Original
Message 1/6
Date: 19-Jul-02 @ 02:26 PM -
Licencing DJ Mix CD's
so I called them up and asked:
"If i was a dj and wanted to sell my mixes on CD at say a tenner per CD - what the deal with licencing"
"well you send us a tracklist and we issue permissions, in most cases the companies issue us with a blanket right to licence, but some of them require each instance to be referred to them - but generaly we just licence the tracks for inclusion and charge about 6.5% - 8.5%"
"I see, so does this tracklist have to be filled ou and submitted PRIOR to selling the mix CD? or can the guy submit an account each quarter and pay commision on CD's sold?"
"No we tend to go for 'runs' - 500 minimum but sometimes we'll accept a run of 300 & you pay in advance"
"so if i wanted to knock out a mix Cd LEGALY i'd need to pre-order licencing for 300 minimum sales at a max 8% each CD... well that would be 250 quid or so for 300 CD's @ a tenner each, and many DJ's who just sell one CD here and one CD there will probably say to themselves, 'that is too much to come up with upfront', and just bypass paying royalties... So you don't have a system to cater for this?... See it strikes me that most of the pirating is low level in this biz and yet all schemes cater for companies who make money, but roots level operations are not given any way IN to the sysytem so they tend to bypass the system and bootleg and pay no royalties"
"True that's an interesting scenario, we've never had an enquiry like this before"
"Well I'm interested possibly to setup a website so DJ's can sell their mix cd's LEGALY online... What about if WE (the site) pre-booked 300/500 mix CD MCPS fee's and then submitted the tracklist for each CD added by joining DJ's on a sort of 'site account' and then DJ's could join up and add their lo-fi mi, complete their 'included tracks' listing form and sell the CD of it for say a tenner, and it's all legal & we would send in the fee's upfront to cover 500 mix CD's sold, and keep on topping it up!!!"
"We've never been asked that before, I think we'll have to look into it, obviously you know the business quite well, and that is a very interesting idea"
"well yes, I'm not a DJ but I know 'the biz' & also I know most DJ's who do that sort of thing (amateurs, not 'Cream Vol-25' etc) CANNOT get a licence and thus it drives it all underground and no-one pays at all!"
"Interesting, very interesting, yes I'll make some enquiries about that and get back to you, it sounds like a very good idea"
so lets see... possibly we can setup a system to allow the DJ's to sell mix CD's online LEGALY!
let's wait and see.
However, one upshot of this is that now you know... IF you are a DJ and want to manufacture 500 CD's to sell at gigs, markets, shops etc you CAN pay the upfront 250-ish quid fee to MCPS and have a 100% LEGAL mix CD for sale anytime !! - you might NOt have to even have a production run upfront, as long as you pre-book your 300 or 500 'licences' then you can probably burn & sell as you go up to a max of 500 or whatever you order licences for...
I'll find out more.
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