Will the RIAA tear us a new one?

May 22, 2007 12:11 PM

My friend and I have amassed a large collection of live dj sets (e.g., think sven vath live from Ibiza). We were thinking of making this collection available to the public through a website where the sets could be downloaded free of charge. How wary of the RIAA should we be?

Like I said, everything we'd be hosting would be from a live set or freely released podcast. We would not host anything you could buy anywhere.

Will the RIAA tear us a new one?

posted by milarepa to media & arts (9 comments total)

It's not that you couldn't buy this anywhere, it's that the component parts (bits of songs, even DJ patter) is copyrighted. The RIAA is probably not a big worry (though you may not get off entirely), but you're essentially stealing from the DJ, who has the right to podcast his set or not as he pleases.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 12:17 PM on May 22, 2007

Consider asking the guys at mpiii.com who do what you are considering and are fairly public.
posted by mkb at 12:21 PM on May 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

The RIAA does include live unauthorized records under its "piracy" umbrella term. However, as Dee Xtrovert said, you'd have a lot more to worry about from the artists than the RIAA which seems a lot more preoccupied with digital CD copies.

I suggest looking at this Wikipedia List of bands which permit recordings of their performances to see if your dj's are in there. That said, I think artists in the electronica world are very loose about this kind of thing because so much of their work is based on sampling material from other artists as well.
posted by junesix at 12:31 PM on May 22, 2007

Sven Väth performed those sets, usually within establishments that paid appropriate royalties. DJs themselves both pay and receive royalties and residuals. For some of those sets, the DJ may have been performing on a work-hire basis - in which case you'll owe the venue money. Or the DJ may have signed some form of residual contract, in which case you'll owe the DJ royalties. I'd contact the DJs directly and see what they say.
posted by meehawl at 12:39 PM on May 22, 2007

Yeah, why cheat a DJ you like? I should add to junesix's thing about bands that permit live recordings of their performances, that many (MANY) of these bands are under contracts to companies who may turn a blind eye to "recording" but will get really pissed about unauthorized free "broadcasts." There is a big difference between the two.

Additionally, I would assume many of the parts of these sets are not live, but studio recordings - performed in a "live" setting, but protected as studio recordings nonetheless.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 12:57 PM on May 22, 2007

My desire to avoid buying music on RIAA member labels has been thwarted a number of times because so many electronic music labels are RIAA members, or part of a larger company that is.

You might check with the guys at Hybridized, who offer a number of live sets and radio rips. They seem to have permission from the DJs, in some cases getting recordings straight from the sound board/mixer. I dont know how the permission of the artists that made the original tracks factor into it, especially considering there are some white labels and other unreleased tracks on some of those mixes.
posted by kableh at 2:30 PM on May 22, 2007

I checked RIAA Radar and it gives mixed results for whether Sven Vath is an RIAA member or not. You can use that page to check on other artists as well.
posted by junesix at 4:32 PM on May 22, 2007

mkb: THANK YOU for sharing that site. I am happily downloading a ton of new sets!
posted by milarepa at 4:57 PM on May 22, 2007

The RIAA or the DJs are probably not going to be concerned about this at all.. that being said, the recordings could be copyrighted sometimes, and all the songs in them are owned by various people and labels. Someone, at some point, will probably complain.

Join a closed community like mercuryserver.com and share with other people that will really, really appreciate them :)
posted by cmicali at 5:53 AM on May 23, 2007