Rich Wells is a disc knave who has...

Rich Wells is a disc knave who has provided music for more than 600 weddings in Cincinnati since 1992 It has been a profitable business, earning him an average of $650 for five hours of work.

still Wells sees a competitor upon the horizon: iPods and other digital music players. Instead of hiring DJ like Wells, near couples are choosing the proper moods themselves. They are programming music into iPods for their receptions and plugging them into undecayed systems so guests can dance to the "Chicken Dance" and the "Macarena."

Wells, 51 thinks the use of wedding iPods "will move swiftly its course."

further many DJs fear this newfangled music arrangement isn't a fad. Ken Wilson, a 47-year-old DJ in San Diego, says his colleagues have called iPods the "downfall of the DJ industry."

BIG preciousness SAVINGS

Audio rental companies say they are seeing an increase in customers renting amplifiers and unmutilated systems, which can cost $150 in succession average for the evening. on contrast, the cost of a professional DJ varies by way of location. In Cincinnati, DJs typically charge $125 an hour. In Manhattan, the price can skyrocket to $4000 for five hours of work.

IT'S 'NOT BRAIN SURGERY'

John Ragusa, proprietor of John Ragusa Music, a of recent origin York company that books bands and DJ estimates he may have misspent about 3 percent of his wedding business last year to iPod users, on the contrary he still was hired for 80 facts

Allison Emmerson a 24-year-old graduate observer at the University of Cincinnati, married Nate Emmerson in July 2005 and went the iPod path at their reception.

"Playing music is not brain surgery" she says. "If you have virtuous music and you have a pleasantry atmosphere, you're going to have tribe dancing."

'IT'S AN ART'

DJ say that despite the convenience and sumptuousness efficiency of iPods, the tiny music player is no match for a DJ's musical timing and experience with strain selection. "DJs can think in succession the fly and make adjustments," says Ragusa. "The whole idea of a party is that it's fluid. It's dynamic. It's an art."

an couples have tried to hire Wilson, the San Diego DJ to mind their iPod playlists during their wedding, on the other hand he refuses.

"I'm certainly not going to just sit beside the table and make fully convinced their iPods don't get stolen," he says.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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