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Mixcrate.com

We started Mixcrate in Spring 2010 with the ambition of building a community site where DJs can discover and connect with other DJs and their fans. It has always been our goal to provide a welcoming home for all levels of DJs - influential and up-and-coming. As a result, we built one of the most supportive DJ communities in the world.

Mixcrate has been a side project built by a handful of individuals just as passionate as the DJs we served. We have been a self-funded website - working during our free-time, balancing life while supporting our other personal endeavors.

Unfortunately, Mixcrate received a letter from a respected entity in the record industry. While Mixcrate does not believe the site violates any laws, we do not have the means to operate under current conditions. It's with deep regret that we must shut down the website.

Thank you for the support through the years. If you have enjoyed and discovered new DJs through our site, please continue supporting them and the art of DJing.

The only time a goodbye is painful is when you know you'll never say hello again, so we'll just say, we'll see you guys later.

— Mixcrate

This is a damn shame. With no heads up whatsoever, plug is pulled. I personally failed to DL tons of DJ mixes from real OGs that I've respected for years thinking there will be another day.

The record industry needs to understand there's a difference between jacking music and promoting it and using a song as a bigger piece of the puzzle than they are. Once they see it as money lost and make the DJ the enemy, they are the ones who lose out on future exposure.

It's too bad they can't just root out the abusers while keeping real DJ mixes online but I guess the problem is too wide spread to logistically tackle by the founders of the site.

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“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
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I never used the site so I can't comment on it extensively. Over the years I have seen some dj mix sites get shut down and that's a shame. DJ mixes are complicated for the industry. I'm not sure what the solution is really.

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[everydayambient.wordpress.com]

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Okay , am I crazy or is it not true that you can sample a song or use said song in a mix as long as you aren't selling it ?? I remember a while back the cease-and-desist letter that was sent to America Gazaway by Sony for using unauthorized samples on records he was pressing up . So he quit selling physical forms and gave the music away for free . No more issue after that . Am I missing something here ? Where is the money made on the mixes ? Where is this the violation ? This sounds like more of an abuse of power by a failing corporation than anything . I guess big bank always takes little bank .. sad ... Next , djs won't be able to play music in a club without clearances . Where does it end ???



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2016 04:33PM by jaybrown.

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jaybrown
Okay , am I crazy or is it not true that you can sample a song or use said song in a mix as long as you aren't selling it ??

I'm not a copyright attorney and I don't know the details on what happened with the site. What I do know is that a letter threatening legal action from a large corporation to a small fry of any type is often enough to get the small fry to turn tail. It sounds like Mixcrate couldn't afford to retain legal counsel to evaluate what was going on and/or the logistical means to screen everything that was getting posted on the site.

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[everydayambient.wordpress.com]

[www.instagram.com]

Like LionsMouth, I never really used the site, but I do think it's kind of a shame that so many small DJ sites go through this. I sort of understand that it's a legal grey area since the company I work for is in part connected to the music industry, even though my particular job isn't.

So my opinion on this type of thing is this: As long as DJs aren't profiting off a particular piece of music, I don't see the problem. Getting paid for being a DJ seems to me to be a whole other ball of wax compared to ripping off someone else's music and claiming it as your own. And in my experience, DJs frequently bring attention to an artist from an audience that never would have heard of the original performer or composer otherwise.

For example, I've always been a huge fan of Pharoah Sanders stretching back to the early 70s when I first heard his records. I can't count the number of comments I've read on YouTube threads saying that the person commenting never knew who he was until they heard him sampled by such and such a DJ. That's a good thing in my opinion. It allows a fantastic body of work to be heard by people that otherwise never would have done so. And a good number of those people go on to search out his other songs, and some of them even pay for them after that. How is it a bad thing that an artist is making at least some royalties where there otherwise would have been none? So I admire DJs that do creative things with this music, and I say fuck the system that tries to screw them over like that. I hope that folks continue to set up sites that support and bring attention to a vibrant and, in my humble opinion, essential DJ culture that is breathing new life into some artist's work that may otherwise be forgotten.

Fight the power!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2016 05:55AM by Gordon Rekcikssa.