Mp3 license/ownership proof

[BentoSan]

This sheer concept is so hard to track it must be impossible to enforce. Isnt DJ's playing peoples music good/free advertising anyway? Any company/club enforcing a DJ have to pay to play their tracks is not thinking of the bigger picture - music sales.

Personally i am still waiting for someone to truthfully say they have been asked.

[steveboyett]

Playing devil's advocate here, how many times have you heard a track at a club and been able to find out the artist and track title? It's gratifying for artist but doesn't usually translate into commercial exposure.

[BentoSan]

Playing devil's advocate here, how many times have you heard a track at a club and been able to find out the artist and track title? It's gratifying for artist but doesn't usually translate into commercial exposure.

Maybe not for those unknown artists, but will know "Love Generation" and all those other large scale commercial tracks that everyone knows the name of when they hear it. Its not the unknown artists the worry would be about either, its the corporations. Which is why i still believe no one would be getting asked this question, unless its asked by some low level chump who does not know the first thing about marketing.

[lewdelesion]

The answer is simple, but very few seem to know about it. It's called an ASCAP license.

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
http://www.ascap.com/licensing/about.html

I learned about ASCAP the hard way. No I wasn't fined or anything like that. While playing one night at a local wine bar/club, I was propositioned by the manger of a downtown hookah lounge to start another weekly gig at his place. When your city starts a smoking ban, it's so easy to get your foot into a lot of clubs dieing for something to entertain their cigarette-less patrons into staying.

So on the first night I played at my new gig, turnout was great, and we all danced till bar time on a Wednesday night. Then the owner (not the manger who gave me the gig) asked me if I was playing Michael Jackson. I was, and it was then that he informed me that I couldn't do that because they didn't own an ASCAP license. He informed me I was only allowed to play foreign music and world beat. The Mediterranean owner was kind enough to share a big chunk of his music collection with me, and some of it was pretty good. However: 1) I didn't know the songs. 2) My audience didn't know them, and they liked the dance party hits that is my general format. The gig didn't last long, as people didn't want to wait till midnight for the owner to leave and for me to start playing what they liked.

So this is how I learned about ASCAP. In America, clubs and other public places that play music have to buy an ASCAP license. I believe they come in all different sizes, for even having a jukebox requires a license with them. That annual fee covers the club to legally play pretty much anything they want. ASCAP then distributes a certain percentage of that fee back to the record companies and other fat cats (don't ask me how they decide who gets what). Really though, it's a pretty easy way to legally cover your club, and pay rights without having to keep track of every song played.

From my understanding, if you go to a club with an ASCAP license (pretty much any club that host DJ's on a fairly regular basis) and your entire Mp3 collection is illegal, it is not illegal to play those songs at the club. HOWEVER, You would still personally posses illegal music and you hold that risk. The club itself is protected, and the playing of those songs would be legal.

If you are concerned, check with the club to see if they are properly licensed with ASCAP for DJ performances. If they are not, it's the club's liability (in America anyways) and responsibility. Are the ASCAP police going to raid the place in the middle of your gig? No.

So, if anyone tries to tell you that playing your Mp3's in the club is illegal, set them straight. Now you possessing them without proper purchase, that's a whole different legal matter.

[steveboyett]

ASCAP licenses are only required if you are playing tracks released by labels that are ASCAP signatories. I think most EDM indie labels (especially smaller ones) are not, though admittedly I'm not up on this. In any case, staying away from Big 4 labels is always a good idea in my book, for any number of reasons.

I understand that these are well-intended laws, but they're just more examples of the absurdities that come about because intellectual property laws are so hugely far behind technological development and societal norms. The tail of that dinosaur doesn't know the head is dead. The thing that gets me in all of this that doesn't get reported much is that it isn't even the labels that are fighting to maintain this surreal status quo. It's lawyers. They're having a shark orgy over copyright law now, and it most certainly is not in their interests for legislation to keep up with the times.

Creative Commons couldn't even exist, much less thrive, if current copyright law were pertinent anymore.

[jimmymac]

It makes me wonder how true the story of italian Dj being fined 1.4m euros for illegal tracks was. DJ's get sent free CD's all the time for promotional purposes, it would be impossible to police!

[lewdelesion]

I believe that in some countries (Australia may be one) that the DJ themselves have to be licensed.

Ean, have you ever played in a country that required the DJ to have a license, during your worldly travels?

[Mike Damien]

Here is a quote from DJ T in the forum section on Digital Dj Gear that lead me to post this thread.
Also, some good info on how Germany is handling public performances.

http://www.djtechtools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=159

No it's not like a drivers license.
If you buy an mp3, you've got the license for it, that means you are a proofed owner of the song. If you download mp3s illegally, you don't have the license (the proof that you bought it) for it. That's as far as I know, and it's like with films, that you are allowed to show them privately, but in the public, you have to pay some more money - in Germany you pay the money to the GEMA, a company that works for the music/film business and allowes you for a certain amount of money (not that much, but much enough for some people not to pay it) to play music in public.
I just wanted to know if it's the same in a club, if the club or you have to pay some money for being able to play songs in public.

Thanks to the collective brain here on DJTT, the answers have been VERY informative.

[Philinho]

I came across an article on BBC News for DJ'ing in the UK.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4609378.stm

The annual licences, costing £200 plus VAT, were introduced by royalty collection agency PPL in September.

£200 is approx. $450.

[kidfromkibbly]

Boy am I glad I live in Ireland. It's rare that that many places here would give a toss about what your playing. I've never heard any of my mates having been requested to present proof of ownership.