Does anyone know if I used this software and tidal I would be doing the performance legaly over the twitch?
Basically, you must expect to receive various notices of possible copyright infringement. Whether the songs come from a streaming service like Tidal or whether you play tracks from your hard drive that you have purchased makes no difference. The system first assumes that you have no rights to publicly perform the music. With a service like Tidal, there is also the fact that public performance is prohibited - whether this is really noticed and whether action is taken against it is another matter.
Probably the safest option in this context is to use mixcloud.com. This service explicitly advertises that you can perform there legally, because part of the revenue is transferred to the authors. But that has to come from somewhere, so the offer is unfortunately chargeable. On the other hand, you as a DJ can also generate income for yourself if you manage to build up a fanbase and people are willing to pay to see your performance
Didn’t tidal support Live performance before? I don’t see much value over this software aswell then.
World goes forward mostly towards the internet.
Both the software developer and content delivery service assume you have any needed licenses to perform the music in a live environment. The legal liability falls on you.
Tidal’s term of use state that it is not to be used for performance. Spotify has a similar guideline. This is due to how the royalty payout structure is agreed upon between streaming services and labels/distributors. The royalty is per play per user listening.
If you are looking for full legal guidelines, reach out to ASCAPI or the legal licensing authority for your region/country.
The legal situation may be what it is, and we will not be able to change that. But I still think that it pushes those who just do it for fun unnecessarily quickly into illegality. Ultimately, every artist should be happy if someone plays his music, as well as the record labels. If you really earn money with the works of others, this is certainly to be evaluated differently. But the hobby DJ should be allowed to do something like that, I think - and in fact this is usually not pursued legally.
But others who have been working as a DJ for many years also have this problem. If you are not one of the big players and the management takes care of the rights on the streaming platforms, you also get copyright strikes, even if you get the songs explicitly provided by the labels for the purpose of the performance.
Sure, everyone wants a piece of the pie, and it hasn’t gotten any easier for the artist, especially in recent years. Nevertheless, I see potential for reform.
As a label owner, I wish every streamer would use restream and multicast to YouTube as well. We get paid per user stream from youtube and Mixcloud. One could hope twitch would invest into a royalty management platform, but Amazon does not have a history of playing well with the music industry as a whole.
Hi @Larei,
Thanks for posting to the community for the first time!
Unfortunately, we can’t provide legal advice on this topic. As it varies from venue to venue, state to state, and country to country, you may want to check with other DJs or consultants in your area as this is not an area of expertise we can assist with.
Here is a quote from a Digital DJ Tips article in reference to this very question:
The whole area of copyright law and public performance is a minefield (which is why lawyers insist on nonsense like the above tucked in the small print), and ultimately it’s your decision whether you treat the law as the law or a guideline. we’ve yet to hear of a prosecution for violating either of the above clauses, for what it’s worth. If the venue has the licenses it needs to let the music be publicly performed, we’d personally be happy to play there, with music from any legal source.
I hope this information helps!
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