Terry_42

Serato and Rekordbox to be honest could be twins, their feature set is close, very close.
There are a few things though:
Since Serato has been here for a long time, the overall support is a little bigger and it tends to push out new features faster. It is very stable and it also has focus features for live remixing like Serato Flip and now Ableton Link. Overall I also find the interface while less flashy is also less cluttered and I tend to see what I want faster. (Hence I use Serato) Serato currently has more iZotope studio quality effects and more DVS supporters (and cheap ways to get into DVS).

Rekordbox on the other hand is also getting more and more stable. It has more adhoc sample features instead of flip, so it is catering more to the sample effect DJ. As they are all the time pushing new features to get on par with the competition some versions have been buggy, but it seems to have gotten much better since the latest 2 versions. The interface has more flashy color stuff going on, which is “kinda cool” however I find it more distracting (but that is subjective).

As for Rekordbox and its controllers. If you go that way (and that is surely Pioneers intention) you are locked in. You have to use Rekordbox and the according controller and only Rekordbox hardware will work. You are also basically limited to Pioneer controllers for upgrades.

For Serato you would have a more open playing field to upgrade. There are awesome controllers out there with different approaches and expanding workflows, the Denon MC6000 and the MCX8000 (what I use) or the new Roland 808 with build in sequencer or the NS7 III with moving platters…. and many more. I like this level of freedom.

What you shoudl not let you influence: Many new DJs are tricked by clever marketing that Pioneer is some sort of “industry standard”. It is not. Back in the days where CDJs actually were new and current technology it is true that most venues would have them and would want you to play on Pioneer CDJs. Denon played a minor role and that was basically it.
Nowadays all the top clubs expect you to bring your controller and as long as it has RCA connectors they do not give a rats behind what you are using. Once when I felt experimental I showed up with my (back then) TM8 controller, a Korg midi keyboard a Yamaha DX7 synth and a Roland drum machine. All was set up without question (look at setup from van Dyke, Skrillex or Anthony Rotter and you know why).

I hope that helps you out a little bit, do not hesitate to ask if something is unclear.

I tend to disagree Peter.
iTunes is extremely simple to know what it does. It copies all your music and organises it in the file system very very neatly, that is why most of use it. It is not that it does not organise, but you need not worry about it.

As for those “disasters”. No disaster happened ever if you can read your email. Of course if you are an Apple fanboy and activate any feature without reading the email and/or website than things can happen. I never activated those features (like Apple Music) and everyone in the DJ community knew that was going to happen and to those of us – nothing happened.

As for finding analysing and recovering: I am sorry but if you are a “pro” or at least “semi-pro” or even a home user and you storre purchased music (stuff you paid hard earned money for) on a digital device and do not backup it correctly, you deserve it. And this is totally easy no matter Windows and Mac with iTunes. On my Mac I simply have TimeMachine and let if backup to an external HD. I can jump back in time on iTunes extremely easy.
On Windows it is slightly less comfortable but I use the WesternDigital Software that comes with most WD Passport drives (that I use mainly) and even that saves your iTunes folder quite nicely. Recovery points are a bit harder to configure if you are not a geek, but it is managable as there are wizards to help you out.

And the main thing is that all DJ software (Serato, Cross, Rekordbox, Engine, djay,…) interfaces with iTunes and gets your playlists etc.

I have 20+ years in the DJ business and I have never felt more comfortable with my DJ collection. I am not an Apple fanboy, I am testing for example as we speak a Surface Pro4 for DJing, but iTunes has become the industry standard for organising music files. Am I happy about that? No, I hate monopolys and I would love to find alternatives, but I am also reaslistic. I have tried other things like Mediamonkey etc. and they are all worse for DJing (I love Mediamonkey for syncing with my Android phone).

Honestly I would not buy into lighting, if your business does take up you will need professional lighting and the only way to get that (apart from spending thousands) is to rent it and include the rental fee in your fee.

As for controllers: The Mixtrack III is quite a good controller. If you want to expand you can easily add something like a reloop Neon and a few Serato FX packs to the mix. I would not upgrade from a midrange controller to another midrange controller. The more buttons you get from a SR you can easily get by adding the Neon.

Then when you have some more gigs under your belt, the gear will pay itself (for a decent wedding or mobile gig you should get at least 1k, minus 200 for rentals you still have 800 in your pocket).

If you only use the mp3 meta tags, then yes all tags will transfer with the file.

Most DJs arganise everything within iTunes and then use Serato for the rest (samples etc.)
But honestly Serato’s smart folders are not bad and you can get the job done with Serato alone also.

I would not organise on the HD/FileSystem it is a waste of time.

Honestly I would not waste money and buy mobile mounts for the RP6 and use those. They are perfect.

The problem was this section:
I agree to work from XX:XXpm to XX:XXpm
or 2nd time
agree to work for X hours…
both ended with: Overtime: For additional hours the charge is XXX amount.

However overtime is a “lax” statement in most countries and there is a fixed percentage of what is considered overtime and what not… so I got not paid for the extra 2 hours as it was considered “good practice” to just do so.

So instead you should always write:
after the agreed period has expired each hour is billed with XXX amount on top of the agreed fee, whereas the minimum charge is always an hour.

Well you can in Serato, so I am guessing you can in Rekordbox since it is very similar, however they left out some features in Rekordbox, so it might not be there just yet.