I have recently returned to dj'ing after about forty years. I live abroad and have sold most of my collection. When I dj I have a memory stick with about 2,000 tracks on it. I don't have a playlist but maybe a few sounds that I want to play. When I used to dj I would have about 200 sounds to pick from but now, with such a vast repertoir, it's a lot easier to follow the dancefloor and keep it busy. I try to stick to sounds that I have owned but.........
The (mainly) old crowd that I play for make requests (in fact I print request sheets and scatter them round the club) and I have never been one to refuse a request unless it's really inappropriate - say Dock of the Bay or something. I was asked for Stanky Get Funky, which is a sound which I would never have bought, and get requests for rarer stuff which I would never have been able to buy. I play them.
I was in England a few years ago and went to an ovo soul night, there was some good music played but the dancefloor was totally ignored, I found this a massive culture shock. Any definition of Northern Soul must include the word 'dance'. The newer, younger people want to hear music they can dance to and it's a bit silly to try to tell them they can't because I don't own a particular piece of vinyl - it means nothing to them unfortunately.
Back in the day we all went to nighters where pressings, bootlegs and EMIdisks were played, didn't we? During the week we all listened to ilegal tapes made from live venues didn't we? Would we have stopped going to nighters if the sounds were more readily available? I doubt it.
I have only one queasy feeling about playing rips and downloads and that is PRS, which let's face it has always been a bit of a grey area.
A few that were requested at my last gig:
George Blackwell~Can't Lose My Head
Greater Experience~Don't Forget to Remember
Ty Karim~You Just Don't Know
Bill Bush - I'm Waiting