For nearly 30 years, Pioneer has been the DJ industry gold standard, developing both digital and analog gear that continues to inspire DJs from around the world. It all started way back in 1995 when Pioneer dropped what would become the period’s digital DJ dynamic duo – the CDJ-500 digital music player and the DJM-500 digital mixer. With this revolutionary gear combination, DJs were able to manipulate digital music exactly like a turntable did with analog, providing a familiar spin experience that allowed for fluid mixes. The initial wave of Pioneer CDJs were designed to play compact discs but were later updated to handle digital music files via USB flash drives or SD cards. This gave DJs far more flexibility with their sets and also gave DJs the ability to play tracks that they themselves produced or remixed.

Since making their first big impact on the DJ industry, Pioneer has never slowed down and never looked back, investing even more time and money to push the art form forward. The CDJ-1000 was released in 2001 and forever changed the game with intuitive real-time scratching that allowed for creative experimentation and exciting performance possibilities. Later, Pioneer would innovate yet again with the introduction of rekordbox DJ, software that helps DJs to easily organize and manage their music files while performing at clubs, raves, and festivals. The CDJ-2000, released in 2009, was the world’s first digital music player to feature rekordbox. The software continues to evolve to this day, regularly updating to integrate the newest in digital music libraries, from Soundcloud to Beatport.