Back in November 2005, two months after the PPL launched the Digital DJ Licence; the DJ Associates Disc Jockey Association was established.
Although there are many other DJ Associations, one striking feature that sets the Dj Associates apart from the others is that it vows to invest back all revenue raised from membership into representing its members’ interests . The DJA was also the first to stand up and raise awareness within the industry about the new Digital DJ License (pro-dub) and the first DJ Association to ask its members if they wished to lobby against it’s introduction.
With the support of the DJ’s United Mobile Dj Community (http://www.dj-forum.co.uk), the association has a simple code of ethics that members are expected to adopt in promoting good business practice, in turn, raising the standard that helps improve the public perception of the industry and consequently improves the DJs own business market.
When a member applies on-line to join DJ Associates, he or she will be required to fill in the usual application details and submit Public Liability Insurance document info as well as Portable Appliance Test info. That done, the applicant can also list areas of cover which are promoted on the member map for direct client contact and promote their business services.
But the DJ Associates does not stop at portraying a professional image for the industry, and protecting the interests of its clients, the DJ-A also believes in representing it’s members’ interests and leading from the front, and with the introduction of the Digital DJ licence (Pro-Dub) and the proposed change in copyright laws threatening the very future of DJ’s, it is perfectly placed at voicing the views of its members and lobbying for a change to the fair use copyright laws enjoyed by DJ’s and consumers in other jurisdictions.
Dan Bilham, founder of DJ Associates believes that the present Licence is unfair, an opinion shared by hundreds of other DJ’s from all over the world on personal blogs, and also those who took part in a BBC Feedback forum recently.
A recent, public DJ@ poll found that 95% of all DJ’s who voted, were against the Digital Dj Licence in its present form.
The introduction of the Digital Dj licence means that DJ’s will essentially be paying additional royalties many times over purely for the right to convert their original purchased CD’s and Vinyl into an easier to manage and catalog digital format. Dan believes that it is only common sense that a DJ should be able to make one back up of his or her original material since CD’s and Vinyl are often difficult or impossible to insure.
DJ Associates does not believe that Digital DJ’s should be penalised just because they excercise the right of freedom of choice and embrace digital technology in order to use a laptop or pc to store or play music, whilst Dj’s using conventional CD’s do not require any form of licence for private functions.
“We are not condoning or encouraging piracy”, states Dan, “All we ask is that DJ’s are able to make one back up copy of their legally owned and purchased material, and play it back using a digital means without penalty or prejudice if they choose to do so without having to pay an annual fee for the duration”.
Whilst there are other groups working with the PPL and MCPS in rolling out this licence, they are largely involved in negotiating it’s cost and terms, rather than flat out fighting against it’s introduction. DJ Associates believes that it is acting in the majority interest of DJ’s, by opposing this licence, but it needs your help and support to add weight to its cause.
If you wish to add your support against the introduction of the Digital Dj Licence, and would like the benefits of being part of an association which puts the interests of the DJ first, then DJ Associates would like to invite you onboard.
“Getting on to the entertainment ladder is hard enough”, Concludes Dan, “But the DJ@ is here to help in whatever way it can.”
To add your support, or to find out more, please visit the DJA website at
* Since this article was originally written back in 2006, the Digital DJ License has been introduced and is known as the Pro-Dub license.