DJ Licence?

[KevMaverick]

I understand the need for licences, and your system sound quite good, but it's very different here.

It is £250 for the licence, and it only allows you to have 5000 tracks in your collection, and these tracks can only come from cd's that you own. Any downloaded tracks are not included in the licence, and are effectively, still illegal, even if downloaded legally.

If you want to add more tracks to your library, it costs £100 per 1000 tracks.

Most DJ's I know have many thousands of songs, so to act legally would cost a fortune.

[BennyB]

Sorry to hear this

Here in hungary the licence is 400€, it is valid from january till the end of december (doesn't matter if you buy it mid year, the price is the same).
You get a small plastic or laminated card, which you have to carry to every gig.

Well, here in the past, there were many wierd things. There were DJ schools, that gave a degree when you finish, and you could be employed only with that paper (plus copyright licence). And this DJ school costed... too much.

[Blackbrook]

Ben is right! If you buy music at beatport or anywhere else (even digital or analog (CDs,..)) you are not allowed to play those in public! I have had a intensive research months back to validate this.
In fact someone has to pay for you so that you are allowed to play those tracks in public. But who has to? In all of the clubs I was playing in germany this was up to the club owners or event managers. I have never got money for playing nor did I want to be paid. But I do not want to have to pay for being able to play - this is not my part asking me.
I can imagine that clubs do not like to pay that either, but they earn money because of us playing there, so they can - and this is my opinion - pay this fee.
Regarding to what Kevin said you will loose a lot of gigs because of this and this is not right! You are trying your best and end up with tied hands: don't pay the fee and loose gigs or pay the fee, get gigs and play the whole year to equalize this fee. I could live with that, £0 income for djing, but a lot of DJs are living from the money they earn with djing. So this is absolutely wrong!

[BennyB]

I agree with Steve.

But those prices in the UK force young DJ-s to choose the illegal way, and also force clubs to hire them, because they are cheaper to employ.

[KevMaverick]

The only way to offest this id to get the licence, and unfortunately, pass the cost onto the client. People will have to pay more for my services, but then comes the problem - they mgiht find someone who'll do the gig much cheaper because they haven't bothered to get their licence.

I wish it was like J-Kut in Hungary - that seems such a better system.

[hemskoc]

It is like buying a CD album of a band. Buying music from Beatport (or iTunes or whatever) is for just to have the music legaly.
The licence allows you to copy it however you want, and play it for people.
Beatport or iTunes have the same regulation as the stuff you read on CDs, which shortly say, that you are not allowed to play the bought stuff, for the public, and you are not allowed to publish the copies (as you would do in mixes), unless you pay the copyright stuff.

Hey Ben, did you have a look to the link that Kev put up on the first post - it is clearly penalising people who do not own the original cd or vinyl of a track; mixed or not mixed played to an audience. This was my original point about purchased legally paid for music online.

If you are copying, burning or transferring their work from your vinyl, CD, MP3 or CD+G collection onto a digital format such as an MP3 player, flash drive or laptop for use in your professional or semi-professional working life, you will need to purchase a ProDub Licence

These guys are asking you to buy AN ADDITIONAL LICENCE, to use digital music, as well as another licence that is more the responsibilities of the owners of the venue in the UK
So what this quote in context is saying is that YOU DO NOT have to buy a licence to broadcast protected material that you have purchased on a cd or on vinyl, so its a total load of crap - only if you use a digital copy?... It clearly states this.
As far as i know, CDs and vinyl are still broadcasting copywrited material, so therefore this company is saying thats ok. NOWHERE on there page is the copywrite act stated or enforced, leading to misinformation on the subject. They are just trying to milk people for using digital formats.
Sounds like a total con job to me

And to Kev:
this is another clause stated

The owner/proprietor of the premises in the UK is normally responsible for obtaining a Music Licence for the public performance of copyright music.

Cheers

[BennyB]

The only way to offest this id to get the licence, and unfortunately, pass the cost onto the client. People will have to pay more for my services, but then comes the problem - they mgiht find someone who'll do the gig much cheaper because they haven't bothered to get their licence.

I wish it was like J-Kut in Hungary - that seems such a better system.

Geographicly J-kut and I are not so far from each other (about a 80-90 Km-s), but the border between Austria and Hungary will always be the border between western and Eastern Europe.

@Hemskoc: Well, it can be this way in other countries, but not in hungary. That is the reason why so many people DJ here.
There are jokes about it, that in clubs, the number of DJs are bigger than the audience

[hemskoc]

There are jokes about it, that in clubs, the number of DJs are bigger than the audience

Thats crazy! i know here everyone wants to be a DJ!
Cheers

[BennyB]

There are jokes about it, that in clubs, the number of DJs are bigger than the audience

Thats crazy! i know here everyone wants to be a DJ!
Cheers

Yeah... and this theme goes back to the "DJs who don't pay for licence, and hired illegaly hoping they don't get caught" stuff...

[KevMaverick]

Geographicly J-kut and I are not so far from each other (about a 80-90 Km-s), but the border between Austria and Hungary will always be the border between western and Eastern Europe.

I'm sorry, I got the two of you mixed up!

I actually agree with licencing in pirincipal, but it just wish that the terms of the licence were fairer. Not to include downloaded music is ridiculous as I'm sure that more DJ's download their music than those who actually buy cd's!

Also, the licence allowing for only 5000 tracks is much too restrictive.