Entry
One Hundred Ninety-Two.
Saturday, 2015.06.13, 5:58 PM CST.
If
you DJ using YouTube, you're a disgrace to our profession.
Current Mood: Run down but hopeful
about the future.
Current Scent: Pi Fraiche by Givenchy.
So,
I've gotta tell you a story about someone I bumped into a few weeks
back. I was out visiting a couple of friends who were DJing, and
while I was there, a shaggy, disheveled, far-from-odour-free and way-too-drunk-for-his-own-good
fellow came up to me and asked, "Are you a DJ?"
I told
him that I was, in fact, a DJ, and had been doing it for a while.
Then, he
tells me this: "Yeah, my friend and I are going to be DJing here,
and we're both going to be using YOUTUBE."
I glared
over at him as he proudly continued bragging about how he and his buddy
were going to be using YouTube for this entire performance, and he especially
wanted me to know that it was a punk rock performance - as
if that made it all okay.
He couldn't
tell me what day of the week this performance was going to be on ("It's
next Thursday... no, wait... next Monday..."), but he seemed quite
proud that they were going to be using YouTube.
I didn't
tell him how I really felt, because (1) I knew that my opinion wouldn't
matter to him, (2) of all the ways I've ever thought of dying, "being
shanked by some idiot" hasn't ever been close to the top of the
list, and (3) I really just wanted this guy's breath way the hell away
from my face. So, I just kind of said "Good for you,"
and had to repeat that once or twice since he wasn't exactly sure what
I meant by it.
But, since
I've been thinking about it and this nimrod isn't anywhere nearby, I
figured I'd go ahead and let you know what I think about the subject:
If you are doing
a "DJ" set with YouTube, you are a joke. You're worth
little more than nothing. You're ripping off your customer,
you're a disgrace to our profession, and you deserve to have anything
and everything go wrong.
Doing
a gig with YouTube and calling one's self a "DJ" is like connecting
two Spaghetti-O's cans by a piece of string and calling one's self a
"telecommunications engineer." On the most basic level,
yes, a person playing videos on YouTube could be playing music
for others to hear - which is the most fundamental essence of being
a DJ.
However:
1)
It's illegal. (Those tracks haven't been purchased or licensed
for DJing.)
2) It's lazy. (One doesn't even need to download the songs.)
3) The quality's going to suck. (LOTS of YouTube vids
have low-quality audio.)
4) It's just sketchy as hell.
If
you're a DJ with a genuine passion for music, then you need to purchase
the music to support the artists. They're doing what they can
to crank out the tracks we use. It doesn't matter if they're scrambling
for cash or millionaires. If we're using their music for our own
profit, then we need to actually pay up and support them for releasing
that material.
If
you're a DJ who can't even be bothered to pay a buck or so per song
(and yes, that also goes out to those DJs who get their libraries by
torrenting or trading external drives full of tunes with their buddies),
then it's really best that you find a hobby/career that doesn't require
as much of an investment to do it properly... and leave the DJing to
the grown-ups.
If
you've decided that the most dedication you want to give to our craft
is to pull up YouTube videos and play them in succession... then that's
beyond pathetic, and anyone supporting your weak bastardization of "DJing"
has got to have a pretty low standard of entertainment.
Badger
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