Playing Dubplates... paid/non-paid....

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Playing Dubplates… paid/non-paid…

I frequent another site called DNBArena, (breakbeat.co.uk) and came across this thread…

http://forum.breakbeat.co.uk/tm.aspx?m=1970974348

To sum up what the thread is about,

A 15 year old kid got into mixing a few months ago and had made a mix to share with the rest of the forum members, hoping for some feedback on his mixing technique, selection etc… He even went on to list his playlist.

In that playlist he had listed a ‘dubplate’ (read it on the thread, you’ll understand better what a dubplate is) … now, what I didnt realize (because I was seeing it from this kid’s point of view) where he was just doing this for fun, and practicing, he got flamed for this…really hard.

Basically, most of the forum members believe (to which I agree to some point) is to pay for your tracks before posting a mix on the internet.

and it goes on…and on… you’ll even see my post where I ask what a ‘belland’ is… haha, how should I know what that is.. I’m Canadian…eh?!

anyways..

what do you think about this? I personally feel that if you’re gonna take DJ’ing seriously or even as a career approach.. you should pay for your tracks, just to show support to the artists and the music you love. There are people out there that would disagree with me, but whatever, that’s just how I feel about it. I have the peace of mind that when I play out live, my tracks are tagged properly and at the highest quality format..and also now my property

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I’m not familiar with the esoteric ins and outs of the UK DnB scene, but this seems blown way out of proportion.

the person, regardless of age, is entirely apologetic and states future compliance yet a single individual continues to hammer on him. not professional.

I don’t want to sound prejudice but DnB types to my experience have always been remarkably elitist. your either one of them and obide in a cult manner or your garbage.

Once again, my appologies because I know there are DnB lovers here, but I’m only speaking from personal experience which is again supported by the posted link above. It’s great to have passion for your culture (any culture) but why build the walls so high and why fortify the gates so heavily?

S.

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if you download a dubplate is it a dubplate? and isn’t it a dubplate rip, not a vinyl rip. Dubplates are made from Acetate, right?

perhaps the person to persecute is the person ripping and distributing unreleased tracks, not the guy who received them.

4

WTF! What a joke! Poor kid, I hope he becomes a Super Star DJ just to rub that in there face!

So…Im not supposed to play my unreleased Depeche Mode Remixes/Dubs/Edits/Acapellas?

I dont mean to flame but come one! How many “bootleg” vinyls do you have in your crates? I have alot! Why, because some of the spanish rock or other type of music that I play never got pressed on vinyl or it was only on cd and I only play on 1200’s and swore that I never switch to digital. I say played what you got!

5

I also find myself over at D&B arena sometimes, did some work for them a few years back & funny enough got a few dub plates included in my pay :slight_smile:

As far as I know dubplates are the first preses of a record/vinyl that are made by the artist for limited distribution, friends, DJ’s & radio stations. They are also made of acetate so that they can only have a limited amount of plays on them… So If this kid has listed a dub plate in his mix he must have got it from somewhere? & if its a digital copy then naughty 15 year old!!! - kids these days! hehe.

If he isnt makin any money out of this & is jus doin it for fun then whats the harm!?

I now pay for my music as I’m sometimes payed to play it! But there is still a lack of music available to legaly download & sometimes you have to go to the dark side to get what you need!:wink:

[quote]I have the peace of mind that when I play out live, my tracks are tagged properly and at the highest quality format..and also now my property[/quote] -not if you got em off itunes :stuck_out_tongue:

6

The first presses you are talking about Moomin, are the Test pressings, and they have a way longer lifespan than dublates (dubplates around 40-50 plays) :slight_smile: Then of course, when the test pressing has been approved, you get the promos. The promos are the exact same as the test pressing. Leaving it to that Test Pressings and Promos and FINISHED product is the exact same -of course if the original test press was approved- product.

However, you have some test pressings that were not approved, another track was added, and some maybe removed. That could be considered a dub plate.

I know some people that have had a pressing plant, and they used to press some unreleased stuff on 10 copies or less, I wish I had a pressing plant, I have so much stuff that has never and will never be released (and I want it on vinyl hehe) :smiley:

7

I probably should have checked wiki before my reply..my memory aint what it used to be, hehe thanks for clearing that up :stuck_out_tongue:

http://faderonline.com/node/296
now all you need now is 8kUSD!!!

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Makes me wonder - If something is free, can it be stolen? I’m not exactly sure what the deal is with dubs, but i thought they were generally given away…

Waay too much troll-feeding in that thread.. the main guy supports piracy of ‘mainstream’ and yet not this. Hypocrite is the word i believe :roll_eyes:

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I am on page three of this discussion by the way, and maaaaan are they close minded, bashing that kid…

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It does go on a bit…

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in the case of the ‘digital dubplate’, this is my understanding of it.

dubplates are like an exclusive copy of a producers song that NO ONE has yet… as Moomin stated, usually its given to friends or big name DJ’s of the producer or label to rinse out to the general public… from what I’ve been told its also to gauge how the crowd would react to this new track… usually if the track is really kick-ass, you get people going..

“daaaamn, where can i get that track?! this DJ is awesome!..I haven’t heard any other DJs play this song…”

so usually when you have a good dubplate, you WILL get recognized as a DJ that has all the exclusive tracks before it comes out.

As for digital dubplates, I’m told this is where big name DJ(s) who have officially received a dubplate and permission from the producer himself/herself to play out and/or put in a mix,

…then someone comes along and rips these mixtapes and physically builds the track by cutting, pasting and looping sections from the mixes to create their own ‘exclusive’ copy of the track.

like, you’d get the intro from mixtape 1, and the body from mixtape 2 - cut those to loops together to partially build the track.

I guess people, mostly the ‘elitetists’ of the music genre frown upon this cuz its basically stealing the most ‘hottest’ track out right now and using it to big up your own name, which only a few select DJs should only have.

There’s probably nothing you could do to stop this from happening, but as tempting as it is to do it… to get flamed by people and possibly potential fans for you as a DJ, might not even be worth it ??.

when you really break it down, you’re banking on this whole thing…

you get popular = you get gigs = you get $$$

the way i see it, is that its almost like a slap in the face to the producer who made the track…you’re getting popular by playing a song that you didn’t pay for. Tracks nowadays are like what? $1.69 ??

…if I’m wrong someone correct me… this is my understanding of it..

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true, dubplates are acetates, so basically vinyl CD-r’s :wink:
When a track was still in progress, or for scratch-DJ’s, producers would cut a dub-plate to acetate, to play out to the crowd, or give to a few friend-DJ’s, to check how it would sound and how the crowd would react. In the UK D 'n B scene dubplates became the death of the scene, because only the top10 elite DJ’s where playing the new dubplates from their friends for ages, and when they were released full these tracks often where old and stale already to the public.
Anyway, a digital dubplate would be something like an unrelease/pre-release/promo version. Producers give friendly DJ’s unreleased tracks (now in digital format) to listen to, play out, and return their insights. If someone puts these tracks on a website or forum or something, and other people start sharing and downloading, and playing it, the value of still releasing it commercially can be quiet low.

Olaf

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You are right, but there is a but!

Most digital dubplates (or exclusive test promos) out there today are not done in the way that you are describing, they are actually uploaded as a direct rip from the “original” nothing missing, no change in quality. And that brings me to a question; who is actually doing this? The artists best mate? Brothers and sisters? The LABEL itself? The ARTIST itself?!

I have 4 quite well known friends that are artists, and they do this all the time.

I mean, the guy that actually made the track in this case, IS a member of the board, but he did not reply… Makes you wonder right?

I also know a lot of labels (and this is F A C T) that rip their stuff to mp3s and provide them to release groups or upload them via torrents before or just the day it gets released. And please do not ask how I know this, cause I can not give you that answer, you will have to trust me on this one.

Lets face it, in the end it is not the records that make the artists money, its the live and dj performances, and giving people freebees, make people go to their gigs. Its a very clever stunt they are pulling.

THOUGH, it is the small non giggin artists that suffer from it, cause their sales are not as good as the big ones.

AND let me ask one thing, have you ever seen actual sales figures from labels that are complaining about the mp3 movement? I have, from 4 labels, and they are better than ever… I wonder why!?

I am in no way saying that people should not pay for music, but I am saying do not feed the sharks! :slight_smile:

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sorry if im moving off topic, how about blogs? what is the legal state of it? as the artists and labels usualy agree on the posting it must be legal in some way, right? and if the tracks are awailable I buy them.

so how about blogs? any1 know? or is it just like promos?

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before this thread gets any longer, I want to clarify that I wouldnt consider myself an elitist in all this, I still got my devilish side in all this as well :wink: I’m not trying to preach out to everyone that you SHOULD do it “this” way… so do what you want to do … but I do believe in giving credit where credit is due, and I will pay for a club banger if a track is hot, just to show support and for the music i’m into. that’s just me personally.

But back onto the dubplate thing…

when I first read that thread about the kid, in my mind i too was like,

“what’s the big deal, its not like he’s trying to sell his mixtape…by the looks of it, he was just doing, just cuz he wanted to make one…”

but lets say hypothetically, this 15 year old kid notices the attention he’s getting by getting these exclusives and such… sooner or later (not saying he would) but possibly taking this ‘just for fun’ thing and taking it a step further?

He can potentially make money by giving the audience ‘stolen’ goods…

It like saying you had a store that sell tshirts now for 2 years…then all of a sudden, someone opens up shop beside you who got into the tshirt business 2 weeks ago but this dude has stolen/knock-off t-shirts that dont come out till next season, , and everyone goes to your competition cuz he’s got the ‘newer’ stuff…

as a business owner, that would suck on your behalf,

now take that scenario and flip that over to the dj side of the world…how would that make you feel?

yeah, i know this scenario might be wacked out but… i think people get the picture…

the only thing that I see to break this cycle is probably to either

  1. start producing your own tracks

  2. just get really really really really really good at dj’ing and use your experience to your advantage in convincing producers..

“hey, i draw in a huge crowd…I can give your tracks exposure…send me your exclusives…”

  1. marry the producers sister and get in on the family… puahahahaha :stuck_out_tongue:
16

it seems that for a lot of producers that are also DJ’s posting their new tracks/edits on blogs is the new way of promoting yourself. The money is made with the dj-gigs.

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Seriously. This is lame. I buy my tracks… but I definitely will go to any means when it hasn’t been released in the US… That seems to happen a lot. In this global market you bet I’m not going to be caught playing Put Your Hands Up for Detroit in 2007.

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As if the big ass djs never stole anything? All scenes are full of elitist craps that think that they can make the rules, but they break them themselves every fraggin day. Kind of like the government! :slight_smile:

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Totally. If a track isn’t fully released I probably wont play it as I dont want to lose respect, ESPECIALLY as a digital DJ, which is tough enough already.

If I get my hands on a dub/early release though legal means for sure I’ll drop it. I mean I can understand to an extent if I was a DJ and I had a special track / edit that I wouldnt want every last mofo playing it the Week/Month I got it out, but like with DnB if this is happening constantly it kills it.

On the other hand I think there is a big movement to DJs (especially Digital ones) doing their own edits (and productions) which brings the freshness to a set.

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LOL. Um… can you say sampling?