Still technically though, if you read the download sites T&C\'s it does contain info regarding playing out. Irrespective i dont know many laptop jocks, but 95% of the djs wil be covered by the PRS license which every club has!
I think there's one or two on here are getting into the laptop thing.............. i know si has jumped onto the ableton bandwagon I know a couple of mobile jocks who have to buy a PPL though - I take it those who play in licensed bars/clubs are exempt from paying this themselves?
They basically say, do what you want but by agreeing to this you are agreeing that we are exempt from any bother from third parties...... it's all on the jock's toes at the end of the day.
The current PRS and PPL licences (which every venue must have) don't cover the use of digital media. The new PPL licence applies to anyone who plays out using said digital media and in addition there is a separate licence for mobile jocks who use it.
I don't understand why they can't just have one licence for covering everything - at the moment illegal jocks are hard to track and the only way I can see that will cull them a bit is hit the people and organisations that supply the illegal mp3s.
There's two licences for a reason - one goes to the artists, one goes to the record companies. The PPL are due to launch a wide-ranging crackdown on illegal downloading... they are planning to inspect venues at random up and down the country to see if they can catch someone using copies or illegal downloads, I know locally of 6 or 7 DJs that do it and I hope to fuck they get caught. Before you even get to prosecution you risk the following: 1) Confiscation of ALL equipment used to DJ, regardless of if it's the venue's or not 2) Revocation of all licences for said venue including the PEL licence Not worth it in the long run.
And also totally fucking the little reputation you might have built up. I'm happy to say that everything I intend to play out over the coming months is bought and paid for. Only worry I have is that I didnt keep the email reciepts - so I'm going to email beatport now see if copies can be sent to me.
Shame that download sites don't keep track of what users have bought in the same way that something like Amazon does. The ideal solution is something on your beatport/djdownload/audiojelly control panel that lists every track you've paid for
I read the same article. Read what he's saying in context, he's saying that if you don't want to pay for the licence just play out with CD & Vinyl (which are already covered by the venues' licence). I've been in touch with both the PPL's legal department and another legal source of advice over this and the long and short of this is you need that licence for playing digital downloads in public whether it's on a laptop or not.
si what happens if they turn up at habit for example and confiscate your gear as you cant prove the legality of the tunes on your laptop - whether you paid for them all or not? no-one knows where they might visit - smaller nights could be the better bet for catching illegal jocks as they have to perform on a smaller budget...
I buy so many digital downloads off beatport et al, that i rarely get a chance to listen to most of them because i am constantly buying new ones.....I probably spend more time looking for new music than i do anything else in my life, proper sad. Im surprised i have any mates, let alone a long term lass I looked on my harddrive the other day and i have around 13gb of digital downloads, i hate to think how much that would have cost had i bought them all on vinyl. I love the fact i can take 240 cd's worth of stuff with me to gigs, especialyl as there is up to 12 tracks on each CD. I spend half my time when i playing out just trying to decide what to play next I still buy vinyl here and there, mostly older stuff (i have no vinyl decks anymore) but i love the fact i can now discover the name of the track, look through my database of download sites and have the track burnt onto cd and playing within 10 minutes.....its crazy how much things have advanced. There will come a time when you will be playing in a club, think of a track that you like, access a Google-esque search engine and within seconds you will be playing it. It certainly beats the days when i spent 3 years scouring the worlds record shops to find La Factoria - Devil Square imo, The internet is the best thing to happen to the dj/listener since the advent of internet clubbers
£149.00 for 100 tracks is amazing value compared to £5.00-£7.00 per record on vinyl = £500-£700! Some small sites like MP3ToBurn sell tracks for only 99p! I've been buying records for about 15yrs now, mostly on vinyl but since buying my CDJs a couple of years ago most of my music is now on CD, either downloaded legally (ie paid for) or sent to me as an MP3 direct from a label or artist. I can honestly say that I have NEVER illegally downloaded an mp3 but I appreciate that a lot of people do this and some of them even go on to pay for them at a later date if they like them enough. However, I believe it IS wrong to expect all music to be free and for the artists not to receive payment for their work. You might think that filesharing or downloading music for free is teaching record labels a lesson because they earn enough money as it is, but it's the small labels that will suffer the most not the majors who will continue selling their latest Shane Ward or Chico CDs in their thousands or millions. Most of the dance music that we all love is released by small independent labels who barely make enough money from record sales to cover their costs as it is. So although it's tempting to download your music for free, if you love new music and want to support the scene please try using some of the LEGAL digital download sites which have loads of great new music every week, or buying the occasional 12" single or CD from a shop. There's loads of good (and cheap) legal digital download sites out there but some that I recommend for dance music of all genres are: DJDownload.com http://www.djdownload.com Beatport http://www.beatport.com 3 Beat Digital http://www.3beatdigital.com MP3ToBurn http://www.mp3toburn.com Magnetic Grooves http://www.magneticgrooves.com Audiojelly http://www.audiojelly.com Karma Download http://www.karmadownload.com TrackItDown http://www.trackitdown.net And as far as I know, the new license is aimed at professional mobile DJs (weddings / birthdays, etc) who have thousands of mp3 files on their laptops. Every bar or club that has music on as entertainment should already have a PRS License and PPL license which allows records or CDs to be played in public or broadcast on radio in their premises. So my advice is don't worry about this new license. It's only just come out and already has a lot of opposition so I expect it to change a bit in the next few months.
taken from the ppl site: In dance music, id say 90% of the stuff people play is signed, the 10% that isnt signed is either... - producers asking for a road test on a track - stuff thats a label owner (dj or friend) is running out irrespective, id doubt many bedroom producers who are finding their feet on playlists would worry about the money when A- they\'re getting played by a jock in a club (a big buzz when people dance to your music). Or they have the impression that if its good enough to be played out it\'ll get signed. They wouldnt pay to be signed up to the PPL. As far as i see it just covers independant artists. Not ones signed up to record labels. Whereas the PRS is where the labels are signed up & the artists get their contracted percentage as agreed on the label. I\'m more annoyed with the PPL not being clear enough with their licenses.
