http://remixreport.com/black-thursday/#more-2103
April 15th, 2011 was a very sad day for those of us who enjoyed/profited from online poker. That’s the day the government arrested the head honchos of all the top sites which lead to US players officially being banned from playing. That day is now referred to as “Black Friday” in the poker community. Well, a little over two months later, it looks as though the same thing may be happening in the DJ world. First Beezo, and more recently YourRemix and StrictlyHits have all been taken down. Some of us took advantage of these sites more than others, but you can’t deny that they were all very useful. Beezo was huge for exposure and the remix sites give us tracks, that if used properly, helped us out a lot in the clubs.
We can’t really go into detail about why this is happening now, because we don’t know the specifics for sure. The question is, what’s next?? As DJ Deville asked, “Are they trying to destroy DJing altogether???” I guess time will tell, and the way it’s going, we will know soon just how bad things are going to get.
Recently a 45 page “blacklist” of websites was posted by an ad agency, GroupM, which services many top record labels. This blacklist forbids ads to be posted on any of the listed sites. The recently blocked StrictlyHits was one of the listed sites. So, what does this “blacklist” mean? Will GroupM attempt to get ICE to shut these sites down like many counterfeit goods sites, selling knockoff purses and DVD’s, have been recently? This leads to many questions and very few answers at this time.
What’s your take? Take our survey AND see the 45 page “blacklist” after the break!
UPDATE:
While it’s still unclear who exactly is behind our favorite sites being removed from the internet, it’s becoming more and more clear that the internet as we know it is under fire. An article that came out on Wednesday on CNET explains how the RIAA & MPAA are close to finalizing deals with some of the top ISP’s including Comcast, ATT & Verizon in which the ISP’s would punish users who are accused of piracy by the RIAA or MPAA without going through any legal process. They don’t have to prove anything! Only accuse.
This could be a bumpy ride for us DJs. While new services like Rdio, Moog, Amazon Cloud Player & iCloud may be great for the masses and are definitely good for the recording industry as a whole, they don’t help us DJs AT ALL! We can’t mix music with these services. Will this lead to the labels releasing fewer and fewer songs in a non-streamable format? Will we be able to get MP3′s in 5-10 years? Pretty scary stuff!
This brings a cause to light that’s near and dear to my heart. That’s Net Neutrality. We really can’t just sit back and watch our free and open internet disappear before our very eyes. For more information on Net Neutrality please visit savetheinternet.com.
Hopefully we will have some details of exactly what has caused these sites to disappear. Stay tuned!
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SURVEY (Please leave your answers in the comments section)
1) Should DJ’s unite against the record labels and boycot songs/artists?
2) Would it make a difference?
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