http://www.djmag.com/newsfeat173.php

bit sceptical about this one, sounds alot more to me as DJ TAX.

as in the article, it says that djs have been using digital formats for years but only now has such a scheme been drawn up.

regardless of downloading a track legally off the internet, you have to buy a special licence which costs £200 a year to dj with a laptop.

the interesting part is that if you download music (legally) and burn it onto CD and play it out, then you are breaking it since the new licence doesnt cover using cd players.
therefore, there must be atleast 90% of the population of djs who play out around the world breaking the law.

i want to make a couple of points about this new "licence",

firstly, if not just the uk but copywrite companies around the world take up the idea, it would mean that forgetting the "superstar" djs, the majority of young, aspiring, novice djs and the ones who work every week in bars will struggle to afford to make a living out of the scene and many talented young kids who aspire to get heard will be stuck in the bedroom and it will end up nothing more than a passing hobby.

everyone knows that digital is the future of djing and the internet is the only way for djs hoping to get noticed, to get the upfront new tunes to stand out from the same old crowd playing the same thing each week.
playing the recently released tiesto tune like everyone else in the same country every week aint gonna make you stand out and get a foot in the door for regular work.
you need fresh tunes and to stay up to date and the internet through legal sites is the way forward.

but once you've found thes great tracks and found yourself "a sound" thats unique to you as a dj and want to get out there, start your own nights, get playing at a local bar etc, you need something to play these great tracks on.

firstly you need to decide out of two of the most popular options currently on the market.

1) the most popular so far is to dj using CD players, to get a decent pair then your talking £800-£1200.

or

2) using digital dj platforms with a laptop. a decent laptop can cost anywhere between £400-£1000. then you need the software and hardware to use your laptop to mix with and that can cost around £500-£600.

so you can see where im going. yes its an expensive hobby but will this "digital music licence" be one step too far for not just beginners but the djs out on the circuit doing bars and clubs once or twice a week?.

if you want to have a serious go at djing and get gigs playing out while moving into the digital age, you will have to fork out around £1500-£2000 to start with and thats without decks (for final scratch etc) and a mixer.

if you are starting out and playing only 1 or 2 gigs every 6-8 weeks then that £200 licence seems a bit expensive and you will struggle to break even and afford the next latest tracks that cost around £1 per download.
if you are a budding dj and put your own nights on once a month or now and again and dj one or two guest sets a year then its hard to see how you can make going digital a reasonable option unless you are pretty well off and dont mind throwing your money about.

with the whole scene moving fast into the digial age and the avaliability of the latest tracks on vinyl drying up completely in high street music stores and in limited amounts in specialist stores, the only way is to get into digital music if you want to survive and if the cost of being a dj massively outweighs being able to pay the bills then you will find more and more djs playing crappy quality tunes like the crazy frog for months on end because its simply too expensive to keep up to date and use the best format to bring new music to the dancefloor.

djing has thrived over the last 10 years because for the dj, unlike a car where you need a licence, road tax, insurance and MOT to go on top of actually buying a car and filling it with petrol, with djing all you had to do was buy a set of decks and buy some music to play on it and if your lucky then go out and play it to lots of people and have fun.
you didnt need to worry about anything else cos only the venue had to be covered with a performance licence.
now it seems, this new licence will make it harder for young talent to get into the scene and try to break it and have possibly a detrimental effect on the future of quality music and events in clubland.

you could argue that the copywrite industry have jumped quickly onto a growing market to get their cut out of the pie. seeing how much intrest new technology and djing has developed.

the problem djs face is that these companies can introduce things like this new licence without opposition because we have to pay it in order to carry on doing something we love and do it well.

the licence according to their website

http://www.digitaldj.co.uk/

costs £250 excluding VAT (so it totals about £300 a year)and what i thought took the piss, offers an incentive for an extra £50 an year.... access to their website which apparently is the only one dedicated to digital djing and offers news, reviews and interviews with other digital djs.

my opinion, no matter how they dress it up, we already pay to download the newest tunes but now the recording copywrite industry want to charge us more by making us buy a licence in order to play the tunes we have bought legally.

it sounds nothing more to me than DJ TAX.

(ps. watch out all of you who play your cdr's out because even with this licence you are breaking the law and can be fined, it stinks)