I was recording a mix on my turntables when I spotted a little warning thing on one of the record labels that asserted that the record could not be copied, recorded or used in public performance. That made me laugh - it’s a vinyl DJ single, clearly going to be used in a lot of public performances, and who’s going to hunt down every DJ who drops a track that they don’t have rights to in front of a few hundred kids at a rave or in a club?
But then I got to thinking; what if you were one of those DJ’s who gets flown in as a headliner and paid thousands of dollars to pack a club so the owners can make even more. You are making some serious cash by mixing all the best tracks that you have access to (obviously way more than what someone like me can get his hands on), and it would seem only fair that the people who actually made the music should get a cut.
I’m certain that if you were selling CD mixes you would have to secure the rights to the track, but I’m not so sure about the stuff you use for live performance mixes. Surely a superstar pro dj who has thousands upon thousands of records and is showered with promos from people who want this person to play their track isn’t paying for the rights to use every one of them, right? It’s not like they think these things out before, either, they usually pick the tracks right there in the booth out of whatever collection they’ve brought with them.
Legally speaking I’m sure they should have to pay if they are playing it publicly and making money off of it, but do they actually do it? Does anyone know?
LC