Illicit dubs... to play or not to play.

Heres a question for you all. Especially as digital DJs....

What is your stance on digital-dubs & playing them out. Especially semi-illicit ones. I'm talking about proper unmastered 320s not shitty youtube or set rips.

Back with Vinyl this wasnt an issue, if you had an insane dub plate you either cut it or were given it by someone who did, but these days with digital being a primary format (Serato/CDJs/Midi) for many DJs whats your thoughts on playing out dubs of somewhat dubious origin ?

I bring this up because I recently received a stack of insane unreleased dubstep digital dubs (full quality non rips). I was given these by a mate who just came back from England and was given them by some connected people (and the artists themselves). Now I'm just wondering if I should play them out or not. Its a hard one as many in the DJ 'circle' would look down upon this & for good reason imo.

hey

maybe its different in this particular genre not really my thing, but I've always thought that it was a good thing if you were able to get some exclusive tunes and stand out a bit from other DJ's. Having a good record box and choosing good tunes in the past was always one of the important parts of being a DJ, and especially these days when tunes are so freely downloaded and you may only get a week or two with some hidden gem before everyone else catches on.

If your mate that you got them from may get grief for passing them on, if they were intended just for him, then that's maybe a different matter you dont wanna put him in a position where he's breaking someones trust, but other than that i'd say go for it.


k

i don't see there being a problem, as long as you don't go distributiing freebies left and right. with the old vinyl plates there wasn't that danger if you were given it you couldn't very easily make loads of copies. with digi dubs i think there is a bigger trust issue on the copy side of things, but it still has the same free promo oppurtunities when played by a handful of djs in the right clubs - and i can't see the artists being pissed at that

The "Scene" here in England especially dubstep is for DJ's to have exclusive Dubplates. Admittedly all the big DJ's have cut them to Vinyl because here in England you lose respect if you don't play Dubstep on Vinyl (Don't ask why)

Artists would love you to be playing a dub of there's to a club of people. Epecially if the tune hits the roof and you tell whoever asks it's an unreleased ArtistName track.

What you don't want to do is keep passing music around to any punters. Most underground artists make money from DJing these days. Often vinyl releases LOSE money. You still want to keep your integrity and keep the Dubs to yourself.

Chur for the input. I know what u mean about the vinyl thing. Its not really like that here, serato & CDJs are probably more common then straight vinyl.

Yeah deft not passing the tunes round. Not even giving them to my DJ mates outa respect.