The future DJ

I've been pondering this for a while now and the more I think about it the more I feel Clubs are heading for a change.

Before I get on to my epiphany I just want us to take a short trip down memory lane.
In the beginning; stuffed in the corner of a club used to be a little booth where a guy would play a record and then whilst putting on the next track he'd talk on a microphone to avoid an eerie silence. Then someone thought; hold on if I had 2 record players I can keep a constant flow of music. The record players belonged to the club and the DJ would turn up with his carefully selected songs that he thought were going to have people dancing till they dropped.
Then someone worked out how to get 20 songs on a plastic disc the size of our hand. For years there were arguments about CD's being cold and synthetic and vinyl was warm and still retained that Hi-Fi sound that digital recordings could never match. However many DJ's pressed ahead and bought CD's because they could bring so much more music and had a better chance of even playing a request! Pressure was put on the clubs and so the booth grew to dominate the dancehall because basically it has to hold mixers, CDJ's, turntables and all the equipment for the Light Jockey.
Then came the revolution and again DJ's aren't happy with turning up with their precious vinyl, their wallets of CD's. No; they want to shove turntables and CDJ's out the way and plug their MIDI-Controllers into the mixer, they need laptop stands and somewhere to place their Audio 8 or SL3. This doesn't just happen once but the hustle of chopping and changing happens 3 or 4 fold during an evening. You name it the DJ Brings it. Xone:4D, VCI-300, Xone:92's with X1 Kontrol units, are then replaced with a DJM800 with Traktor Scratch wax spinning wildly on dusty 1200s.
It's a technical nightmare that could so easily be avoided.

If we wind it back to the beginning all a DJ needs is a medium to play music. Like it or not vinyl and CD will not be the preferred audio source for DJ's on a global scale. Backup CD's will be replaced with iPods just so the DJ can reboot the machine should anything go wrong, which just doesn't seem to happen anymore. In fact you got more chance of a Backup CD that looks like an iceskating ring jumping than a glitch in Traktor's software these days.

When I go to gig; I take a Laptop, an iPhone, an iPod, My main mixer, a backup mixer/Midi-controller, 2 CDJ's and about 40 Backup CD's that I've put together myself. The only way my crowd will not have music is if there's a power-cut. (which has actually happened and I still had order a bottle of schnapps for the guests)

So here's the deal; what does a Digital DJ actually need to play music?
The answer is simple; an available USB slot.
Would it not be the best thing in the world to just turn up, plug your USB stick or hard-drive into a laptop and immediately start playing your tunes?
The Club can have what they want in the booth, Allen&Heath, Pioneer, Numark, Denon, MACbook, Serato, Traktor. At the end of the day all a DJ needs is something to manipulate those naughts and ones. As a DJ they should be able to use Serato just as easy as Traktor. They should be able to use vinyl timecode just as easy as a CDJ or a jog wheel. We need to get back to the basics and that's making sure the crowd gets what the crowd wants and that my friends is good solid music that'll keep em dancing till they drop!

I hope it wasn't too long for you all...

Regards
WooDz