Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 12:17 pm
Gotta agree with Reuben here. I wouldn't let a DJ who I knew to be a thief DJ at my events, no matter how popular.
Kalman
Kalman
Nate Dogg wrote:Sorry for the long post.
While this is not a new situation, I don’t know if this has ever been a thread topic, only something that has been mentioned in passing in other threads. Feel free to post relevant threads if you want, there are a lot of threads, I may have missed something.
With all the file sharing going around, I am starting to come across more DJs who hardly own any music acquired through legitimate means. They have bought very few CDs from stores, legitimate download sites (eMusic, iTunes, etc…). In almost all cases, these are young, college age kids who traded MP3 collections with their fellow dancers, who traded with other friends, etc... Often, they don't know much about what they are have, just that it sounds good.
I am kind of torn, I can see how helpful MP3s and file sharing has been for small scenes, letting music reached places where it was lacking. On the other hand, as somebody who spends a small fortune on CDs, I am thinking that these DJs are a bit out of line, they have not made the sacrifices that the rest of us have made. It is not like they supplemented a decent collection with a few CDRs or MP3s. Virtually their entire collection is not legit.
For the record:
I am not advocating that we not DJ from CD-Rs or MP3s. DJing from original CDs is too big of a theft risk.
I am very much against DJs who think they “own” songs, the biggest compliment you can give a DJ is to start playing a song you heard in their set.
A few questions I am struggling with, feel free to reply to one of them if you want?
Should a DJ demonstrate that they actually own music before they promote themselves as DJs in a competitive scene? If so, what is an acceptable percentage of legitimately owned music (100%, 80%)?
I know a DJ who lost his entire legitimate collection to theft, he now DJs mostly from copies his friends gave him? Should he be judged the same way? Should he just retire while he is rebuilding?
Is an effective DJ who plays sets from a large collection, consisting almost entirely of illegitimate tunes better than a less effective DJ who plays sets from his or her small, weak, legitimate collection?
Should I just sit back and not worry about this and just realize that this is how things are, this sort of thing is inevitable, etc... Or, should I share my feelings with some of the DJs with questionable collections?
As a local event organizer, should I take steps to only use DJs who own the music they play?
Are all pirates equal?
I am not really trying to preach any particular viewpoint, I am just real curious as to what the DJs on this Board feel about these issues.
Nathan
Change of heart, Nathan?Nate Dogg wrote:I think DJs who know their collection and audience are going to be popular DJs, whether or not they acquired a lot of their music via hard drive trades.
DJs who already had extensive collections to begin with are probably going to slowly review and filter anything they get through a mass trade.
I don't think you can say that trading leads to bad DJing in every instance. However, mass trading does lower the barrier to entry for being a DJ and it does allow some bad DJs to get into the mix. People who would never have the time, money, knowlege to start DJing suddenly have the music.
I know some "bad" DJs who only play the CDs they bought themselves. I also know some "good" DJs who have not spent hardly any money on CDs, yet are as popular as DJs who have bought thousands of CDs. Most dancers don't care.
In the end, I try not to get very frustrated about it. The world is what it is today.
My thinking has evolved over time, you can call it a change of heart. But, it is not like I though trading was wrong before and now it is ok, or vice versa. I used to be mad and now I am at peace with the situation.mousethief wrote:So, it is a change of heart then. I'm not going to beat you up about it. Just wanted to make sure.
Kalman
I undestand this better than you might think. I'm a software developer... Music and Software have a lot in common on this. I'm a believe of the try before you buy approach to both music and software. It's in this compacity only do I usually "exchange" music. The problem is that most people aren't as honest as I am, and will not buy the music. I wouldn't hesitate to give you, Reuben, a few songs because I know that if you liked the songs you'd go buy the CD, or if you didn't you'd toss them and never DJ from them.GuruReuben wrote:So basically what you're saying is that you wouldn't say a word if you were at a Record Shop and watched some kid stuff some CDs into his jacket.
Only in this case, we're talking about some kid stuffing a few hundred CDs into his portable hard drive. There really is no difference between these two.
Quite frankly this should piss more people off. The problem is it doesn't. Unless someone is personally being hurt by something they don't give a shit about the illegal activities of another. Ironically, it's this same practice and attitude that will end up making them a target in the long run.
Disclaimer: In my earlier post I was attempting to be ironic and did not intend to imply advocacy of piracy.GuruReuben wrote:You didn't implied that but a few others did.
I don't think record labels do that for the relatively obscure music that we DJ. Pop, rock, hip-hop and even modern jazz all have huge audiences that pull in large ammounts of money? Of course the record labels can afford to give free CDs out to the club DJs. But there isn't big money to be made off of the lindy hop and swing dance crowd, so it's really a different issue. There are so few of us that every little bit of money that we put into our industry helps, because as Reuben said, if they don't make some money off of it, why would they possibly spend money to restore and remaster old recordings, or record modern small-name bands for that matter?Roy wrote:I knew a guy who would get around 15 records a day mailed to him for no charge from the record companies. Why? because they wanted their songs played at dance clubs, because then other people would hear it and want to buy it.