Hi all.
I have done a little DJ work a few years ago, for school friends' parties, using CD players and a mixer, nothing fancy.

I would now like to get back into DJing, on a higher level, I.E beat mixing, etc. The platform for my DJ work would be on a laptop computer, with a MIDI controller with faders and knobs etc to control elements of the mix.

There is no problem regarding software or hardware, that is all sorted. The possible problem that I might face, is the legality of using music ripped from CD onto hard disk, and no, it is not to do with whether I want to use mp3, ogg, etc.

Anybody here who knows anything about Australian law, probably knows that it is illegal to make a copy of music to put onto your computer, personal player, etc, yet this is the very basis of how I would do my DJ work.

So from a business point of view, is it possible to do such a thing, and be able to make money from DJing with a laptop? I would preferably like to find out from people who live and/or work in Australia, as this seems to be an issue only relative to this country.

Alternatively, do you know of anybody who may have a better understanding of this issue, or could give me the information I am seeking?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and/or advice.

TheMuso

Hello and welcome aboard first of all. :)

You might want to try a workaround. At least in Europe and the US, an increasingly growing number of online-shops specialise in selling (dj-)tracks online, so you allready have your tunes digitalised.
Check out http://www.trax2burn.com/, http://www.nufonix.com/ and http://www.beatport.com/ for starters.

Furthermore I found some articles and ressources on the web. I guess the most interesting is this one: PROPOSED AUSTRALIAN MUSIC COPYRIGHT CHANGE--'Fair Use Vs CD-R & Player Levy (http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=67720). At the bottom of the text you'll find an email-adress and phone-number, maybe you could write the man an email and ask him about the problem.
At least he could point you to the proper authorities or ressources as he seems to be somewhat of an expert.

More about Copyright in general:
http://www.copyright.org.au/
http://www.anu.edu.au/ITA/AusArts/www/library/copyright.html

Regarding your final question: Yes I think it is possible to DJ with a laptop, especially with one that you seem to have. I tend to believe that people like to see the DJ fiddle with nobs, buttons, faders and equipment. Your setup could be a bit of a "live-show", depending of the genre you play offcourse ... HipHop or R'n'B with CDs or Laptop? Not so cool imho, but it's all do-able.
Making money shouldn't be the first thing in mind when dj-ing and in order to make money there are also other skills needed than a laptop and a harddisc full of tunes. ;)

Hope that helps a bit, though I am not Australian. :p

Cheerio

btw, I moved the post to "in the mix" as this topic is far more advanced than the average newbie-question

Thanks a lot mate, much appreciated.

I would buy tracks from those places, but as far as I can tell, they only sell tracks in formats that have lossy compression. I intend to use lots of disc space, and use lossless audio compression to ensure quality, as I can't stand the mushiness of MP3s and even oggs at times.

In terms of making money, the reason why I would really like to find out the legality of all this, is because if it isn't possible, I won't invest in the hardware, if that makes sense.

Anyway, I will give those other links a read and i will let everybody know what I came up with.

Thanks again.

TheMuso

No prob, that's what we are here for. :)

It is maybe nice to know that some of the mentioned shops also offer .wav files as the founders are familiar to DJ-ing; e.g. trax2burn was started by Norman Cook, beter known as fatboy slim, and Darren Emerson (former part of Underworld).
They sure know what matters.

P.S.: Happy birthday btw