If i was the kind of DJ that could play off streaming or a cloud service, i still dont have that much faith in technology to not go tits up at the absolute worst moment.
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Not necessarily…
If all tracks played in a night are logged, and the PRS pulled their finger out, I don’t see why they couldn’t create a performance space license where a cut of that income went directly to those artists whose music was actually played.
When I was promoting live music & managing bands in the 80s/90s PRS took a cut of the gross door (3% I think), which was divvied up amongst the bands in proportion to the number of songs they played*, all done by filling out their notorious green forms at the end of the night.
If streaming means data of what is played is already there, then a beneficial system like this could easily be automated.
*If The Ramones played 40 songs warming up for Pink Floyd who played 10 really long songs, The Ramones would get 80% of the PRS money! Canny support bands would always add a few numbers when filling out thier form.
Of course lots of bands didn’t bother doing it and promoters would forget to send off the forms, leaving an excess in the pot which was given - in classic PRS style - to the top 10 live earners.
“Come on, fill it in, otherwise George Michael gets your money”
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I already find this a bit of an issue when playing b2b with my freinds. They use sticks and Rekord box etc while i only have records.
I know it’s not competitive but it feels like an uneven playing field in that they can select bits of music that they’d never be able to obtain on vinyl either through cost, scarcity or just unavailability.
This can then lead to the imposter syndrome talked about in another thread, Which I totally get by the way, except when I’m playing on my own or to my kids 
but yes, the internal dialogue when going through a box of 100 records everytime it’s my turn is interesting and along the lines of “you never set foot in the same river twice” 
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The Format Wars were one of the things that did for me. Cant play vinyl there, this night will be CDJs, no point trying to take Serato to Venue X theres no room in the booth and the decks are dodgy, so+so is on first using USBs next week so may as well follow suit etc
Unless i was doing the whole night start to finish it just became a ball ache trying to be prepared for every possible scenario.
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I’m going to take this gripe, and move it further. Any music in restaurant is fucking annoying (apart from gentle sitar stuff in in the background at a curry house).
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There’s something about the discipline of only having a box of records though. Tell your mates it’s 100 files on the stick for next time and no bringing of laptops!
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Limitations are hugely important, in anything. Having any piece of music a click away, is anxiety producing for me.
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Late reply, but I’m done with Sydney - especially these bars who hire the same bunch of DJs playing the same tired funk and rare groove, neo soul and broken beat safety selections. Fuck right off. Making a rotary mixer and some monstera plants their personality. where’s the danger, the excitement, the strange, the unexpected? I guarantee you if you went in and played an honest selection of ear opening music for people to be surprised by, you’d never be asked back.
‘Listening Bars’- as long as what you like listening to is what you can hear at every fucking niche bar aimed at the over 30 crowd in Sydney. Yawnsville.
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Definitely this and maybe it’s the weight but I only pack what I will play rather than trying to cover all the bases.
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Completely, limitations force creativity
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I got told off for playing a This Mortal Coil record in a listening bar.
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I’m sure the technology is there that could have a listening device in any PRS venue linked to a Shazam style database that would or could send any artist a fixed sum on any play of their track.
(obvs might be a push for edits etc).
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Maximum underground Dj points if it can’t recognise any of your tunes.
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I was in Majorca with my family around the same time (Cala D’Or) and you’re right about the heat and the music… must have heard Robin S at least three times a day, once when a singer (who was actually pretty good) was belting it out in front of a restaurant.
I’ve never really come across the towel thing before this holiday either, we hung around a kids pool which was quieter and always managed to get a sun bed ok, but I was up at 7 one morning and every bed around the main pool already had a towel on it, I thought they must have been putting them out late at night but I had a look at midnight one evening, no towels… do people really get up in the middle of the night to put them out?
My other half is usually out putting down the towels by 7am 
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haha… 7 o’clock’s not too bad as I can imagine being awake then anyway, but there must have been sixty or seventy beds and everyone of them had a towel on by 7. They must have been getting up at 5 o’clock or something, sticking their towels on and going back to bed.
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Someone needs to run down and throw all 70 towels in the pool.
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I went to Majorca years ago and witnessed the ridiculous rush for the towels from the hotel balcony. What a bunch of numpties.
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‘Listening bars’ are becoming very pastiche in my experience. Found myself playing at a few over the last couple of years, and while I’m sure the original Japanse model for this sort of set up is fucking great, over here it seems to just be an excuse for a poncy bar to supply expensive drinks over a super hi tech audio equipment (but not always) and, worst of all a bored / ignorant clientele that has absolutely no idea of what the concept is supposed to be. More effort needs to be made as to what is trying to be achieved. Sticking some decks and a DJ in the corner of your woodpanelled space (its always woodpanelled) just doesnt cut it
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I miss just turning up at some dirty disco boozer with a DJ mate armed with a Tesco carrier bag of records, headphones covered in masking tape and a flask of magic potions and, thereafter, watching the chaos unfold. I resent being forced into these customised lounges, where you’re obliged to sip cocktails with people you can’t hear - in environments where you can’t dance. Always hoping there will be a rebellion and people will jump on tables, before remembering that those around me would give themselves a hernia
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