There are very few companies that continue to impress me, but Algoriddim has done it time and again. It’s not only the products, but the attitude in building those products to be great that wins me over.
Algoriddim is well-known for making djay for iPhone and iPad. It’s a DJ app that caught the attention of first-timers and professional DJs from around the world. Late last year, the company took the lessons it learned from building the mobile app and built a version for the Mac.
djay Pro for Mac is very similar in appearance to its iOS counterpart, but this is definitely a pro app. It includes 64-bit processing, multi-core track analysis, support for Retina and 5K displays, graphics rendering at 60 frames per second, and of course, incredible sound quality.
Algoriddim was able to avoid the main pitfall that plagues many companies when they bring a pro app to market—complexity. Far too often I see pro apps that are so convoluted that it makes you want to pull your hair out trying to figure out how they work. That’s not a good experience, whether it’s a pro app or not.
I spoke with Karim Morsy, CEO of Algoriddim, last month and he outlined his philosophy for building djay Pro for Mac.
“Pro doesn’t mean complex, it means flexible,” said Morsy.
Exactly right.
djay Pro for Mac is all about layers. Not necessarily layers of complexity, but rather layers of increasingly fine options. This is what makes the so app accessible.
As a user, you want an app that you can grow with as you become more experienced. You don’t want to feel like you’re being held back because you don’t have all the features needed to get the job done. Balancing that with not overwhelming people with too many features is tough, but Morsy and his team did it.
There are a lot of companies out there that could learn a lot about building pro apps from Algoriddim and their approach to djay Pro for Mac. At $49 on the Mac App Store, it’s underpriced for what you get.
Question: Do you make a commission from visitors who click the link and purchase the app? Actually, I already know the answer, you do, because of the format of the link, at=11l4FV being your affiliate token. So, why don’t you indicate that in the above article?
Because he gets an ITUNES kickback for every app he attaches his token to? what’s the problem?
if this piece was paid for by the dev, that’s a different story..
itunes affiliates is an Apple thing. has nothing to do with a specific content creator: https://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/
Apparently you don’t see any issues with someone recommending a product without disclosing the fact that there’s a financial reward for them if you purchase said product. There are many who would disagree with you. Don’t you believe it adversely affects the recommender’s credibility? Because it does.
I wish them luck in the Pro DJ software space. Most DJ’s I know play with Traktor, Serato or sometimes even Ableton Live. Most use Traktor, which is what I use as well. The big advantages these applications have is a large eco-system of hardware controllers going beyond MIDI. Playing without a controller sucks, especially if you don’t use an external mixer.
What day also seems to lack at this point is hot cue points and loops. These are an essential part of DJ software these days. But it’s probably high on Algoriddim’s list.
For as much as Algoriddim says they are focussing on simplicity it seems weird that they have at least 3 very different player configurations from what I can see. There is one that should be the best right? The turntable one looks fun, but is always the least useful, so it should be one of the “full waveform + detailed waveform” ones.
In my opinion the greatest feature of djay is that it’s a native Mac application. Traktor still isn’t retina, Ableton Live just got it’s retina update and full screen mode in Traktor is weird. djay seems to do all these things right.
Actually I would disagree with the idea that “many” would find affiliate links to be a negative on a person’s credibiilty. No doubt some do, but if you at all follow the Loop (or most others) you’ll find that 1-The majority of websites use affiliate links whenever they talk about a specific product, as it helps to pay to maintain the site, and 2-Jim is always honest about any product he reviews, both the good and the bad. He only recommends things he feels are worth recommending, or that he himself would/does use. The fact that he gets a little something if someone else chooses to buy the product after reading his website is tangential. If you disagree, that’s your choice, but I think you’re in the minority. Part of the point of reading a website like The Loop is that readers desire to see his recommendations, his reviews, his perspectives. (Usually becase we find we agree with them, or at least appreciate them to consider them.) If a reader decides they agree with him enough to purchase something, what’s the harm with him getting credit for directing the user to the product? If Jim used his site to promote any random thing (sacrificing his credibility for money), that would degrade the quality of the content and go against the reasons why readers come here in the first place; and readers would go elsewhere.
I agree with most of what you have written. The point I made is that he is not disclosing the fact that he’s making money by visitors clicking (and purchasing from) the iTunes link. What’s the harm in pointing out near the link, “buy from the iTunes store using this link to help support The Loop”? That’s all I’m saying. Transparency is extremely important to the community of a website. I know this firsthand from experience.
djay was actually released for the Mac in 2007 and didn’t come to iOS until later. I have used the regular version for years for my DJing and it is everything I need. I am tempted by the new Pro version. Mostly for the Spotify integration.
I have a problem with paid content. Getting paid for coverage.
Every hardware review site on the web has referral links to amazon. I have no problem with being compensated for a sales lead which is all this is – a lead.
“that there’s a financial reward” – as long as the reward is from a generic retailer and not the developer/artist I have ZERO problem with it.
disagree.
if the kickback is based on a percentage of the pruchase price, then to game the system you always pick the most expensive app – giving you the biggest bang per click. that doesn’t appear to be the case here, because RPM is more expensive at $60 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rpm/id415048154?mt=12
credibility isn’t in question because djay PRO is not the most expensive choice.
if the kickback is flat (same amount regardless of the purchase price) then the tendency would be to recommend the one you’re most familiar with (so you could make a more persuasive argument to get people to buy).. credibility isn’t in question because there’s no monetary incentive to pick one over the other because you’re getting the same amount regardless of the one picked.