the LEGALITIES of DJing

[RhemyD]

Hey guys sorry is been so long since I've been active on the forums. I've had a lot of personal shit go down over the last 6 months as well as Uni taking its toll.

Hopfully i can be of assistance again. Let me TRY and address the issues you guys are asking about with the clarity that i have come to understand that is the gray areas in the music industry.

Firstly, if you're not making money off of DJ'ing then you've got no dramas. The record industry is only interested in fining you etc if you are causing them loss of bussiness. Its the same as any company really.

Second, you need to be lisenced. There is no two ways about it. I know its shit but if you are making money from DJing then 9 times out of 10 you NEED a PPCA lisence. I have juste recently secured another mobile contract through a secondary company who is now acting as a booking agent for me and he hired me based on the fact that I have back up gear if my laptop fries itself and that i am lisenced under PPCA. As far as ARIA/AMCOS and APRA are concerned most of those lisenced are covered by the venue.

Format shifting

now this is a very interesting topic that i would realyl like some clarification from the industry on. My intepritation of the laws are thus. If you are changing the music from one format to another you need a lisence. My personal view on this is that its stupid and extremly hard to police but hey, who am i to argue with the industry.

My views on this are that we are DJ's, we promote the music we play. If it wasnt for us 50-90% on the private purchases of the music in club charts etc would not happen if we were not playing the music. In the past record companies have been known to send out music free to DJ's under promo copies. I dont think this happens as much any more but it should.

What I would like to see happen is a group of us getting together to form a DJ's union so that we can discuss with the industry one-on-one about these issues because not even ARIA etc will give me straight answers on these topics.