RjDj (Reality Jockey Ltd.) was a startup founded in late 2008 by last.fm co-founder Michael Breidenbruecker. The company was based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and was run by a small team of four employees. Its mission was to create sonic experiences specifically designed for the latest generation of personal music players. RjDj produced and distributed a network of mobile applications and sold additional musical content within this network. RjDj developed a new genre of music that it called reactive music, a non-linear form of music that was able to react to the listener and their environment in real-time. Reactive music is closely connected to

generative music Generative music is a term popularized by Brian Eno to describe music that is ever-different and changing, and that is created by a system. Historical background In 1995 whilst working with SSEYO's Koan_(program), Koan software (built by Tim ...

interactive music Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but ...

, and

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

. Similar to music in

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s, that is changed by specific events happening in the game, reactive music is affected by events occurring in the real life of the listener. Reactive music adapts to a listener and their environment by using built-in sensors (e.g.

camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic (), or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publi ...

accelerometer An accelerometer is a device that measures the proper acceleration of an object. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change (mathematics), rate of change of velocity) of the object relative to an observer who is in free fall (tha ...

touch-screen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

and

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

) in mobile media players. The main difference to

is that listeners are part of the creative process, co-creating the music with the composer. Reactive music is also able to augment and manipulate the listeners real-world auditory environment. What is distributed in reactive music is not the music itself, but software that generates the music. Applications made by RjDj were available on Apple’s

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

platform. The technology behind it was based on the

Pure Data Pure Data (Pd) is a visual programming language developed by Miller Puckette in the 1990s for creating interactive computer music and multimedia works. While Puckette is the main author of the program, Pd is an open-source software, open-source ...

(or Pd) digital signal processing framework. Reactive music pieces, so called ''Scenes'', could be made using rjlib, which is an open source library of useful software building blocks to construct reactive music. RjDj closed its website and removed its apps from circulation in 2013.

Apps Developed

* RjDj * RjDj Shake * Love by Air * Inception – The App * Kids on DSP – reactive minimal techno * Little Boots – Reactive Remixer * Dimensions – The Game * Rj Voyager * MusicZones * Trippy * Dark Night Rises Z+ * The app formerly known as H _ _ r

Artists who have released music as RjDj apps

ookoi
*

Carl Craig Carl Craig (born May 22, 1969) is an American electronic music producer, DJ, and founder of the record label Planet E Communications. He is known as a leading figure and pioneer in the second wave of Detroit techno artists during the late 1980 ...

Little Boots Victoria Christina Hesketh (born 4 May 1984), known professionally as Little Boots, is an English singer-songwriter and DJ. She was previously a member of the band Dead Disco. Since performing as a solo artist, she has released four albums: ''H ...

Air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

Acid Pauli
*

Booka Shade Booka Shade is a German house duo. It is made up of Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier, described as veterans of the Frankfurt electronic music scene. They have released 10 studio albums, including '' Memento'' (2004), ''Movements'' (2006), '' ...

Jimmy Edgar Jimmy Edgar (born August 10, 1983) is an American electronic music producer, conceptual artist and sound designer from Detroit, Michigan. He initially released music under the names Michaux and Kristuit Salu and Morris Nightingale, before forma ...

* Chiddy Bang * Son of Dave *

Kirsty Hawkshaw Kirsty Hawkshaw (born 29 March 1969) is an English electronic music vocalist and songwriter. In addition to her work as a solo artist, she is known as the lead vocalist of early 1990s dance group Opus III (band), Opus III, and her collaborative ...

* Venus Hum * Easy Star Allstars *

Sophie Barker Sophie Alexandra Jessica Barker (born 5 November 1971) is a British singer and songwriter from London, best known for her work with the British downtempo group Zero 7. Biography Barker left University College London after two years to become a ...

* Kids on DSP *

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, five Grammy Awards, and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards and a Tony ...

* Netsky

YouTube videos

nbsp;– Dimensions – from the makers of Inception The App

nbsp;– Hans Zimmer about Inception The App

nbsp;– Inception The App – Sleep Dream Review

nbsp;– RjDj Rj Voyager featuring Booka Shade

nbsp;– Little Boots Reactive Remixer iPhone app tutorial

References

{{Reflist Defunct companies based in London Computer music software IOS software British companies established in 2008 Software companies established in 2008 2008 establishments in England British companies disestablished in 2013 Software companies disestablished in 2013 2013 disestablishments in England