cal licenses for physical recordings (CDs, cassettes, vinyl) made and distributed in the U.S. in a quantity of 250 to 2500 units, or to create and distribute from 150 to 2500, permanent downloads of a song from a server located within the U.S., at the current statutory mechanical rate . In addition to royalty fees, there is a modest per-song processing fee of $13 to $15 charged by HFA, depending upon how many songs are licensed at once. All processing is done online, and in most cases, you will have your license within 24 hours. Once processed, licenses are made available to you electronically for viewing and printing through your Songfile account. Please note that all Songfile license fees are non-refundable. To use Songfile you must be conducting business in the U.S., and have a valid credit card with a U.S. address. You will be asked to register for Songfile use by agreeing to HFA’s Terms of Use and creating a user name and password. Licenses for songs on physical products and for DPDs must be obtained in separate transactions. For physical products, you to will be able license multiple songs for one physical album at a time; you will need to complete a separate transaction for each album. You can obtain up to 50 separate DPD licenses in one transaction. Unlike physical licenses, DPD licenses expire in one year. For information on licensing quantities of more than 2,500, imports, or other digital or physical formats, please refer to the Licensee Services area on the main HFA website.” After you’ve taken care to license the tracks, you must be sure to include the name and address of your manufacturer on the packaging of your CD and you should be good to go. All this does cost money, but going through the process can make your CD legit and untouchable, and if you’re really as good as you say you are, then you can make all of that money back and then some. And stay out of jail. What happened to DJ Drama and Don Cannon may seem unjust in the eyes of the Hip Hop community, but in the eyes of the law, it’s just another day on the job. Regardless, two of Hip Hop’s brightest rising stars are now tied up with red tape and having to deal with charges and the loss of their equipment, product and essentially their business. And it doesn’t seem as though too many people are coming to their aid. “You know who I blame right now?” Alan Berry says in closing, “The artists. I mean, I love Jay-Z and 50 Cent, don’t get me wrong, but have the balls to stand up and say that you utilize this as a way of marketing your music. The
RIAA are their employees. Don’t get on a record and say what a bad ass you are in the street, but then you can’t stand up to your employees and tell them not to arrest people that are working with you to take Hip Hop to a different level. That, to me, is wrong. Back when I was going through this shit, I thought, ‘There’s no way this will stick.’ I tried to plead for help cause I was getting screwed over for doing what I believe in. I was doing their soldier work and none of them stood up; none of them said one thing. I know they knew about it. I smell pussy on that.” In the end, everyone who dedicates their life to this music still has to somehow make a living. The DJ is no exception. A rapper or a record label cannot negate the fact that when their songs hit the hottest mixtapes their overall value increases and awareness is created in markets long before they ever set foot outside their region. When a mixtape DJ truly exerts his or her craft, they’re creating something special that in many ways they have the right to call their own simply for the fact that by creating this masterwork, they’re really only helping to propel a culture that at times gets oversaturated with the prepackaged bullshit that generally, only the majors can pump out. Radio is almost impossible to infiltrate, at least on a national level, for the average independent. Squawk all you want about who’s making hits, the mixtapes help to bring each region to the forefront, or at least to the reach of the average consumer who has an interest in rap music beyond the commercial backed major shit. Every region these days seems to have its own breakout mixtape DJ. He’s the dude who helped Young Jeezy get heard before radio picked up on him. He’s the dude who made the otherwise regional rapper hot in HIS streets, and he’s done it time and time again for countless artists. He’ll do it again. In the end you have to look at the kid. The music loving kid who wants to contribute to an art form that seems open to all, but in reality is a good ol’ boy network, a network of insiders who make it harder to join at times than the most barbaric fraternities, a network of people who don’t want to hear your voice until you’ve made your mark and proven your value. So the kid invests in a set of turntables, or even a computer and begins spreading the music he loves through his streets and makes his name ring alongside the stars of his favorite music. Eventually he, like the rappers he idolizes, becomes a hot commodity and everybody wants a piece of him, and there’s another young kid, from the streets of America, who somehow made his way to the top. And from what I’ve been told, this is what our country was supposedly built upon. Free DJ Drama and Don Cannon and keep your hands off our mixtapes. //
[THE MUSIC BUSINESS] IN REALITY IS A GOOD ‘OL BOY NETWORK, A NETWORK OF OF INSIDERS WHO DON’T WANT TO HEAR YOUR VOICE UNTIL YOU’VE MADE YOUR MARK AND PROVEN YOUR VALUE.
OZONE MAG // 79