Serato has announced that its Serato Play Expansion Pack, which turns any laptop into a simple DJ controller allowing users to play sets without the need of extra hardware, will be available completely free for the next month.
When combined with either the company’s Serato DJ Lite or Serato DJ Pro DJing software, both of which can also be downloaded for nothing, this means that anyone wishing to try DJing can do so from home using Serato without the need for any hardware or software purchases.
While eyebrows were definitely raised when Serato originally charged users for the ability to use their keyboard to control the software, making this feature free is definitely a welcome thing, especially as Serato also doesn’t charge to download its DJ software, meaning you can now genuinely get started for free.
Serato is encouraging “new DJs” to get Serato Play for Serato DJ Lite (Serato DJ Lite is free and is a great intro to DJing, with built-in tips and advice to get you started). However, if you have done any type of DJing before, you’d be better off going straight for Serato Play for Serato DJ Pro, as Serato DJ Pro has many more features.
(Oh, and if you end up on the Serato Play shopping cart from anywhere else – for instance, if you already have a version of Serato and you click on the $29 Expansion Pack within “My Serato” – just enter the code PLAY4FREE at checkout to get it for nothing.)
Also, while Serato’s website kind of implies that you need to buy Serato DJ Pro (or take a trial and then pay for it), that isn’t actually the case: You can also get this for free, forever – as long as you only want to use it with your laptop. Combine it with the free Serato Play Expansion Pack and you have all you need to DJ on your laptop using this flagship version of the product.
(If any when you add hardware, you can either buy the software at that point, or buy hardware that “unlocks” the software without the need for a purchase at all.)
How to do it
So… are you on lockdown? Think this would actually be a fricking awesome time to start learning to DJ for nothing? We’ve published a guide to how to get the software, set it up and get started, and we’ve also made a demo mix to show you what’s possible. In short, we’ve got all you need to do this!
Read this next: Tutorial: How To DJ With Just Your Laptop For Free With Serato!
Phil Morse
