RhemyD

Spitfire your story sound almost word for word mine! Started back in 2004 when I was in year 10. Had been doing music since forever, being a singer principally and a little bit of an all rounder with everything else. Met a guy who drummed in this jazz invitation choir I was in who wanted someone to cover a gig he was doing (we both had no idea). I went to this 50th and played music from 4 sources, his 2 CDJ100's my iPod and my laptop playing iTunes. Dodgiest shit I have ever done. didnt really do much more from there untill end of 2006 when I got my hands on Virtual DJ but unfortunatly couldnt use it as I joined the Air Force and went to ADFA for 8 months a couple of months later. Quit defence and came back and worked for a local mobile company for a while untill i got sick of thier shit and went out on my own. All the way through this been learning from online videos, reading anything I could and just absorbing info from forums. You continue to learn right the way through, I've just gained a mentor myself and am now learning all new advanced techniques from an ex Brisbane DJ with 20 years + behind him. Best advice is to learn form everywhere you do/go. Best experience is always gained from actually performing although I do rate the idea of Fridge full of beer and a decent DJ to teach.

Fav song thats starting to get real air time is Shock Collar - Ian Carey. As for you guys pulling out all these unknown tunes (unknown in the chart sense), where do you find all your music? AS for the side convo with Dennis that's occured here the only thing I would like to add is although many of you do it as a hobby by not asking for correct rates in night clubs you are undercutting the industry as a whole. I make most of my money DJ in clubs and depending on the set I charge anywhere from $50 - $120 an hour. If you are just getting drinks and meeting girls then you NEED to start charging otherwise you are just undervaluing the industry. Dennis, not everything is about mobile gigs mate. Mobile gigs may be where a lot of the money is but people do DJ for other reasons. You sound like you are in it just for money. Someone once said that ppl dj for 3 reasons: 1. For fame. 2. For Money. 3. For the Love. I do it for the money and for the love of the music. The fame I am not worried about but if you are jsut doing it for the money then, I am going to say, You are what is wrong with the industry.

Dennis.... how can you make a statement saying most of the users of the forum are breaking copyright. If this was the case the authorities would've done something about it by now. You can't make statements like that! My post in this topic had nothing to do with Copyright a frankly I don't care! I am here on this board to contribute by helping others and to obtain help when I am in need from the wider community. You are lucky that the moderators on this board are not as strict as on others as this is WAY off topic and would lead to you being banned.

And I am not disputing that fact, I have had a fellow producer had all his music confiscated for a mandatory search for illegal material as he had worked with a radio jock who got busted for using pirated material. What I am saying is that you fail continously to actually read what people are asking and consequently go out on a witch hunt trying to scare out young new commers for the only reason I can surmise is to avoid compertition. Everyone knows that if you do something illegal its a matter of when you get caught not if. Further more the fact that new commers are here only proves that they are willing to do the research and find out what is actually involved in the art of DJing. To perform in a club you need no licences; so long as your music is legit you will be fine. To perform as a mobile DJ the only licence you need to invest in is a PPCA licence as it is the venues responsibilty to have APRA/AMCOS licence. Stop posting stuff about MIPI, they arn't even the ones that investigate DJs... APRA DO!

Agreed! DJs supporting/playing tunes = sales.

in the mix is also heavily sponserd by labels such as BMG and as such this kind of discussion wouldn't last long...

ADJF is the largest Australian ONLY forum that I have come across. I talk about this with DJ friends IRL as well as on facebook etc and most of them agree with me. The ones that get free music sent out to them by labels ofcourse don't see it quite the same way...

Won't get anything going with negative attitudes like that mate. Industry reforms don't happen over night but, they do happen. If enough people are supportive of this I might just follow it up with some action to local MP's so that we can at least meet and discuss the copyright act and the needs of DJ's. Dialogue is the first step to anything.

Cheers Buck_Choi and ChevChelios. Dennis is a mindless drone who just follows the rules without acutally looking at them criticaling and realising that we actually are getting screwed big time. paying a fee for a fee, or a tax on a tax is called extortion... its effectivly what we are supposed to be doing.

Hey guys, Long time no see, I know I've been slack with posting got married and all that jazz so yeah been too busy for the network side of DJn. Anyways, I'm finding that we are severly under represented in the music industry. Was talking with a firend of mine who comes from Brisbane where he had to return for an APRA inspection. Basically, they confiscated all his music, CD's and HDD's for checking purposes to make sure there was no breach of copyright. Thing is APRA, ARIA, PPCA, MIPI all hold a avid intrest in DJs and make sure we arn't breaking the law however, theres no one in Australia representing our needs and views. I understand, like most, that we make a living from others works and they should be compensated for their work. However, why should we have to pay over $1500+ a year in fees just to do the basic things we as DJs need to do in this digital age, if we buy a track we should be able to burn it to CD, and put it into a format to use without paying additional fees. our (or the clubs) Performance licences should compenstate the artist for his rights to the performance of the music. That should be all we have to pay rather then all this format shifting bull shit. We have a pretty raw deal in the music industry. I mean we advertise the latest and greatest tracks to the general public and we have to pay for the promo release! Every other country (UK, USA, EURO etc) has a DJ association which acts like a union and looks after its members interests. We have nothing like this and consequently have no representation at the policy making level in government. The copyright act is geared towards punishing DJs because ARIA a few years ago pertitioned the government to change it to what it is today. How did they do that? By donations made to support the politicians campaigns. Looks like he who hath the money maketh the law. DO people agree with me on this, that we need representation or am I getting fired up about something that is irrelevant to most DJs? Sorry for long post.

Dennis... you really havn't done the research have you? Everytime I read one of your posts I find something flawed with what you say. E2 under PPCA is for venues that run dance parties... as a mobile DJ you DO NOT need this licence, it is the venues responsibility. A mobile DJ needs tarrif F and that is it. If you are a VJ as well (Video mixing) then you require FW. Stop trying to confuse the young guns that are trying to ask for help. I spent a good 24 months looking at licences before i even though about starting my own company because I was worried about the cost of it all. This is my sources, looking, emailing, ringing and contacting diffrent departments for over 24 months and I still do it on a continuous basis. I am currently having an argument with ARIA about their format shifting licence as there are massivly large grey holes in there contract law. ie. they tell you you need it for burning mp3s to cd however the licence only specificly allows the opposite, ripping from CD to mp3. Most digital download sites allow you to burn it as part of thier terms and conditons though. Anyway enough hijacking with that ideal, thats for another topic. Back on topic. PPCA licence is around $200 for the average DJ for a single issue licence under tarrif F which licences you to play protected works thorugh one DJ system by one DJ only. Most venues have their own licences but it is a nessecity for mobil DJs to have this licence as most halls and private venues wont have licences.

Dennis has a point (although, off topic and highly repetitive). Back on topic: I started DJn for a mobile company back in 2005 when I first started DJn for "real money". They paid me $16 an hour after supplying me with 2 months of useless training. Mobile DJ training will be on how to pick music based on a wedding and not on the DJing that most of you will be after (beat matching, sampling, turntablism). Be warned that most of these places will rip you off and undervalue your services. It is useful to learn how to read a crowd, dealing with requests and how to use a microphone. Many of these skills get over looked by most club jocks and as such it can give you an edge. Unfortunatly though, you will get riped off in most cases. I now do club work and mobile work through my own company. My mobile work I use a booking agent who understands the need to sustain the industry. As such I make sure my minumum rates are paid regardless of the gig I am doing. My rates start from $50ph but this is at the low end of the spectrum. When negotiating a wage you must understand you need to cover your own overheads ie. music, licence fees, equipment costs and travel. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WORK FOR FREE! Do not under value your skills. Network with other DJs in your area to work out what sort of rates to charge. Also, if you are just starting out the read as much as you can. Knowledge is power.

VIP area access isn't that difficult to ascertain. Basicly anyone who is willing to share information freely to others, isn't selfish with the ideas of free access and who is willing to help fellow DJs for the benifit of the industry as a whole. There are way to many people out there (especially in Adelaide) that don't understand the ideas that DJing is part of the music industry and the bigwigs in said industry already screw us over enough without DJs doing it to each other.

Stick with promo only subscription services. Costs me around $100 a month for the various resources I subscribe to both nationally and internationally.

I've got a residency at the Woolshed here in adelaide and we have a mechanical bull... two words.... mini skirt. The amount of club skanks that come in and get on the bull only to realise that their dresses are too short. From where the booth is its a clear view... to make matters worse. A few months back this girl came in with no underwear on....

pro user is what they call people who purchase the pro version of the software vs the home version... $250ish diffrence USD, New release 6.0.2 fixes the netsearch feature. used it last night at a gig. was great!

Well I'll be, Dennis, i've been trying to get in contact with you for the last 2 years since i found the webpage, none of the contact links worked though. I'm keen to do it but, i dont have time or resources to do it on my own.

back on topic though, another resource thats legal for us to use is embeded in VirualDJ latest release. It's called netsearch... stream music live off of the net, totally legal too!

it'd be based on american copyright laws which are very similar so as far as thats concerned i see no issue with it. Also because it's avalible for pro users only of the software ther eis no subscription fee. ATM though they are having issues wth their servers etc and i'm expecting a patch to be realeased in coming weeks to fix it. Coz, it don't work!

Well i know there once upon a time was a DJ Association of Australia but it seemed to dissappear around 1999... dont know if thats of any use.

anyone keen to do the leg work?

Older mixer and CD players because it's what i've got lying around/ been given atm and can't afford the funds to upgrade to a CMX3000 rack mounted Pioneer CD players as well as a DJM600 industry standard mixer. Ideally it would be a A+H Zone92 but with a 3 year old and another one on the way i don't see that happening any time soon! progress! Ok last week my friend and I put our tools together again and decided to finally get up and do the next stage on the mobile console; Integrating on board computing power! Console with equipment removed and old fan mod removed (it burned it self out due to a short circuit i had to do as a punter broke the switch!) 640 Watt Power Supply new cooling fan for side Power Supply, HDD and MB mounted in place New side patch panel, note USB and VGA inputs. Patch Bay Working! instaling keyboard velcro Keyboard mounted Additional to the above photos it now contains an additional secondary hdd and also a wireless network card. ATM its a little slow so i've got some old PC133 SD Ram coming in the post and will boost its RAM to 1.25GB. Not bad considering we pulled the Computer from an abandond job site when some friends moved in with work! Total cost of upgrade less then $80! Next project is to mount a screen or additionally put another screen on the front of the console for VJing and Logo/photo displays!

LOLZ

finally got around to upgrading to the new version of VDJ and noticed there was some new improovements as well as additional featuers like netsearch. Basically, if someone come sup to you and requests a song yo can use your interent connection to search for the song on promo/dj only websites and can then play it from there.... they say its all legit and legal but i'm wondeirng what peoples thoughts are about it?

duck for cover are great! I use them... its $100,000 per year (must earn under) and premimus are like $200. You need it for private fucntions and some places insist on you having it otherwise they wont cover you.