Quick Hit: Amazon Wants To Buy You New Gear

Prime Day runs through Friday, June 26th, and buried under the coffee machines and Kindle bundles is a genuinely solid set of deals for working DJs. Here's a few things we found that are actually worth your money before prices snap back:

AlphaTheta DDJ-FLX2 — $141.54 (was ~$199, ~29% off). The entry-level 2-channel controller, USB and Bluetooth, works with rekordbox, djay, and Serato DJ Lite. Cheap enough to hand to a wedding client's kid or use as a no-guilt backup unit.

Phenyx Pro Microphone System - $390 (was $434). Phenyx Pro has proven to be a major player in the game lately

Insta 360 × 5 -$435 (was $550). This is a great time to step up your content game with the 360 camera at this price

Check out some of our other finds here. Prices revert Friday. After that, it's back to being something you complain about instead of something you act on.

This week: Chicago DJs are shaping the city’s music crate live at The Bean. It’s your chance to take action where others just talk. Join us June 23rd to vote, win free stuff, and be part of something real. Not just another panel or playlist share. Be there or tune in live
🎥  Live on Twitch + cratehackathon.com

🗓️ Tuesday, 8PM ET / 5PM PT

A few years ago, smart glasses felt like one of those tech products people loved talking about but never actually used. Now Meta seems determined to change that.

The company just unveiled a new line of lower-cost smart glasses under its own Meta brand, making AI-powered wearable technology significantly more accessible than some of the premium options we’ve seen recently.

Translation: The future of AI might not live on your phone. It might live on your face.

Meta’s new glasses are designed to bring:

…into a more affordable package.

And that’s important because the biggest obstacle to wearable tech has never been the technology. It’s been convincing normal people to actually wear the thing. Apple has the Vision Pro. Meta has been betting heavily on smart glasses. And increasingly it looks like the glasses approach may be winning.

This gets interesting fast for DJs. Imagine arriving at a wedding and having glasses that can:

Without ever pulling out your phone. We’re not fully there yet. But we’re getting closer. And honestly, wearable AI makes a lot more sense for DJs than giant VR headsets while trying to announce the cake cutting.

We’ve talked a lot about AI assistants lately. Claude. ChatGPT. Gemini. Siri. The next evolution isn’t smarter AI. It’s making AI available instantly. No app. No browser. No keyboard. Just ask. The companies building the future are betting that AI eventually becomes something you wear, not something you open.

Smart glasses still have a long way to go. But unlike some of the AI gadgets we’ve seen crash and burn over the last few years, these actually solve a real problem: Getting information without stopping what you’re doing. For DJs, creators, and event professionals, that’s a pretty compelling idea. Because if AI is becoming your assistant, eventually it makes sense that it follows you around. And apparently, it’s bringing sunglasses. 😎

For years, technology followed a pretty simple pattern: New tech gets cheaper. AI appears determined to try the opposite. According to a recent report, the AI race is creating new pressure on companies like Apple, and one possible consequence could be higher iPhone prices in the future. Which is a fun twist considering most of us were told AI would make everything more efficient. Apparently it may also make everything more expensive.

The problem isn’t just developing AI. It’s running it. AI features require:

Companies are spending billions trying to keep up with competitors like:

And somebody eventually has to pay for that. Historically, that “somebody” tends to be the customer.

For DJs, this story is bigger than iPhones. Think about how many tools you use now that have AI attached to them:

Many companies are currently giving away AI features or heavily subsidizing them. That won’t last forever. At some point the industry has to figure out how to pay for all this compute power. Which means more:

The “AI tax” may be coming for all of us.

We’re entering an interesting phase of the AI era. The first chapter was: “Look what AI can do.” The next chapter is: “Who’s paying for all of this?” Because unlike traditional software, AI doesn’t just sit there after it’s built. Every prompt costs money. Every image costs money. Every generated response costs money. At scale, those costs become enormous.

The future is definitely becoming more AI-powered. The question is whether it’s also becoming more expensive. For DJs, creators, and entrepreneurs, now is probably a good time to get familiar with AI tools while they’re rapidly improving and relatively affordable. Because if history teaches us anything, today’s free feature has a funny habit of becoming tomorrow’s premium subscription. And somewhere in Silicon Valley, somebody is already brainstorming “AI Pro Max Ultra+” pricing tiers. 💸🤖

with Aaron Traylor

The DJs who built their reputation on having music nobody else had just lost their edge — streaming and AI gave everyone the same crate. Aaron makes the case that the new differentiator is judgment, not access: knowing the right track for the room beats owning the rarest one. Worth a watch if your setup is still measured in gigabytes instead of good calls.

A few highlights:

BONUS: We’ve got a special 7-day free trial of Crate Hackers so you can take your crate organization to the next level and lessen your workload. Grab it here: https://www.cratehackers.com/7daytrial

When Meta launched Edits, most creators saw it as Instagram’s answer to CapCut. Now Meta is taking things a step further. The company announced that Edits is getting both a desktop version and an AI production assistant, signaling that it wants to become more than just a quick mobile editing app.

Translation: Meta wants creators making content inside its ecosystem from start to finish.

The upcoming AI assistant will help creators with:

At the same time, a desktop version is on the way, giving creators more flexibility for longer-form and more advanced editing projects.

This is a notable shift because many creators still leave Instagram’s ecosystem to edit content elsewhere before bringing it back for posting. Meta would very much like that to stop happening.

For DJs creating content every week, this could become surprisingly useful. Imagine uploading wedding footage, a club recap, or a livestream clip and having the AI suggest:

That’s time most DJs currently spend staring at a timeline wondering where to start. The desktop version is equally important because serious creators eventually outgrow editing on a phone. If Meta can create a workflow that moves smoothly between desktop and mobile, it becomes much easier to turn one event into multiple pieces of content.

This is part of a larger trend we’re seeing everywhere: AI isn’t replacing creators. It’s replacing friction. The winning platforms are increasingly focused on helping users:

And for DJs, that’s important because content creation has become a required skill whether we like it or not.

The average DJ doesn’t need more content ideas. They need more time. If Meta’s AI assistant can help turn a wedding recap, livestream, or event highlight into a week’s worth of posts, that’s a much bigger deal than another filter or transition effect. Because the future of content creation isn’t necessarily about making better videos. It’s about making videos with less effort. And let’s be honest, most DJs would rather spend that extra time digging for music than trimming clips for the seventh time.