Pioneer DJ is a brand of DJ products, including

media players Media player may refer to: *Digital media player, home appliances that play digital media *Media player software, software that plays digital media *Portable media player, portable hardware that plays digital media *Windows Media Player Windo ...

and DJ controllers,

turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...

DJ mixer A DJ mixer is a type of audio mixing console used by disc jockeys (DJs) to control and manipulate multiple audio signals. Some DJs use the mixer to make seamless transitions from one song to another when they are playing records at a dance club. ...

headphones Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an ...

effects units An effects unit, effects processor, or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with e ...

, and

loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or, more fully, a speaker system) is a combination of one or more speaker drivers, an enclosure, and electrical connections (possibly including a crossover network). The speaker driver is an ...

s. Originally part of

Pioneer Corporation , is a Japanese multinational corporation based in Tokyo, that specializes in digital entertainment products. The company was founded by Nozomu Matsumoto on January 1, 1938 in Tokyo as a radio and Loudspeaker, speaker repair shop. Its current pr ...

, the company became independent in 2014 as Pioneer DJ Corporation, and has produced numerous industry-standard DJ products. The company's market share of the DJ market is estimated at 60%. Pioneer DJ Corporation changed its company name to AlphaTheta Corporation from January 1, 2020. Their brands and brand names, including Pioneer DJ, were not affected by this change. In January 2024, it was announced that new products would be released under the AlphaTheta brand, alongside Pioneer DJ.

History

Background

In 1937, Nozomu Matsumoto developed the Pioneer A-8, the very first dynamic speaker to be built in Japan from original components. The following year, Matsumoto founded the Fukuin Shokai Denki Seisakusho company, a

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

and speaker repair shop, in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

Japan. In May, 1947 Fukuin Denki was incorporated, and in June, 1961, the company's name was changed to Pioneer Electronic Corporation.

Pioneer Corporation

In 1994, Pioneer released the world's first CDJ, the CDJ-500, a top-loading CD deck designed for professional DJ use, with a live cue function, looping, the ability to adjust

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

without altering pitch and a rudimentary jog dial which allowed the user to nudge the track forward or backward. The company introduced a companion DJ mixer, the DJM-500 with built-in

effects Effect may refer to: * A result or change of something ** List of effects ** Cause and effect, an idiom describing causality Pharmacy and pharmacology * Drug effect, a change resulting from the administration of a drug ** Therapeutic effect, ...

that could be synchronized to the BPM of the music. In 1998, Pioneer introduced the CDJ-100s, the first CDJ with built-in jog wheel-controllable effects. In 2001, the company introduced the CDJ-1000 with "Vinyl Mode," which made it possible for a user to manipulate a touch-sensitive platter like vinyl on a

to slow down or speed up a track, or even

scratching Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and Turntablism, turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a phonograph, turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to ...

. The CDJ-1000 also introduced 'cue points' which allowed the user to set markers on a track and recall them. These new features, combined with the increased availability of music on CDs, as well as the comparative ease of transporting and storing CDs compared to vinyl, soon made the CDJ-1000 an industry standard in nightclubs worldwide. In 2004, Pioneer introduced the DVJ-x1, the first video DJ deck (capable of reading DVDs and outputting video). In 2009, Pioneer launched the first version of Rekordbox, a computer-based DJ software developed for Pioneer by Mixvibes and controllable by the newly released CDJ-2000, which popularized DJing without physical media. It allowed DJs to create and manage playlists within the software, before exporting them to compact storage devices such as USB flash drives or SD cards. Playlists could then be instantly loaded onto CDJ players in a live setting. Rekordbox developed rapidly, and by 2015 was capable of performing entire DJ sets on a laptop controlled by the newly released XDJ-RX system.

Pioneer DJ

In September 2014, with an estimated DJ market share of 60%, Pioneer Corporation announced it would sell 86% of its DJ equipment business to private equity firm

KKR KKR may refer to: * KKR & Co., a global investment firm *Kolkata Knight Riders, an Indian Premier League franchise * Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant (), first nuclear power plant in the former East Germany * Kalkara, Malta, postal code KKR *Kir-Bala ...

for about 59 billion yen ($550 million), with the sale to be completed by March 2015, establishing Pioneer DJ Corporation. In 2016, Pioneer DJ introduced the CDJ-2000NXS2, which established itself as the new industry standard, appearing on most riders for major events and nightclubs worldwide. In 2020 Pioneer DJ's parent company's name was changed to AlphaTheta Corporation. In March of that year, KKR and Pioneer Corporation sold their respective stakes in AlphaTheta Corporation to Japanese holding company

Noritsu Noritsu Koki Co., Ltd. is a Japanese holding company with subsidiaries engaged in the development and sales of audio equipment, the manufacture and sales of pen-nib components, and healthcare for medical data analysis and research. Overview No ...

. On January 23rd 2024, AlphaTheta Corporation confirmed that new products would be announced using the brand AlphaTheta, separate from Pioneer DJ.

DJ Players / Turntables

DJ Controllers (incomplete)

All-in-one DJ Systems

DJ Mixers

References

External links

Official site
{{KKR DJ equipment Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies Pioneer Corporation Consumer electronics brands Japanese companies established in 2014 2014 mergers and acquisitions 2020 mergers and acquisitions