a big sense of commercialism around it.
Yeah, this has the icky stench of “entitlement through apps” to it. certain people believe that if they can figure something out about other people’s stuff with an app, and they can make money from that app, that the person doing that thing does not deserve any compensation, respect, or dignity.
I call this type of SaaS thing “App rape for hire” because it violates people doing things and shifts compensation from one person to another. Think: rapist hitman.
lmao rapist hitman… epic
Hmm…I though real djing was all about shining a light on good music and sharing this with the world. Sure I get that you spend time on track selection and that is your work and effort, but if you are getting paid gigs off the back of tracks produced by others, then you have an absolute duty as a dj to acknowledge who the artist is. Otherwise its kind of like plagiarism. You are taking credit for others work. Quite simply it isnt your musical secret to keep.
What a pure commercial bullshit! Smartphones have absolutely no place on dancefloors!
I am more than happy, that one of my favourite clubs goes a completely different way, by putting stickers on smartphone cameras and discouraging smartphone usage on the dancefloor. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bzvti4xCcAAgJPc.jpg The very definition of a nightclub is the fact, that you can feel at home there, do whatever you want, feel safe. Not having a smartphone or camera in your face all the time!
How do they enforce this? Wouldn’t it be pretty damned easy to peel it off? Does the club require the sticker at entry? How do they get away with this?
I’m down with seeing less smartphone use, but if I were walking into a club and they required me to put a sticker over my camera to enter, my first reaction would be to tell them to go fuck themselves.
Most people standing in front of berghain would probably cut their arm off to enter… so nobody complains about stickers!
I just looked up Berghain and I changed my mind.
Like in DJ-ing/Turntablism the best define the scene. So since all these big-money-earning mixing-boys, who all use Pio-gear, are going to use this you gotta follow the norm. It’s how the argueing was, when all the bandwagon-jumping newly-mixing-men where defending themselves and calling themselves names/moniker (like disc-jockey)…
It’s sort of pointless for the “big-money-earning mixing-boys” considering they all play the same songs and repeat their sets at every festival. LOL.
i agree seems like every video i see its the same set except every now and then the tracks are shuffled around a bit. Sad…
People like Carl Cox makes millions per year and they don’t do that.
It is much better if I go to a club not knowning what songs I am going to hear.
As a tool to track copy rights and distribute them to the right labels and artists, it has potential. Also, the option to instant buy a track that is played should help smaller labels and artists. It shouldn’t be tight to Pioneer and their hardware though.
We already have Shazam. This is a service built around wholesale set acquisition.
Shazam is consumer music recognition software. It’s not designed nor suited to deal with performance royalties, which Kuvo can.
It also doesn’t pick up on a lot of tracks. If you’re pulling out your phone and Shazamming tunes and its finding most of them I question your taste in music.
If you have time to unlock your phone, open a app, rate a DJ, rate a song, Rate a club, take a photo and share the “Experience”, Please rate the DJ and club shit with a capital S, clearly your not having a good time.
Don’t kill the vibe on the dancefloor, everything is about fun…
Pioneer mention if you don’t want to use your phone at the club you can just wait until you get home and check the site. You can also quickly mark tracks for further review later
On one hand I’m like “Yay!! the future, where’s my Silver Jumpsuit!?”, but on the other hand having someone “Chin Stroking” my set from afar and then rating me just seems wrong. So much of a gig is about being there, Vibing the room and the Dj. And I’ll be honest, I’ve won over a crowd with some truly embarrassing tracks! I don;t want the internet to know!.That stuff is between me and them. (Thank god!) =)
i lol’d
I think Kuvo gives you the option of keeping your tracks private. However, I totally agree with you.
too many social networks… its hard enough to manage 6 of them… plus your personal account.
Nope. So much nope.