Dub dot dash

Who got the flavours?
On Tuesday night on the Holla Hour on C4, DJ Sirvere played videos from several artists on his latest mix cd/mixtape compilation Major Flavours 5, which came out Monday and shipped platinum, he told us, so congrats to him.
The second half of the show was the exclusive premiere of the documentary on the Making of Major Flavours 5, which focuses on Sirvere making a trip to New York, to hook up licensing tunes and do a bit of record shopping, as you do.
He managed to hook up with DJ Premier to go record shopping, which is pretty damn cool. Seeing them flip thru every De La Soul 12" you could ever want at The Sound Library was pretty impressive. Premier took him to see his new recording studio, the former D & D Studio, legendary for many famous hiphop recordings.
It's a very cool little doco, and if you missed it, if you grab a copy of Major Flavours 5 quick, the DVD of the Making Of... comes as a special bonus disk, along with More Aotearoa Flavours, a cd of brand new local hiphop styles.
The launch party is this saturday night at The Studio, 340 K Rd, as part of the weekend events for the Aotearoa Hiphop Summit, happening on in Aotea Square for free on Friday and Saturday (programme here). Get along and check some fresh Aotearoa hiphop styles - MCs, breakers, graffiti artists, DJs, the works!


Official mix cds are easily overshadowed by the unofficial mix cd scene, which Sivere noted in the doco is absolutely massive in NY - there's people selling you mix cds on the street corners, etc. Ex-pat Kirk Harding (now working in NY for SRC as exec vice-president alongside former Loud records boss Steve Rifkin - go Kirk!) described the mix cd scene as one of the most important ways for promotion of new artists, alongside radio. 50 Cent and Eminem both used the mix cd scene as a way of gaining valuable exposure on their rise to the top.
So, if mix cds are widely used by the mainstream record companies, why has the music industry started prosecuting those involved with them? These two stories, one from the US and one from Australia, suggest that the mix cd scene is coming under attack. It doesn't spell the end of mix cds, but as one of these articles suggests, mix cds will now be sold under the counter, and if you phone up and ask a shop if they have them , they will say no, even if they do.

from Nuvo...
Alan and Andy Berry, owners of Berry’s Music stores, saw their nine-month legal nightmare end June 22 in a plea bargain. What was initially 13 felony counts of copyright infringement, leveled by the Recording Industry Association of America, was finally reduced to a single misdemeanor (and a hefty fine). But the real punishment was meted out months ago: Alan Berry lost his livelihood, lost the business he loved and nurtured for 13 years, may yet lose his house. And the crime for which he’s paid this price? Selling DJ mix-CDs...

For an idea of how completely the majors have taken mix-CDs to heart, consider one of Indianapolis’ top DJs, Paul Bunyon. In recent years, he’s received numerous awards from the record industry, including gold and platinum records, for the part his mixtapes play in selling mega-numbers of CDs by artists like Ludacris and Lil Jon. For the industry to acknowledge the value of mixtapes to this extent, then turn around and bring charges against stores for selling them, seems disingenuous at best. “It’s mind numbing,” Alan says, “because it seems so blatantly dipping out of both sides. If the record companies really have a problem with mix-CDs, why wouldn’t they go after the source? They have signed artists, DJs that put out both regular albums and monthly street mixes. Why wouldn’t they contact them and say, ‘Hey why are you guys putting that stuff out?’”

from Downhill Battle...
This crackdown on mixtapes is devastating small hip hop record stores. Just this past week we were contacted by Alan Berry, whose Indianapolis record store was raided by the RIAA last fall.
"We have since lost both of our stores... I can't get a job with 13 felonies hanging on my resume. My court date is less than a month away. So please anyone that knows someone that can help me, pass this info to them. I BEG for myself and my family. I don't think anyone should go to jail for selling mix cds. To my brothers in the industry, please help get the word out. My time is short. Thanks. " Read more here.

Pirates face the music
By PETER HOLMES entertainment writer
Sunday Telegraph Australia August 8, 2004

"RECORD labels will continue hunting down nightclub DJs responsible for CD piracy, despite racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in unrecoupable legal bills.
In a recent Federal Court case, five local DJs – Moto, Chocolate Boy Wonder, Peter Gunz, Demo and Tickelz – and Joe Sitoa, a director of Anthem Records, were found to have infringed record label copyright by producing six pirated compilation CDs.
The CDs featured the DJs' personal remixes of songs by famous acts including Ja Rule and Jennifer Lopez, and were sold and given away to fans and friends.
The DJs and Sitoa were fined a total of $48,000, and ordered to contribute $90,000 towards the record labels' $224,000 legal bill..."


UPDATE: Local music label head honcho Simon Grigg has an interesting response to this issue on his blog here.