The second Wednesday of each month, Gate 54, the lounge club of D.C.’s popular Caf? Saint-Ex, allows its clubgoers to experience typical club music from very atypical DJs. These self-made music masters are a new breed of MCs for the digital age, aptly titled MP3Js. As opposed to the seasoned veterans of the club scene, who bring with them hundreds of pounds of gear, this new generation comes equipped with only their iPods, and the audience can barely tell the difference.

The club is the first major inroad the iPod DJ scene has made in the D.C. area, but this transformation is indeed happening throughout the world. Perhaps the best-known club chain to utilize MP3Js is Play list. In all of its four locations (London, Paris, Philadelphia and Beijing), amateurs are encouraged to bring their personal listening devices and try their hand with a 15-minute play list. At the end of the night, the audience and a panel of judges determines the winner, who is awarded prizes and an invitation back.

While Gate 54’s nights are not a competition, the spirit of the event is the same.

“It’s all about encouraging people to express themselves creatively through music,” said Amanda Brady, manager of Caf? Saint-Ex.

On this one night a month, an independent DJ organization called Cricklewood Massive puts out a whiteboard on which these MP3Js sign up for free and try their hand with a 12-minute play list. While they do have the capabilities to do dual-track mixing using two iPods playing different tracks, most bring a premixed play list. The club, which has been hosting these nights for three years, is the hotspot for iPod DJing in the area.

GW freshman Jordan Teller is an experienced MP3J, earning his chops in his hometown, Los Angeles.

“It makes the whole process interchangeable. You can use anyone’s music at any time.” Teller said.

Indeed, while most use pre-mixed play lists, there is the ability to improvise. But even Teller, a three-year veteran, admits, “Now you can scratch without vinyl or even CDs, right on a hard drive, but it’s not the same, it will never be the same . it’s revolutionizing DJing, but it’s not going to eliminate vinyl.”

This revolution in technology has changed the face of DJs, opening the door to the world of MCing for people who would never have gotten involved previously. In fact, iPod DJs enjoy many advantages over those of the old school. First and foremost, it’s easier to create a play list, plug it in and sit back. It is essentially effortless to transport an iPod as opposed to the turntables, mixers and records traditional DJs rely on. IPods are also far cheaper and easier to manage than the traditional bulky equipment. Yet, both schools of thought involve similar skill sets, particularly in terms of song selection, timing and mixing. While traditional DJs still rule the clubs, many of them are experimenting with this new method.

So what effect does this method transformation have on clubgoers? Brady concludes that “live (traditional) DJs really engage the crowd and have to read the room.” Thus, their play list is adaptive to the audience, and is constantly being modified. On the other hand, iPod DJs have limited mobility in that sense.

“It’s really a different way of thinking about expression,” Brady said. “There’s a different end goal. iPod DJs are about sharing their music with the audience, while live DJs are about getting everyone into it. It’s more crowd-centric.”

While the music itself may not be that much different between the types of DJs, the feel is certainly disparate. The consequence of this is somewhat simple: now, almost anyone can be a DJ. Recognizing this, iTunes Music Store has created a section called iMix, in which people create play lists and publish them for sale on iTunes, It is essentially creating a digital mixtape for others around the world to listen to.

And the people are listening. As of now, there are more than 330,000 different iMixes available for purchase, which have been bought and voted on by more than one million listeners.

“It is opening the world up . just like you don’t have to be a film major anymore to make a movie,” Teller said.

Yet, the spirit remains unchanged. Brady said, “It’s all about engaging people, giving them a creative avenue, and giving the audience an active and interactive feeling.”