This is stupid. If you’re a DJ and you want to record all your stuff to your laptop and play a set off it you have to pay a £200 a year licence.
[royalty collection agency] PPL said many DJs wanted to play from laptops or MP3 players instead of records or CDs, despite the fact it was illegal without the permission of the rights owner.
Business affairs director Peter Leathem told Radio 1’s Newsbeat: “Rather than saying stop it, don’t do it, we’ve actually tried to embrace what people want to do and come up with a licence to be able to do that.”
Licensing ‘sting’
He said the £200 charge was “reasonable”, adding: “You don’t actually have to DJ using a laptop. You can use vinyl, you can use CD, so we’re saying that if it’s not worth your while spending £200 then don’t do it.”
What the fuck are they on about? If the DJ has bought the song on vinyl or CD to play it in public (and already paid for a public performance licence) then why do they have to pay again?
BoingBoing has more information. This is bloody stupid and just another sad attempt to wring money out of people.
Am I being thick or does buying the CD allow you the right to make a copy of the original?
I’m sure most of the record companies think it doesn’t. It’s another argument again. If you’ve paid for the music then you should have the right to listen to it in any way you choose, but the record companies keep trying to put stuff on their cds to stop you copying them to computers.
Easy (as in Stelios) Music.com have some free tracks. They used to have a bigger selection under CopyLeft but I can’t see that on the site any more.
There’s also at least one site where budding bands can post their demo tracks for the world to see. If I remember what the URL is, I’ll let you know.