Richie Hawtin Backs Campaign to Get Producers Paid Royalties When DJs Play Their Tracks

Dance music icon Richie Hawtin today announced a new initiative called Get Played Get Paid, designed to pay royalties to artists when their music is played in DJ sets in clubs. It is launched in partnership with music technology company Pioneer DJ and the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM), and is a tool where DJ setups in clubs around the world are synched in a centralized network, which logs what tracks are played and distributes payment accordingly.

At the moment, their model is only compatible with a limited set of hardware and software tools. These include Hawtin and Pioneer DJ's app RADR, which facilitates real time logging and tweeting of all tracks played during a DJ set, and KUVO, an app that is able to transmit metadata about the tracks being played by way of an internal database. As far as actual DJ software goes, it is compatible with Traktor, rekordbox, and rekordbox dj, according to the promotional video below.

Once KUVO collects data about what's played at clubs, the app transmits it to performance rights organizations (PROs) who are responsible for collecting royalties and distributing them to artists. The system does not work for any track from any artist though; producers can only receive royalties through this system if they register all of their music with PROs, so metadata about their work is trackable within the system. You don't need to be signed to a label to get royalties from a PRO.

These organizations offer licensing fees to nightclubs, and from there they distribute that money to artists against the tracks that are actually played at the venue. The fees are calculated by looking at venue size, turnover, and attendance numbers.

There is currently an option for DJs to manually submit "performance reports" to PROs so they know exactly how to distribute royalties, but only 7 percent of DJs currently use that system, Frank Rodi of Australia's APRA AMCOS licensing and royalties organization said in the video. Get Played Get Paid, on the other hand, reads metadata directly from the DJ equipment.

KUVO is currently available for free on its website.

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