Is DJ'ing music from blogs legal?

[The Mighty FV]

Then that's an issue with the record label, not the artists. Artists see something like 4 cents per track sold, the rest is eaten up by the label. don't believe me? Ask the ridiculous amount of average to mediocre to shit producers getting signed by no name labels off that shithole that soundcloud has become that is consistently lowering the bar for what is acceptable quality in electronic music.

But this is very strictly speaking EDM, I can't speak for other genres.

nobody isn't getting paid for their music, or isn't getting "big" because of small-time piracy, that's simply untrue.

Are you making random shit up or going off what a mate of a mate of a mate told you.

Do your research before you so boldly state such a thing.

General label deal between artist and label is 50/50 artist/label through most genres; different deals depend on remixes/videos/artwork/promo but this is only for bigger tracks which are worth that investment.

I know hundreds of artists, myself included, who make thousands of pounds a year from production. As for your pop at Soundcloud, it's not advertised as a place where they run quality control - its a facebook for musicians, don't like it - stay off it please.

[Xonetacular]

Thoughts on this?

Whatever he's going to tell you most of it is still pirated music. It looks like a lot of it is unauthorized remixes which are technically illegal too but people don't seem to have as big a moral issue with people giving them away.

I'm not sure what you're looking for us to tell you here, this is more a personal ethics thing than a legality thing and not a lot of people on here will straight up tell you to go ahead and use it and the truth is I'm sure the vast majority of people on this forum DJ with at least some pirated music in their collection whether they will publicly admit it or not. It's the rare exception where someone has a library with all songs bought and paid for and no unauthorized remixes.

[DStridium]

Whatever he's going to tell you most of it is still pirated music. It looks like a lot of it is unauthorized remixes which are technically illegal too but people don't seem to have as big a moral issue with people giving them away.

I'm not sure what you're looking for us to tell you here, this is more a personal ethics thing than a legality thing and not a lot of people on here will straight up tell you to go ahead and use it and the truth is I'm sure the vast majority of people on this forum DJ with at least some pirated music in their collection whether they will publicly admit it or not. It's the rare exception where someone has a library with all songs bought and paid for and no unauthorized remixes.

Alright, I see a consensus among members. I have a job btw. lol I will pay for my songs bottom line, its legit, its supporting the artist, it will make me care that much more about every song I play. Also it will eradicate all the cookie cutter songs I may have kept in my library because they were free. I am beginning to see everyones point that even starting or especially starting out paying for songs will all together make me a better DJ morally and technically speaking. Thank you all for your input, you guys have yet to steer me the wrong way. Much obliged!

I'm not looking for anymore answers, I've already made my decision morally. Most of you guys have given me enough solid information to make the decision to keep my library bought and paid for 100%. I was really just asking your thoughts on the response, kind of adding information to the debate Xone.

[dope]

Ok, I respect the rules on this forum, and my intention is FAR from promoting music piracy, that is an illegal act.

But even a murderer has a lawyer to defend him, so I'll try to write some points that defend piracy (it's not the same thing as encouraging, a murderer's lawyer is not an accomplice)


• Support the artist ? Lmao. Let's take a track that is $2 on Beatport.com. 50% goes to beatport. And depending on the label/artist it's like what ? 70/30, 60/40 at best ? So yeah, every track that is sold, the artist earns $0.30.
I don't know about minimium monthly salary in the US, but in France it's like $1,438.91, which is a pretty low standard of living.
It represents 4,000 sales of the track per month, which is pretty huge, and thus never reached by "normal" artists.

Given that fact, artists, that still need to eat and sleep in a decent accomodation, raised the fees for shows. (I can't find any decent graph to back this but if you sometimes go at events and stuff, you know that's true.)
Now, they earn money thanks to shows, and not from beatport, itunes and stuff. That's just plain bonus.

I'm ok with that, it supports the artist, and it creates kind of an enterprise spirit, an artistic movement. That's 100% better than guys going like 1 or 2 CDs that became famous, and then just lay back in a couch for the rest of their lives.


• Promotion promotion.

If you have talent, and love what you create, you want to spread the world, right ?
Do you have any single idea how expensive advertisement is ? (and i'm only talking about internet ads).
If you don't, still you must agree that it's way more expensive than anything a guy would earn through beatport or iTunes.

Therefore, word of mouth is the best marketing plan you can ever dream of. This is the #1 solution to spread your talent over the world, and it doesn't cost you a single cent.
Having your track available for free is the best way to end up on every single iPod in town, then country, then world. It's the best way to build a fan base, that heard about you and your talent because one of their friends had your track, illegally downloaded, on his iPod.
If you make it through, enjoy the parties, hotels, alcohol, b*tches and stuff.

About the second point, I see you coming at me. I only talked about young talents that have to make it in the industry. What about superstars that also have their music downloaded illegally ?
My reply would be : Do you know how much Steve Angello charges for a pre-recorded set ? Doing nothing, playing tracks that are not of his work ? (i'm not questioning DJing, i'm refering to Knas.)
Ok, I guess we agree on that one.


To conclude, let me repeat that my aim is not to promote piracy, that is an illegal act in most of our countries.
Still, everything has to be said in a debate.

[ZxZDeViLZxZ]

Prior to 2003 monthly track budget was close to a grand now days I'm lucky if I burn through 300 bucks a month on beat port.

Be thankful your not buying vinyl where you maybe paying 20bucks for one good mix and now can pay a buck for that one good mix.


Paying for music is like paying for gas if you want to dj buy the tracks if you wan to drive buy your gas.

Also a lot of very good tracks can be found on production forums and soundcloud you would be surprised how much free legal music is there.

I've paid a dollar for a track only to see the artist had it posted on soundcloud for free

[dope]

Also a lot of very good tracks can be found on production forums and soundcloud you would be surprised how much free legal music is there.

For sure. And I think it's a great idea to promote yourself. However, if the music available for free on soundcloud was able to entierly satisfy the needs DJs/listeners, piracy wouldn't exist.

[MyUsername]

there are some blogs that post legal stuff. but it´s just a few.

but you could always connect with producers and ask them for tunes, that you could promote live or in mixtapes.

Does that really work ? At all ?
Even if ask a very local, yet (for his niche audience) very successful producer/DJ ?
(For example Brownz, he's 17, but is amongst the top 5 Belgian dubstep producers, he even has a video clip under his belt, and has a lot of stuff on beatport. He lives less then 20 km from me and plays a lot at gigs in his hometown that I go to, I even shared a "cigarette" with that guy, but I think he would cold blooded deny me a free .wav or 320.)

Or what kind of guy did you have in mind that gives out free tracks to a select few that ask for them ?

Not exactly the same but one guy begged for a free 320 on Badklaat's soundcloud begged because he didn't have a means of online payment and Badklaat laughed in his face. Virtually that is.

Isn't reaching the same level of fame a requirement for these things to happen ? If not it would be awesome but I doubt it.

[Sn0wday]

Are you making random shit up or going off what a mate of a mate of a mate told you.

Do your research before you so boldly state such a thing.

General label deal between artist and label is 50/50 artist/label through most genres; different deals depend on remixes/videos/artwork/promo but this is only for bigger tracks which are worth that investment.

I know hundreds of artists, myself included, who make thousands of pounds a year from production. As for your pop at Soundcloud, it's not advertised as a place where they run quality control - its a facebook for musicians, don't like it - stay off it please.

I'm going off of screenshots of beatport artists that i have seen posted on facebook. It's very low.

Thousands of pounds a year? That's pretty impressive. Assuming you meant plural, at minimum 2000 pounds, so about 3000 dollars minimum.

Damn, so you rock sales of 6000+ tracks per year? That's damn good, assuming that's not exaggerated.

Yeah I stay away from it, it's killing EDM. Horribly.

[ZxZDeViLZxZ]

For sure. And I think it's a great idea to promote yourself. However, if the music available for free on soundcloud was able to entierly satisfy the needs DJs/listeners, piracy wouldn't exist.

Piracy is easier the being an active member on production forums and soundcloud.

[ZxZDeViLZxZ]

I can't tell you the amount of tracks I've been able to get by just watching production area on forums and then a few months later hear a big name play the track and go hmmz I know that track and sure enough it's one I've got for free Really get on some of the big production forums and you'd be surprised what gems you find