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NickJames
03-05-2012, 11:29 AM
What is Zip DJ?

zipDJ is a subscription-based DJ music pool and promotional music service licensed by the Audio-Visual Licensing Agency (AVLA). zipDJ distributes upfront promotional releases to DJ’s, Radio, and other music industry professionals. To this end, zipDJ is currently supplied by over 800 major and top independent record labels worldwide.

* Unlimited downloads for a monthly fee
* Extensive catalogue of music spanning over 20 categories.
* New music released daily.
* All high-quality MP3 music files (320 kbps)

The Website and Features

Layout

The zipDJ layout is broken in to four sections: header, left column, centre column, and right column.

The header contains the navigation menu, a count of how many songs are queued for download, the player used to preview songs, and a link to the message centre where you will sometimes receive messages from labels.

The left-hand column contains featured playlists from DJs like DEKO-ZE, Atwood, Jon Herbert and others. It also contains the search box (discussed later) and zipDJ news.

The right-hand column contains a number of "top downloads" views which can be sorted by genre or time frame, charts which can also be sorted by genre and country, and more playlists from featured DJs. (The right-hand column is also where the download manager appears when accessed.)

The centre column is the main browsing area and shows the new releases and search results.

The overall layout is fairly simple but it is easy to get the hang of and contains all of the information that you could possibly need.

Score: 4/5

Charts

zipDJ has a number of ways to track what is popular including their "top downloads" view which can be sorted by date range and genre, and a number of charts including national club, dance, urban, house, and trance charts that can be sorted by country. All songs that appear on the charts are of course available for download.

The combination of the charts and top downloads make finding music that is currently trending extremely easy in situations where you need to have the hottest music. The charts are generated using a number of sources including the members of the website and the top downloads are constantly up****** making them a good indicator of trends.

Score: 5/5

Feedback / Top 10

Once a week (technically, once every two-weeks since you can skip it for up to 7 days) you are required to submit your personal Top 10. These charts are not only forwarded to the labels as feedback but help to compile and create national charts used by other services.

Submitting your top 10 is relatively quick and painless however songs that are in my Top 10 are not always available for selection.

A number of tracks on zipDJ require feedback before you can proceed to downloading the various releases. This feedback is compiled and forwarded to the label which is how zipDJ is able to provide unlimited downloads for their monthly fee. Note that feedback is not required on all releases.

When feedback is required it is indicated by a red label marked "Feedback" beside the release. Clicking the label brings up the feedback box that you see in the screenshot. To submit your feedback you select your favourite mix (you can still download the others), reaction to the track, give it an out of 10 rating, indicate whether or not you will play the track, and provide a quick message to the label.

Messages should be constructive but do not need to be long winded. Something like "I found the remix to be a little bouncy for my tastes but I really like the bass line and I think my dance floor will too." is generally what I leave.

Obviously, if you do not intend to download any of the mixes in a release you wouldn't leave feedback.

Downloading

zipDJ takes its name from the fact that downloads can be batched in to groups of 20 and downloaded as a single zip file. This makes downloads faster and easier. Although speeds are not always the greatest they are certainly acceptable and the zip file helps matters greatly.

Score: 4/5



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAPMlLRfwlY

NickJames
03-05-2012, 11:30 AM
The Music Selection

The music catalogue on zipDJ is broken in to a number of categories from rock to drum n' bass there is something for everyone on zipDJ. For the purposes of this review I will comment only on the genres that I use myself.


Rock/Pop/Top40: The selection of what I would call "radio music" on zipDJ is excellent. Not only are clean and dirty mixes often provided for all of the hottest new music but acapellas and instrumentals can often be found as well. It is extremely rare for a song to not appear on zipDJ and zipDJ even beats the radio for release date quite often.

Top40 Remixes: The selection of top 40 remixes on zipDJ cannot be beat (see a comparison to DJCity: here (http://www.djforums.com/forums/showthread.php?1081-ZipDJ-vs-DJCity-(Pop-Remix-Selection))). The remixes run the gambit from club-dance to house to dubstep. The vast majority of tracks will have at least a few remixes available.

House: The selection of house music is good but the music I tend to look for personally is often missing. Some of my favourite artists unfortunately do not have any releases on zipDJ and I am forced to supplement with Beatport. It should be noted however that the selection of house music may be perfect for others - it is simply my style that I often find lacking.

Technical
File formats: All files are MP3
Bit-rate: All files are 320Kbps
ID3 Tags: All tracks are tagged with Artist, Title, Label, and Genre. Some but not all have BPM, Album, Date, etc.

Scores:
Club / Top 40 / Remixes: 5/5
House/Tech-House: 3.5/5

Full list of genres

AC/Hot AC
Country
Dance
|-- Club/Vocal/Dance
|-- DJ Tools
|-- Electronic
|----|-- Chill/Lounge/Downtempo
|----|-- Dubstep/Drum and Bass/Breaks
|----|-- Electronica
|-- Euro/Freestyle
|-- Hard Dance
|-- House
|----|-- Electro/Tech-House/Minimal
|----|-- DJ Tools
|----|-- Progressive/Tribal
|----|-- Soul/Funky/Deep
|----|-- Techno
|-- Trance
|----|-- Psy-trance
|----|-- Trance
Latin
Pop
Rock/Alternative
Urban
|-- Hip-Hop
|-- R&B/Soul
|-- Reggae
|-- Urban DJ Tools

Searching

I have dedicated an entire section to this because the search on zipDJ is a little atypical. Unlike a traditional search box where you enter text and hit enter the search box on zipDJ searches as you type and you click the result you want (pressing enter/return will not return any results).

Even after so long I cannot decide if I like this search method or not. It cannot be argued that it works and that I don't have trouble finding what I need but it does take some getting used to.

On a related note: One of the nice features of the site is that every Artist Name, Track Name, and Label Name that appears anywhere is clickable which will bring up all other mentions of it. For example, if you are looking at "Stefano Noferini - Deba" and click on "Stefano Noferini" you will see all of his other tracks whereas if you clicked "Deba" you would find all other releases with "Deba" in the title.

The search box can be set to search for:
* Artist
* Release
* Track/Remix
* Chart
* Artist & Release

Score: 3.5/5

Support & Customer Service

Support at zipDJ is top notch. Not only does the support team respond quickly to e-mails (often with a phone call) they know exactly what is going on. Whether your question is technical or about a specific release they will have an answer. The support team is also great at answering inquiries in to possible future label deals (I'm still hoping for Toolroom Records *wink wink*). They have been as forthcoming to tell me when labels that I have inquired about are not interested or are in the works which is amazing transparency.

In very rare cases of server outages or system malfunctions zipDJ preemptively sends out notices to customers to inform them of the status and details. During my membership of over two years this has only happened once or twice.

A big shout out to Kevin in support who has always been amazing to work with and to Billy B, the Sales & Marketing Manager.

Score: 10/5

NickJames
03-05-2012, 05:00 PM
Someone on Reddit pointed out that I forgot to mention the price:

Price

The prices are as follows (as of 05/03/2012):


http://imgproxy.com/zipdj/price.png

Many people point out that this is $15 more per month when paying in 3 month intervals than the nearest competition, DJCity, which is true. However, based on selection and service I would say that zipDJ is well worth the added price. Further, you would only need to download 20-25 songs per month before you are saving over the price of per-track services like Beatport.

When the downloads are unlimited it is difficult to fault a service for its price as one must simply download a certain number of tracks per month minimum to make it worth it in their own minds. It should also be kept in mind that zipDJ is intended for working DJs who should be able to afford $45/month ($35 when paying yearly).

So, is zipDJ the cheapest pool out there? No.
Is it well worth every penny? Yes.

Score: 4/5

Conclusion

You simply cannot beat the features, service, and selection of zipDJ if you're a working club DJ who needs access to the hottest music all the time. I have personally used a number of pools (digital, cd, and record) and I have never been happier with a service than I have been with the zipDJ.

Although their EDM selection sometimes leaves something to be desired within my personal sound I still get at least 80-90% of my music from zipDJ with the rest coming from Beatport. Some people may also take issue with the price thinking that they can get their music cheaper somewhere else but it really is true what they say "you get what you pay for" and zipDJ is worth the extra few dollars.

Overall score: 8.5/10

Would I recomend it? Absolutely - go sign up now!

Jimanee
03-06-2012, 02:09 PM
Mmmmm tempting I used to be on 8thwonder, but didn't like the bad 192 kbs quality of track (that might have changed) and I was always missing out on the UK stuff.

Bit of a tricky question for you to answer, but how are they with the uk chart?
Say these new entries:

Matt Redman - Twenty Seven Million (feat. LZ7
Chiddy Bang - Ray Charles
Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine

Unknown DJ
03-06-2012, 02:19 PM
Mmmmm tempting I used to be on 8thwonder, but didn't like the bad 192 kbs quality of track (that might have changed) and I was always missing out on the UK stuff.

Bit of a tricky question for you to answer, but how are they with the uk chart?
Say these new entries:

Matt Redman - Twenty Seven Million (feat. LZ7
Chiddy Bang - Ray Charles
Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine

You can try ZipDJ for 7 days for free.

NickJames
03-06-2012, 02:21 PM
Mmmmm tempting I used to be on 8thwonder, but didn't like the bad 192 kbs quality of track (that might have changed) and I was always missing out on the UK stuff.

Bit of a tricky question for you to answer, but how are they with the uk chart?
Say these new entries:

Matt Redman - Twenty Seven Million (feat. LZ7
Chiddy Bang - Ray Charles
Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine

Matt Redman - Twenty Seven Million - Don't see it, Sixstepsrecords/Sparrow Records do not appear to be zipDJ partners. That said, the track is also connected to EMI Group who are a zipDJ partner so it may show up eventually (It was released ~2 weeks ago).

Chiddy Bang - Ray Charles - Clean (3:50), Dirty (3:48), Instrumental (3:48)

Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine - Don't see it, Domino Recording who released the track does not appear to be a zipDJ partner.

zipDJ is partnered with a number of UK labels... Infected Records, People Recordings, and Sonic Soul are just a few from their most recent additions this month according to their blog.

Jimanee
03-06-2012, 02:30 PM
That answers my questions thanks :tup:

Interracial Tea
03-06-2012, 02:35 PM
Isn't there a UK version of DJCity?

Eddie
03-06-2012, 02:56 PM
Wow that look's awesome thank's for sharing!

KLH
03-06-2012, 02:56 PM
GREAT review. Will rep when recharged!

-KLH

jazzyj
03-06-2012, 03:39 PM
This is great NJ!!! Thank you!! I actually had already signed up and just got approved today for my 7-day free trial.

I currently (mainly) use 8thwonderpromo - but like Jimmany said some tracks are not the best quality, lots of DJ remixes which I am not even sure is legal (they are not all official mixes), and customer service is non-existent. It is cheap though. ZipDJ will be a much higher expense for me if I go that route.

But one thing that I think ZipDJ will absolutely KILL 8thwonder on? SEARCHING!! 8thwonder still uses an old school basic search feature - ie if you type in two words like Guetta Clean - like I'd be looking for david guetta songs that are clean versions, 8thwonder search brings back NOTHING. Because it can't mix things up like that. You can only type one word in order to get it to search anywhere in the title, but typing more than one word it looks at it as a phrase, and the phrase must match exactly. IT SUCKS.

So I'm hoping ZipDJ is using a much more advanced search engine. To be able to get right to the track that I need/want/quick, so I don't spend all night searching for a track - will be well worth the extra expense.

djromanj
10-25-2012, 05:01 PM
awesome review, I'll definitely give this site a try!

Mikeymitch
02-05-2013, 05:25 AM
Hey can you make a mix with tracks off zip dj and postit on soundcloud with no link for DL ??
Can you are podcasts as well ? Or isit solely just for using in clubs or personal use ?

Blue Shoes
02-05-2013, 05:29 AM
Nope. After my old soundcloud account was permanently frozen (for posting a remix(my own)), I scoured the ZipDJ fine print and you do not have any rights to post the music to any other website even for non-profit purposes.

Mikeymitch
02-05-2013, 02:45 PM
Nope. After my old soundcloud account was permanently frozen (for posting a remix(my own)), I scoured the ZipDJ fine print and you do not have any rights to post the music to any other website even for non-profit purposes.

So it's safe to say that dj city is better then since you can make a mix and post it

NickJames
02-05-2013, 04:25 PM
So it's safe to say that dj city is better then since you can make a mix and post it

Interesting question. From the DJCity terms of use:


7. Copyright Policy: The Material available through the Service is/are the property of the Content Providers or its licensors (or DJcity) and is protected by copyright, trademark, patent and other intellectual property laws. You may NOT substantially modify, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted Material, trademarks, or other proprietary information belonging to others (for profit or otherwise), and you have no right to provide any files obtained through the Service to any other party through any other means, without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights. If you believe that your work has been copied and posted on the DJcity website in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent with the following information: (i) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (ii) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; (iii) a description of where the Material that you claim is infringing is located on the DJcity website; (iv) your address, telephone number, and email address; (v) a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; (vi) a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. Once such documentation has been received and signature accepted by an authorized DJcity officer, all offensive content will be removed from the Website or Service.

Here's the tricky party:


Notwithstanding the foregoing, you shall be allowed to reasonably edit, re-mix, blend, mash-up, add intros/outros, compile and create derivative works of the Content and perform the Content online (including on mobile and tablet platforms) and offline in customary media (i.e., spinning at clubs/radio, mixtapes/CDs, mixshows, blogs, social media, audience-driven events, etc.), solely for promotional and non-commercial personal/professional use purposes, and with proper credit given to the Content Providers and underlying performers, producers, songwriters.

The word "perform" is what sticks out to me. I am not a lawyer but in my experience there is a difference between performance licensing and stored recording licensing. Placing a mix on SoundCloud for example is not a performance, and performance is for example a live set on DI.fm or uStream.

In any case it's against the SoundCloud terms of use to post mixes so you'd have to use Mixcloud to stay above board and their licensing is independent of the license you hold on the track.

Mikeymitch
02-06-2013, 12:28 AM
So nick are we allowed to use zip dj tracks in a mix if it's posted on mixcloud? I'm so lost when it comes to the legal stuff lol

NickJames
02-06-2013, 02:05 PM
I honestly don't know, my understanding is that MixCloud is responsible for the legalities not the source but I can contact ZipDJ and find out. The terms for various digital music sources are all pretty similar, even Beatport has tough looking terms.

I'll find out and get back to you.

Mikeymitch
02-06-2013, 02:56 PM
yeah i emailed them myself already as well. i just signed up recently but wanted to put promo mixes together so i can try and score some festival spots ie sham or boonstock

mantis
02-06-2013, 08:17 PM
I just got zipdj for work and so far im impressed, however Im struggling with downloading. My downloads keep stopping. Can I re download my old zip batches?

NickJames
02-06-2013, 11:12 PM
I just got zipdj for work and so far im impressed, however Im struggling with downloading. My downloads keep stopping. Can I re download my old zip batches?

Yes. Within a few hours they'll reappear in your download queue.

Biggest piece of advice I can give is use a wired not wireless connection to download.

Kevin
02-22-2013, 04:42 PM
So nick are we allowed to use zip dj tracks in a mix if it's posted on mixcloud? I'm so lost when it comes to the legal stuff lol

You can use tracks you download from zipDJ in a mix. You can even remix them for your own personal use. You can post them on SoundCloud, MixCloud, whatever. Although in the real world, you are not legally allowed to mess with anyone's copyrighted material, the music industry will generally turn a blind eye as long as you do not sell the copyrighted works. As you already know, many DJs do their own mixes and remixes and post them for others to hear. Just know that no matter where you get your music from, it has a copyright attached to it, and therefore, if you re-use it for anything other than what it was provided to you for (club gigs, radio play, for example), or you change it in some way (remix by edit or adding new tracks), you can be subject to copyright infringement by the owners of the copyright.

Baller95
02-22-2013, 09:40 PM
Might subscribe to them this weekend after checking out the tunes! :tup:

Mikeymitch
02-23-2013, 03:26 AM
You can use tracks you download from zipDJ in a mix. You can even remix them for your own personal use. You can post them on SoundCloud, MixCloud, whatever. Although in the real world, you are not legally allowed to mess with anyone's copyrighted material, the music industry will generally turn a blind eye as long as you do not sell the copyrighted works. As you already know, many DJs do their own mixes and remixes and post them for others to hear. Just know that no matter where you get your music from, it has a copyright attached to it, and therefore, if you re-use it for anything other than what it was provided to you for (club gigs, radio play, for example), or you change it in some way (remix by edit or adding new tracks), you can be subject to copyright infringement by the owners of the copyright.


Strong first post ... Thanks for the info

Baller95
02-23-2013, 10:35 AM
Well I'm on my 1 week free tour and I'm looking for the track Sexiest Wine (Tik Tok) - Bob Sinclair ft. Sean Paul and I searched many different ways and found nothing!! DJCity gave me 3 results, the original and 2 remixes. Isn't this a popular song?! Can someone confirm if it's on zipDJ or not?

happydazE
03-06-2013, 09:40 PM
I mirror that.. Kevin is awesome.. Guy gets back to me at all hours of the night

alazydj
03-07-2013, 01:59 AM
You can use tracks you download from zipDJ in a mix. You can even remix them for your own personal use. You can post them on SoundCloud, MixCloud, whatever. Although in the real world, you are not legally allowed to mess with anyone's copyrighted material, the music industry will generally turn a blind eye as long as you do not sell the copyrighted works. As you already know, many DJs do their own mixes and remixes and post them for others to hear. Just know that no matter where you get your music from, it has a copyright attached to it, and therefore, if you re-use it for anything other than what it was provided to you for (club gigs, radio play, for example), or you change it in some way (remix by edit or adding new tracks), you can be subject to copyright infringement by the owners of the copyright.


I'm not sure where you got that info. Most music is SOCAN(Canada)/ASCAP(USA)....venues and radio stations pay a small license fee to play those kinds of tracks.

Mikeymitch
03-07-2013, 04:04 PM
I'm not sure where you got that info. Most music is SOCAN(Canada)/ASCAP(USA)....venues and radio stations pay a small license fee to play those kinds of tracks.


I'm pretty sure got that music from the company he works for ..... Zip dj

b.ill
06-08-2013, 06:25 AM
Ok ZipDJ subscribers: does the site have "We Own It" (2 Chainz & Wiz Khalifa)? It was featured in F&F6 and was the #1 download on iTunes awhile back. This is a huge track right now that's still not on DJ City (my subscription site). I was horribly embarrassed tonight because I've been waiting for it and didn't have it ready for the room.

Of course I can buy it (and will tomorrow) but I'm just wondering if it's time to switch sites. This isn't the first time this has happened to me recently.

DJ Highline
06-08-2013, 09:03 AM
Having been a member of both ZipDJ and DJCity this is how I see it.

Zip DJ has by far a bigger selection of music genres to offer. While they tend to have alot of EDM and hip hop, you can get some country, rock, latin and reggae on there. They also have more remixes as well, BUT DJCity I think offers better and more diverse remixes. Alot of ZipDJ's remixes seem to be the basic song with intro and outro, or extend and club versions...not as many remixes that change the feel of the song but rather structural changes to the song.

I understand the logic of how ZipDJ is layed out, but I think it is a little over done and gets a little complicated unnecessarily. I really like DJCity's nice simple clean layout even if it is a bit dated. Also I like how ZipDJ lets you give feedback on all the mixes of a track rather than have to give feedback on every version of a song that you get. I'm indifferent on ZipDJ's batch download vs DJCity's single downloads, both seem to work fine.

unknown00
06-09-2013, 09:16 AM
thanks for the review...