Mixcrate shuts down, Copyright Law remains to be a fucking joke!
As expected, Mixcrate was approached by the major labels and was given an ultimatum: either you pay us lots of money, or you shut your website down. Here’s the statement that reads on their website:
“Unfortunately, Mixcrate received a letter from a respected entity in the record industry. While Mixcrate does not believe the site violates any laws, we do not have the means to operate under current conditions. It’s with deep regret that we must shut down the website.”
Allow me to translate those three sentences, COMPLETE UTTER BULLSHIT! Sorry for yelling, but this is a real issue in America, and it needs to be addressed IMMEDIATELY. I can’t be the guy who makes this change, I can only be the guy stating facts. I’m not even sure WHO that guy is for this type of thing, it’s legal bullshit; it’s the music business wanting to be paid lots of money. The fact is, DJ Mixes aren’t copyright infringing to any level. This isn’t Napster: giving out free mp3s. This is the art of real DJing: taking great music, mixing it together, blending it, remixing it in the most creative way possible. The Music Industry feels that DJs are stealing music, and giving it away. I don’t get it; I will never get it.
A few years ago, we signed up to Soundcloud, used their platform as a way to gain more fans, create a nice distribution network outside of our main website, so we signed up. We started posting our Shows, Highlights, Prank Calls, and Mixshows. We gained a great deal of fans from Soundcloud, we had pretty good numbers on the mixes posted to our Soundcloud profile; it was great, it was a wonderful tool to market our content to a huge audience. As our numbers/downloads grew, so did the risk, about a year after we joined Soundcloud, all of our “sounds” disappeared, and we were later “banned.” I was furious, all the time we took to upload, gather fans was all gone due to ‘Copyright Law.’ Not to mention, we were paying for our Pro Account, having invested money into Soundcloud, a German based company. The fact is, the music industry doesn’t understand what a DJ Mix is, and how it serves its purpose to people who love music. They just think, we are stealing music, and that’s it. Such an unfortunate situation we got here, as far as Mixcrate is concerned, they had their time, and that time is done.
I suppose the lesson learned is, if you’re a DJ, don’t depend on a platform to promote your music. Do what we do, create your own website and host the mixes yourself. That’s what we’ve done since being banned from Soundcloud, Mixcrate was good, but all that’s over now. Until the next DJ mix show platform pops up, we pour a little out for Mixcrate and remember, Mixcloud.com is a few keystrokes away.
Mixcrate shuts down, Copyright Law remains to be a fucking joke! was originally published on TheSlyShow.com - Comedy, Music, DJ Mixes, Sports, Podcasts
