DJs - Did You Ever Feel guilty?

[QUINNY]

I did!!!
Let me explain:
I've always had the upmost respect for musicians. Being a DJ was the best I could do, 'cos I neither had the talent nor the inclination to learn an instrument.
All my years as DJ I always had this nagging feeling that I was somehow doing the dirty on musicians by playing records for a living. I felt less than great about earning what I did, when I knew of many, many talented musicians who struggled to get the odd gig and couldn't fulfill their potential or their dreams.

Did you have any such inner demons?

[NickNack]

Guilty? No. Envious of the true musicians? Very much so.

[efunk_adelic]

Guilty? nahhh

I don't look at it that way... First of all I think of us as entertainers also. By the way I'll speak for myself.


I have a job to do... and if I don't do a good job at it... then I don't get to work anymore... I've got decisions to make, most of them in about 2 1/2 minutes. :o Play too many bad songs in a row... and I might have lost the crowd.

[DJ-Pir]

Guilty ? Nope....

Proud ? Yes, having helped the artists get known with the crowd... :lol:

Proud of helping a lot of people have a good time ? Yes

I think you should not see a dj as being a competitor for musicians or a surrogate
musician, a good dj is an artist in it's own way by the way he perceives the
mood of the audience and plays with that.

Most musicians i know of don't give a **** about dj's anyway,talented or not,
so why should you feel guilty ?


The best things in life are free, Peter

[Leatherman]

As a DJ you are promoting good music and in theory musicians should be getting paid (by the PRS in the UK) everytime you spin one of their records. Also, DJ's are one of the biggest purchasers of records, CD's etc. I think most DJ's would probably like to be able to play a musical instrument but they are doing our bit in their own way.

I think some journalists are frustrated bitter would be musicians and this often can come out in their writing

[QUINNY]

Leatherman: That was the theory, except demo records don't attract any royalties at all. No MCPS royalty is charged on them, so you can't expect PRS in return.
Anyhow, the PRS collected most of their revenues from radio plays, not discos. The disco licence was paltry compared to radio play fees.

I guess I had an advanced/deluded social conscience.

[Jimmy-Michaels]

No, not guilty at all. I was actualy a musician in the early 90s playing and lead vocals in a local 2 man rock band. We made a demo tape but the whole project crashed in the end unfortunatly after a small close to local success in the making (whatever the hell that means lol). Then the DJ thing was kinda coming about at the same time and I was self teaching myself. I look at it as a DJ makes music too with the mixing styles, etc. It's just a different kind of music art.

[Pete B]

I thought PRS paid out on club play too. Wasn't the Record Mirror club chart used to judge this? Not always a fair barometer, but better than nothing I guess.

[QUINNY]

Pete B; I think I remember something about that chart being used.

However the differences are something like,
Club licence - £1,000 p.a. (ie. maybe £5 per night)
Radio staion - £5 per record played, especially commercial radio stations.
These are not the actual figures as I don't know them, but they get the point across.

Therefore radio income is of a magnitude more than club income and radio stations are obliged to log every record played.

[DISCODISK]

in the u.k all premises that play music to the public are visited from time to time and all music played is logged,there are 3 types of visit d.j / live / general,the first two are self explanitary the last could mean shops cafes etc,playlists are then fed back and royalties should then be paid,i know this as part of my job involves this where i live.

[DISCODISK]

BTW bet you'd love to know which disco[sic] artist/s name gets submiited in this area the most

[QUINNY]

DISCODISK: It's interesting to hear that records are logged in discos nowadays. I remember back in the '80s, the manager of the venue I played used to ask for a list of records that he could put down for PRS purposes. This would have been once in a blue moon and we'd always tell him the titles of records that we liked the most. A very hit and miss affair.
Do you think it's in reality more or less the same now, or are records logged religiously?

[DISCODISK]

a d.j visit would go from around 10 till close every record PLAYED should be logged, mixes/medleys should be broken down and individually listed the only reason a record should be omitted is that it couldnt be identified and the d.j was uncoperative but then there would be a line for key words like 'everybody stop at the body shop,everything is free ooohhwee' and somebody will work on that line and do their best to work it out,a visit to a specific club would still be once in a blue moon,but last year a club came out of the hat three times in a couple of months.

[DISCODISK]

another intersesting thing,last year sony bought the rights to the song happy birthday,not the stevie wonder tune the happy birthday to youuuu,happy birthday to youuu one so if that gets sung sony hold out their hands!