The other day, a DJ complained to me that he thinks it’s unfair that Mixcloud requires DJs to pay a subscription fee in order to livestream on their platform. After initially staring at him in astonishment for a minute, I composed myself, and tried to explain to him his folly. Mixcloud is not a free promotional service. They are in business to make money, just like me and, presumably, him. A DJ plays copyrighted music that was created by musicians, and the laws are written such that to publicly perform that music, the venue (be it a night club, a radio station, or an online streaming service) has to pay ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, known informally as the Big Three, licensing fees, some of which are passed on to the musicians as royalties. You are in effect paying Mixcloud to use their license when you stream.

I think his disconnect is that he sees himself as “the performer.” He isn’t, and neither are you when you’re DJ’ing. Unless Diplo, Skrillex, or some other renowned DJs are reading right now, in which case I’m not talking to you. I am, however, talking to YOU, Mr. Everyday DJ. You aren’t the star of the show. You’re the middleman. You’re the guy no one cares about, and it is the music you play that the audience wants to hear. it doesn’t matter to them who is behind the decks. All that matters is what’s coming out of the speakers. However, even a nobody like you or me can possibly leverage the platform that Mixcloud gives us to become well-known, and then find ways to monetize our newfound fame.

Some of you are likely shaking your heads right now, muttering at your screen that maybe those other DJs aren’t the star of their show, but you are the exception. The audience is there to hear you play, and no matter what you play they’ll have their hands in the air as if they just don’t care. Maybe that’s the case, maybe it isn’t, but either way, you still need to follow the rules. What rules, you ask? The rules I alluded to in the first paragraph.

As DJs, we’re fortunate in that it’s nearly always the venues that must dot the i’s and cross the t’s when it comes to music licenses. Unless they play only terrestrial radio– that’s AM and FM staions– every restaurant, shopping mall, barber shop, bar, night club, and bistro needs to pay the Big Three for a license so that they can play a CD or a playlist, or bring in a DJ. Every wedding venue you’ve played, and every night club you’ve rocked, has, or should have, anyway, such a license. You don’t need one, Mr. DJ, nor can you get one. The Big Three don’t let individuals possess such things, for then you could go anywhere and play anything, or even start up your own radio station. The venues handle it for us.

Things change if you want to play music online, either live or recorded. This is why you get strikes against you for sharing copyrighted music on Youtube, or have your stream taken down when you stream a set on Facebook or Instagram. Twitch has not yet cracked down on it to the extent that other platforms have, but rest assured streaming there is illegal, and eventually the powers that be will either get Twitch to pony up for licensing, as Mixcloud has done, or start taking down streams.