ADJA press release

Albatross · Jan 30, 2021

How is anyone ever going to get into the DJ industry if you have to prove that you're a working DJ to get access to professional tools?

I understand that a record pool isn't the only place to get music, but for all of the DJ friendly edits, it's pretty necessary.

Jeff Romard · Jan 31, 2021

Albatross said:
How is anyone ever going to get into the DJ industry if you have to prove that you're a working DJ to get access to professional tools?

I understand that a record pool isn't the only place to get music, but for all of the DJ friendly edits, it's pretty necessary.

Right back to what I said in the first post

Jeff Romard said:
Once again you can see the music industry and the ADJA shooting itself in the foot

The people they convinced to pay for music will just head back to illegal downloads or Spotify or buck a song downloads. There is no good ending to this dumb move

SEDJ · Jan 31, 2021

ittigger said:
It's already bogus .. '"meet at least 4"' while also stating 'this one requirement is all that is needed if you meet it'.

Full context of the part I quoted, I don't think you need to meet all 4 though, but its still a bit confusing.

3) Are these requirements difficult? No. Some are SUPER EASY and if you cannot meet at least 4, you're probably not really "in" the business but more of a hobbyist...which is cool and you may not even NEED a record pool in the first place.

And here is the full test of the post, its long.

On July 30, 2020...I made a post about new requirements Sony would be placing on record pools if they wanted to continue servicing content. No one said "boo" other than to keep them posted. This is me keeping you posted.
Yesterday,
Hugo Drax
of the
ADJA
shared with his members a few of the final qualifications that people who were already members didn't have to worry about and some of you took it as an advertisement for that DJ Association. It wasn't. Lot of vitriol too which is disappointing becasue I've worked with Drax at Pioneer and Promo Only and that man has his faults like any other but he has really TRIED to make this industry a better place for us all. You should respect that or keep it moving. This is place to share ideas, not to bash individuals or organizations. Do that on your page. Taking my mod hat off now...

I'm here to answer some of the points brought up. If you see a comment from someone who isn't a rep from the Business Affairs dept at Sony or actually works for a Record Pool as an owner or Upper Management, believe what they say at your own risk. Actually...don't. Folks like that are the reason the US is in the mess we are in. These folks need to stop making statements that indicate they know what they're talking about when you don't. The same guys probably go to the doctor and start arguing with him/her about what they read on WebMD.

Yes...there are requirements. Yes....any subscription based pool going forward servicing Sony content will be required to ask for these. YES....it will be easily enforceable no matter what DJ John Doe who only DJs tells you.

1) How will it be easily enforceable?
a. Record Pools (even illegal ones) are at the mercy of what labels put out. If a label is made aware of impropriety, they can issue a cease and desist to illegal pools and they can stop servicing content immediately to legal ones. The illegal ones risk being sued to continue using that content at that point (I know you've noticed pools lacking Sony stuff...now you know why). Legal pools run the risk of not being able to renegotiate contracts for future servicing.
b. Pools receiving Sony content can easily be "shopped" by the label. How? Glad you asked! A label rep signs up using false credentials and a pool lets them "in"....now Sony has cause for an audit. Noooooo! Finding multiple cases of fraudulent credentials could result in a termination of the contract. Since we depend on that content to service to subscribers, pools will do their best to maintain the standards set.
2) How will it affect you the DJ who is already signed to a subscription-based record pool? It won't. We aren't required (yet) to collect the information from folks already subscribed...just those new subscribers going forward. That being the case, Promo Only is still going to try and collect that information from current members when we talk to them but it won't be mandatory until Sony deems it so. Other pools (legal and otherwise) are currently trying to negotiate their contracts and will get there too.

3) Are these requirements difficult? No. Some are SUPER EASY and if you cannot meet at least 4, you're probably not really "in" the business but more of a hobbyist...which is cool and you may not even NEED a record pool in the first place.

4) Are these requirements in place already on record pool websites? Some. Promo Only is working on getting ours added. A few pools who have already gotten "right" with Sony have also added these. NOTE: Just because a pool may have these requirements does not make them legal. The same standards of no back catalog audio, territory restrictions, unlimited content, etc...still apply. They may not do that with Sony content, but they still aren't "right" with Warner or Universal.

5) You've typed a lot and I've been very patient but can you please just list the 12 options so I can get on with my life? Sure. No problem. Thanks for paying attention this long, ya filthy animals!

SEDJ · Jan 31, 2021

Jeff Romard said:
The people they convinced to pay for music will just head back to illegal downloads or Spotify or buck a song downloads. There is no good ending to this dumb move

Right, making content harder to get is only going to push many to pirate, I get not being fully legit, but least they are paying for the music.

Scott Hanna · Jan 31, 2021

Does anyone know of anyone, or heard of anyone that paid for a record pool subscription as a way to get access to cheaper music?

This really sounds like a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

steve149 · Jan 31, 2021

Are they working a similar Reddit WallStreetBets scheme somewhere?

Jeff Romard · Jan 31, 2021

azdeejay said:
Right, making content harder to get is only going to push many to pirate, I get not being fully legit, but least they are paying for the music.

In all honesty 4 of the 12 aren't hard to achieve and even if you don't currently have them in an hour or two you could. Many might feel why bother though. The pools are for convenience not cost effectiveness. Most DJ's that they feel are unsavory have social media pages and websites. I feel Drax missed a great opportunity for self promotion there when he says no Vistaprint cards he didn't mention the ADJA membership qualifies you for discounts on printing.

Drax is an OK guy and believes in what he is doing and saying but his best interest don't always translate to the best interest of most mobile DJ's

Scott Hanna · Jan 31, 2021

Jeff Romard said:
In all honesty 4 of the 12 aren't hard to achieve and even if you don't currently have them in an hour or two you could. Many might feel why bother though. The pools are for convenience not cost effectiveness. Most DJ's that they feel are unsavory have social media pages and websites. I feel Drax missed a great opportunity for self promotion there when he says no Vistaprint cards he didn't mention the ADJA membership qualifies you for discounts on printing.

Drax is an OK guy and believes in what he is doing and saying but his best interest don't always translate to the best interest of most mobile DJ's

Busted! Just think of all the people who paid to have a fake set of business cards made up by vista print so they can qualify to pay a record pool. Those people are so screwed.

They’ll now be forced to settle for Spotify or Apple Music. They’ll have to pay less and be forced to settle for access to all music, not just new releases.

Suckers!!

Proformance · Jan 31, 2021

Albatross said:
I understand that a record pool isn't the only place to get music, but for all of the DJ friendly edits, it's pretty necessary.

Nothing could be farther from reality.
Sure, in the 1980's there were limited record pools - open ONLy to broadcasters and DJs with confirmed club residency, and those referred by the same.

All of that changed with Compact Discs when revenue from compulsory licensing exploded and the demand for digital re-issues rose rapidly. Promo Only for example, is not some great innovation for DJs. We can thank independent distributors for licensing and producing a multitude of retail compilations and greatest hits CDs to satisfy both the public demand, mobile, club, and DJs everywhere. The Compact Disc did more for DJing than any other innovation to date - now anyone who wanted to could be a DJ and with computers now everyone is! That's the democracy of innovation and it's a GOOD THING.

Long before any of the current record pools existed I had compiled 5 complete mobile CD libraries made up entirely of retail product. My average cost per CD to do that was only $8. I only adopted Promo Only as a pool provider after I went back to operating solo, mostly because it frees up more of my time with respect to research and prediction by focusing my attention on the key releases in a given genre. So, professionally speaking I use record pools to save time - and not because the music isn't available from other sources.

Jeff Romard said:
The people they convinced to pay for music will just head back to illegal downloads or Spotify or buck a song downloads. There is no good ending to this dumb move

My own personal history is proof that you don't have to pirate music - even to run a multi-op. I had the opportunity to compare with other multi-ops who did rely very heavily on piracy - and the fact is they expended far more money and resources to maintain their bootleg libraries than would have been necessary to simply obtain the music legitimately. The driving force behind piracy in this field isn't cost or access - it's impatience. It's people who are poorly capitalized and want 10 new libraries tomorrow. It's a short cut - juts like any other business cheat and carries all the same liabilities.

You also can't change people like this. I had shown some of these multi-operators how they could save significant money and time by building music libraries legitimately both with and without record pools. For one - I had even built and maintained libraries for 5 Major hotel club locations entirely legitimate without record pools, with all selections cataloged including key and BPM. The reality had no impact on their behavior with respect to the mobile operation.

Piracy is a character flaw more than a commercial concern. Ultimately, even the Napster episode showed that in the retail market file sharing produced a slight increase in sales. It reflected people's interest in the ability to preview material BEFORE committing to purchase. Today, people do that using YouTube, Vimeo, etc

Spotify is an example of getting people to spend more on music than they otherwise would. It employs the modern software trend of getting you to pay a lifetime subscription rather than making infrequent sparse purchases. You're paying for spotify even when you're not listening to music and may well do do for an entire lifetime without ever giving it a second thought.

IGNORE THE ADJA

There is no legal basis to their ideas, all of which are petty personal grievances. When people do well as a DJ they ignore this carp. People who don't do well as a DJ invent scapegoats and blame others for their limitations or dead ends.

Albatross · Jan 31, 2021

Proformance said:
Nothing could be farther from reality.
Sure, in the 1980's there were limited record pools - open ONLy to broadcasters and DJs with confirmed club residency, and those referred by the same.

All of that changed with the CD. Revenue from compulsory licensing exploded as the demand for digital re-issues rose rapidly. Promo Only for example, is not some great innovation for DJs - you can actually thank independent distributors for licensing and producing a multitude of retail compilations and greatest hits CDs to satisfy both the public demand, mobile, club, and DJs everywhere.

I'm not talking about simply the availability of the music. I'm talking about intro edits, quick hitters, acapella ins and outs... stuff that you're not going to find on consumer Now That's What I Call Music! compilations.

I don't know of anywhere else but pools that serve that type of content right now.

Proformance · Jan 31, 2021

I've worked with Drax at Pioneer and Promo Only and that man has his faults like any other but he has really TRIED to make this industry a better place for us all. You should respect that or keep it moving.

Personalize this at your own peril. The simple fact is, I didn't asked Bruce, Drax or anyone else in the long line of succession to do this. Their notions of "better" do not represent my interests. It clearly doesn't represent the majority of DJs given that 30 years later it's still just a pet project for a handful of people.

I don't see any basis for the respect being demanded. To coil the person and the project together this way for mileage is disrespectful to all of us. The idea rises and falls on it's own merits and not merely on the persistence of it's crusaders. .

Proformance · Jan 31, 2021

Albatross said:
I'm not talking about simply the availability of the music. I'm talking about intro edits, quick hitters, acapella ins and outs... stuff that you're not going to find on consumer Now That's What I Call Music! compilations.

I don't know of anywhere else but pools that serve that type of content right now.

Some of that can be sampled from the original radio releases if you have the controller or tools to do it. You can also request the material directly from the artists or labels, if you're willing to acquire and use it appropriately. Yes - the pools make it easy, but it's not particularly valuable to a mobile DJ and the reality is - it's hobbyists and creative music enthusiasts that really get into using this stuff. I see no reason to ban this unique segment of consumer users from a pool simply because they don't meet some arbitrary DJ standard. Their shared hobby promotes the music just as much as any DJ.

I appreciate Promo Only intro edits for posting and mixing, but as a mobile I could really care less now about all the other tracks. They were useful in the clubs because we had regulars who were in the joint every night and we has to present differently to keep them interested in the same tracks, and our same venue. Not the case on social events, and the feedback from he majority of people at mobile events is that they hate when DJs start cutting and mashing up their favorite songs. Hence, intro edits give us dance continuity without wrecking the original arrangement.

You hear this "mix-club" crap on late night weekend radio - but, it's also the period of lowest rated listener-ship. Take that into consideration and use it sparingly.

SEDJ · Jan 31, 2021

Jeff Romard said:
In all honesty 4 of the 12 aren't hard to achieve and even if you don't currently have them in an hour or two you could. Many might feel why bother though. The pools are for convenience not cost effectiveness. Most DJ's that they feel are unsavory have social media pages and websites. I feel Drax missed a great opportunity for self promotion there when he says no Vistaprint cards he didn't mention the ADJA membership qualifies you for discounts on printing.

Drax is an OK guy and believes in what he is doing and saying but his best interest don't always translate to the best interest of most mobile DJ's

So why wont they accept Vista Print cards,? thats where ive been getting mine from for the last decade, to be honest, I don't even use them anymore. Ive been trying to move over to QR codes, but cant decided what CTA I want to use with it

Albatross · Jan 31, 2021

azdeejay said:
So why wont they accpect Vista Print cards,? thats where ive been getting mine from for the last decade, to be honest, I don't even use them anymore.

There is nothing wrong with VistaPrint as a printer. I think they are trying to count out cheap template cards which are about $15 to get your hands on.

It's a stupid distinction of what is considered "professional."

Plenty of new businesses don't spend the money on graphic designers to get custom work done. But the cost and value of a physical business card today is exceptionally low.

SEDJ · Jan 31, 2021

Albatross said:
There is nothing wrong with VistaPrint as a printer. I think they are trying to count out cheap template cards which are about $15 to get your hands on.

It's a stupid distinction of what is considered "professional."

Plenty of new businesses don't spend the money on graphic designers to get custom work done. But the cost and value of a physical business card today is exceptionally low.

I didn't even use one of their templates, just used a blank one and uploaded my logo , very basic .

SEDJ · Jan 31, 2021

Albatross said:
I'm not talking about simply the availability of the music. I'm talking about intro edits, quick hitters, acapella ins and outs... stuff that you're not going to find on consumer Now That's What I Call Music! compilations.

I don't know of anywhere else but pools that serve that type of content right now.

This is for me what gives the pools the value, the intro/quick edits, sure, a lot of can be done ourselves, but I put the value on the time savings and convenience .

Proformance · Jan 31, 2021

For the record I love VistaPrint and maintain one of the popular reseller account subscriptions. This kind of petty brand trashing is what wannabees do - not professionals. I can't take the ADJA seriously if this is the level at which they operate.

Templates are a place to start and you can customize them to your hearts content (perhaps not with all product levels, IDK)

Business cards to me are not advertising - it's just a way to get complete contact information into another person's hand. A card should be easy to read, and quick to associate with what it is I do. Industry specific templates are perfect for this and good graphic design is a memory booster. The image alone should remind a person exactly why they accepted this card. A sh**ty business card design is the one you find in your pocket a week later and can't recall why you kept it.

Despite starting with a template - I doubt anyone would recognize my cards as a Vista Print stock design. I add my own custom background images and more - keeping only some of the original border or text elements.

Sure, there's a lot of weak templates in their inventory - because they want you to buy more expensive design products. But all of them are perfectly acceptable professional products. They used to give away 250 free one sided cards and on the back was an ad for Vistaprint. I wouldn't even dis someone for using these because as long as the front conveys the information needed - the card will do the job just fine.

Jeff Romard · Feb 1, 2021

azdeejay said:
So why wont they accept Vista Print cards,? thats where ive been getting mine from for the last decade, to be honest, I don't even use them anymore. Ive been trying to move over to QR codes, but cant decided what CTA I want to use with it

Because the people in the background are all from the mindset if you don't use (Insert brand here) you're not a real DJ. They are also the ones that talk a lot more than they play

djrox · Feb 1, 2021

The "industry" does this periodically and I suggest that no one get into the round formation that they will soon be creating...

However, if you must join, grab a pair of these socks to show that you have acquired part of the uniform:

ADJA press release

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