The project Scratch Decoder try to become a collaborative open source solution solution open source to implement/add digital capacities of communication to devices capable of doing scratch (cdjs and turntables) giving them this way a second chance of life to “theoretically” obsolete devices.
In clearer words there consists of one electronic device that allows us to update our old devices (cdjs or plates at first) turning them into controllers compatible with software of foxglove dijing instead of going to the trash-bin directly.

Learn more about the Scratch Decoder Project…

We’ve got lots of new hip-hop this week. If you’re an old school hip-hop head, you will appreciate the new Neek The Exotic and Large Professor. You’ll probably also dig Dice Raw “1995″, Wu Tang’s new “Only The Rugged Survive” and Vast Aire feat Raekwon “Thor’s Hammer”. We’ve got new heat from Frank Ocean, Lil Wayne, Gorilla Zoe and Maino.

We’ve been on a bit of an email hiatus, so make sure you’re all caught up on the Floor Bangers compilations. Volume 143 just arrived with some choice cuts from Beyonce with Andre 3000, Machinedrum, Mustang Ford and more. On a similar tip, don’t sleep on the new AG Trio. Oh and Daly City Records just laced us with the new Mindelixir “Doomsday Ticket” which has some dubstep gems, but it’s so much more complex than that. Give it a listen, you won’t regret it.

Hit up our Latest Arrivals section for all the fresh goodies!

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It’s no secret that making money as a music artist these days is a difficult task. Just check out the infographic and article by David McCandless where he explains in detail how much music artists make online. It’s eye opening to say the least. (note: at www.gigacrate.com, we pay artists 60-70% which is quite high compared to most of the competition)

Selling music isn’t the only way music artists make money though. Royalties is one of many other revenue streams. For those that don’t know, there are four types of music royalties:

1. Mechanical royalties: paid from record companies for record sold based on the exclusive to reproduce and distribute copyrighted works.
2. Public performance royalties: paid by music users for songs in the operation of their businesses and broadcasts based on the exclusive right to perform publicly copyrighted works.
3. Synchronization fees: paid by music users for synchronizing music with their visual images based on the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute copyrighted works and to prepare derivative works of copyrighted material.
4. Print music income: paid by music printers for sheet music and folios based on the exclusive right to distribute copies of copyrighted material.

Performance Rights

The focus of this article is on public performance royalties. Performance rights organizations such as BMI, ASCAP and SESAC collect royalties from radio, tv, internet, etc… then pay their member artists (ie: you have to be a member with a works catalog to even get paid). There are two royalty ownership parts to each song (often called “splits”): writer and publisher. Each time you create a new song, you submit it to an org like BMI with the splits.

My focus will be on exposing some of the less well know facts about specifically how BMI operates with regards to royalty distribution in an effort to educate you the artist or consumer and possibly bring about change since some of these practices are down right shady.

Delayed Accounting

Royalty statements take some time to prepare due to the sheer volume of data that BMI collects. Therefore BMI pays out every quarter and payments are delayed two quarters. Here’s 2011 payout schedule:

• 3/25/11: Royalty Payment for 3rd Quarter 2010
• 6/24/11: Royalty Payment for 4th Quarter 2010
• 9/23/11: Royalty Payment for 1st Quarter 2011
• 1/13/12: Royalty Payment for 2nd Quarter 2011
• 3/23/12: Royalty Payment for 3rd Quarter 2011

This is where things start to smell fishy to me. I understand it takes some time to collect royalties and calculate who’s owed what, but it’s 2011, not 1995. Most of these submissions/collections are handled via computer and shouldn’t take 6 months to tally. Yet BMI has artists money sitting in their bank account earning interest for 6 solid months before they even think of cutting the first artist’s check.

Payout Thresholds And Lack Of Reporting

Due to the cost of collecting and paying artists, BMI has implemented a threshold by which to pay out. Of course this cost varies depending on whether the artist is getting paid via check or direct deposit. If you are paid by check, your quarterly earnings must be above $250 in order to get paid. If not, your money is rolled into the next quarter until it is above $250. If you are paid via direct deposit, you only have to be owed more than $2 and BMI will pay you. If you’re an artist with BMI, make sure you are set up for direct deposit!

It gets even better folks…

…if the total amount of royalties earned from all sources in any calendar year is less than $25.00, no payment will be made and no royalty statement will be rendered.

Wait, what!? So not only will BMI not pay you if you earn less than $25 a year, but they won’t even issue you a royalty statement! That’s absolutely absurd.

Think Of All The Money BMI Makes

I totally understand that it costs money to pay artists and having a payout threshold is a necessary evil, but think of the thousands of artists BMI doesn’t pay each year and how much money they could be making off this little known accounting practice. If 1,000 artists didn’t get paid and they were owed $10 each, that’s $10,000 BMI pockets each year. In reality BMI alone represents over 400,000 artists and if 20% of those artists don’t get paid each year at say $10 each, BMI could earn $800,000 a year!

Enough about could be, would be…in 2009, BMI collected over $905 million in licensing fees and distributed $788 million in royalties. That’s $117 million that BMI pocketed in 2009.

No Statement Is Just Insulting

It’s one thing to not pay, but it’s just insulting to not even issue royalty statements to artists who make less than $25 a year! They already have the statements. All they need to do is make them available electronically in an artist’s profile.

These statements provide valuable information to artists who wish to know who is actually playing their music. Keep in mind that even if an artist is owed less than $25, they could have THOUSANDS of plays due to the fact that internet royalties are typically ~$.01 per play.

More details about BMI’s royalty payouts.

Pioneer has just announced that it’s new DJM-T1 mixer with Traktor Scratch 2 will ship mid July for around $2,150 MSRP. That’s quite a steep price, but they do include plenty of amazing features.

Here’s another link with more photos.

We are proud to announce the GigaCrate Unofficial SXSW ‘11 shows. Wed 3/16 we have DJ night full of nu disco, house, electro, hip-hop, soul and more featuring U-Tern, Smalltown DJs, Eleven, Jayceeoh, Hedspin & Pump and Sober. On Thur Rappers I Know has put together an amazing hip-hop line up featuring Just Blaze, Saigon, Danny Brown, Sugar Tongue Slim, H.I.S.D., Tanya Morgan, The Legendary K.O., Radio Galaxy, The Niyat, Magestik Legend, The Luv Bugz, A.DD+, Clear Soul Forces and special guests. It’s all going down at Beso Cantina (307 W 5th Street, Austin, TX 78701) from 8pm til 2am and best of all it’s 100% FREE and you don’t even need a wristband. All you have to do is RSVP here: http://www.gigacrate.com/rsvp

OK, on with the new music! Hip-hop-wise we got some heat via Stalley, Wiz Khalifa, David Dallas, Trinity (A.G. Of D.I.T.C., Sadat X Of Brand Nubian And Dj Jab), Skillz and Blac Kaspa.

The homie DJ Eleven has just released the new Donwill EP “Love Junkie”. It’s a great club-friendly hip-hop/dance record. You need this for your gigs this weekend. Don’t sleep!

On the dance tip, two new Floor Bangers have arrived… Volume 134 (highlights include Breakbot, Siriusmo and Munchi feat Mr Lexx) and Volume 135 (highlights include Diplo, Mexicans With Guns, Cutso and The Les).

There’s SO much more new stuff on the site in latest arrivals. Get on it!
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