Art Machine
Just another former infatuation junkie

His name is Jay
To see him play
Will make you say,
“Goddamn! that DJ made my day – by ripping off the RIAA and bankrupting artists. Somebody call a cop.”

Showing their usual knack for public relations and their astounding respect for the artists, the RIAA has started confiscating DJ mixtapes from indie music stores.

The Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) has launched a new campaign against DJs in an attempt to control copyright infringement.

They have already confiscated $100,000�s worth of mix CDs from independent record stores across the US.

DJ mix CDs, sold in almost every independent record store are on the whole unlicensed and technically illegal to distribute. However, DJs and producers alike often rely upon these illegal mixes in order to gain credibility, and to promote themselves to the general public.

Not to mention promoting themselves to the major record labels – who have, in fact, picked up a few of their more popular acts and gotten some kickass producers from listing to mix CD’s. And, as reporter Terry Church points out, confiscating DJ mixes is hypocritical in the face of the RIAA’s statement that they’re fighting these battles “for the artists.” These mixes don’t usually get anywhere near the wide distribution that even the paltriest bootlegger can manage, and are more about promotion of the DJ’s and producers as artists than they are about profit.

But in all fairness, most DJ’s – and the indie music stores that carried their tapes and CD’s – had to know that what they were doing was at best grey market. With the RIAA growing increasingly paranoid and jumping at the chance to declare anybody to be a thief, it was only a matter of time before they turned their eyes on the club DJ’s of America.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2004 at 2:26 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.