What copyrights do you need to djay?

DJ Bobby V wrote:

In the US the club pays a fee to ASCAP & BMI. This allows them to play just about anything they want.

More or less the same setup here in Blighty (though, obviously, with different agencies). However, and I’m guessing the States has the same system more-or-less, mobile DJ’s (the guys who use all there own kit and do weddings, birthdays etc) will have to have their own personal licences as quite often they can be playing in venues that don’t have their own licence.

Typically:

If the venue has a licence (which will pretty much be ALL bars/clubs where music is played by a "DJ"), you don’t need one. If it doesn’t (like a community hall or hotel) then you do.

DJ Bobby V wrote:

although a lot guys neglect to get it until they get caught.

Same here too… then claim "But this is my first gig" while standing by thousands of pounds/dollars worth of PA equipment and lighting!

U need to pay me a 100 dollars and everything will be just fine, believe me

joshlawson wrote:

cheers lads, kinda get it now, who is the governing body that monitor these things in the Uk?

That would be the MCPS-PRS which is an alliance of 2 company’s brought together:

Mechanical Copyright Protection Society & Performing Rights Society

MCPS deals with mechanical copyright of intellectual property and PRS deals with collecting royalties from music being played/distributed to the public.

As mentioned previously, any bar, club, shop or any other public place that plays music to the public has to have a licence to do so and this fee is paid to the PRS.

So if your djing using cds or vinyl this licence covers you. If however you are using a laptop to play mp3, wma, aac or other digital file formats via some form of software then you require a seperate licence for doing so!

Info on this and other stuff can be found at the following link:

http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/musi … s/b2b.aspx

hope this helps ;)[/url]