Public Performance
By default the right of performing a piece of music in public (e.g. by playing it in a club) is a right reserved to the copyright owner (the artist) alone and can therefore not be granted by zero" (or a recordstore, or a label etc.). This is a basic principle of copyright and most records have a sentence like this printed on them:
"All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting prohibited."
The key word is 'unauthorized' - to perform a recording in public you have to acquire a license to do so. In most cases this license does not have to be acquired from the artist directly, but can be granted by a so called collecting society, which administers several rights associated with the music of its member artists. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collecting_society for more info and the respective bodies in your country.
Playing music downloaded from us in a Club
The general principle is that not the DJ but the promoter of a club or party is responsible for licensing the music which is played. This means that if you're invited to play somewhere you don't have to worry. If you promote your own nights you should however get in touch with your local collecting society.
Creating Mixes and uploading to the web
In most countries the creation of mixes for yourself is covered by the principle of 'private' and 'fair' use. The situation changes as soon as you would like to make your mix accessible to other people.
Besides the right of public performance (see above), related rights would have to be considered, such as the right to edit a piece of music, also reserved to the artist, and the right of the phonogram producers whose physical recordings (or files) you use.
To be on the safe side, we suggest to contact your local collecting society (or check their web site) for the applicable local legislation. Some web services explicitly geared towards hosting DJ mixes might also have blanket deals with a collecting society in place, but again to be on the save side we recommend to investigate that in detail on the hosting service website.
By default the right of performing a piece of music in public (e.g. by playing it in a club) is a right reserved to the copyright owner (the artist) alone and can therefore not be granted by zero" (or a recordstore, or a label etc.). This is a basic principle of copyright and most records have a sentence like this printed on them:
"All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting prohibited."
The key word is 'unauthorized' - to perform a recording in public you have to acquire a license to do so. In most cases this license does not have to be acquired from the artist directly, but can be granted by a so called collecting society, which administers several rights associated with the music of its member artists. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collecting_society for more info and the respective bodies in your country.
Playing music downloaded from us in a Club
The general principle is that not the DJ but the promoter of a club or party is responsible for licensing the music which is played. This means that if you're invited to play somewhere you don't have to worry. If you promote your own nights you should however get in touch with your local collecting society.
Creating Mixes and uploading to the web
In most countries the creation of mixes for yourself is covered by the principle of 'private' and 'fair' use. The situation changes as soon as you would like to make your mix accessible to other people.
Besides the right of public performance (see above), related rights would have to be considered, such as the right to edit a piece of music, also reserved to the artist, and the right of the phonogram producers whose physical recordings (or files) you use.
To be on the safe side, we suggest to contact your local collecting society (or check their web site) for the applicable local legislation. Some web services explicitly geared towards hosting DJ mixes might also have blanket deals with a collecting society in place, but again to be on the save side we recommend to investigate that in detail on the hosting service website.
