Get Played Get Paid Richie Hawtin & Pioneer DJ campaign

Get Played Get Paid Richie Hawtin & Pioneer DJ campaign

Get Played Get Paid is the slogan for a new campaign collaboration by Richie Hawtin and Pioneer DJ.

As far back as 2014 we reported on Pioneer DJ launching the KUVO network they had launched. KUVO serves two purposes. It’s a sort of social network between DJ, clubs and clubbers. The idea is that while a DJ is performing, a clubber can interact with that performance by seeing what track in being played via the app on their Smartphone. You can also then comment on the tracks etc. That’s the basic selling point.

But the underlying purpose of KUVO is actually to track each song played and act as a collection source so that producers of the tracks can get paid when their songs are played.

Now Richie Hawtin has something similar called RADR which is for Traktor users and what this app does is directly posts track ids to a Twitter account as the DJ plays them from his Traktor system.

 RADR now integrates with KUVO and both are now working with the Association For Electronic Music to supply this data and thus create a collection point for royalties, hence the slogan Get Played Get Paid.

The Challenges

Get Played Get Paid is a great slogan, once which should definitely enthuse producers who often get no remuneration when their music is being played countless times in small clubs and bars all over the world.

But there are big challenges. First of for KUVO to work it requires a hardware box in the club. This is currently FREE around Europe but we’ve yet to see one installed in South Africa.

However, even though it is free, what’s the buy in for the club? Club owners are often cagey about their financial records and earnings and are not immediately likely to want more of a paper trail transmitting from their venue.

In short, the sales pitch to club owners is that KUVO will give their dancefloors the edge by enabling clubbers to interact with the DJ via the app. But can you imagine people at say, Berghain [infamous Berlin techno club], being encouraged to whip out their Smartphones on the dancefloor.

The real essence of dance music is to lose yourself in the music; not spend time on your phone. In commercial clubs, which I guess is where the real money is for revenue streams, it seems like it could be a viable concept.

But the Get Played Get Paid slogan is unlikely to encourage venue owners, especially since they are technically supposed to be paying needletime royalties on music played in their establishment as it is.

So it seems Get Played Get Paid is aimed more at rallying together the troops of producers to push for KUVO and RADR to be used by DJs and for club owners to come to the party too.

It’s a noble cause; one that needs addressing since the revenue streams for the creators of the music are so limited these days, that a system to track and generate revenues each time your song is played in public would be an awesome shot in the arm for electronic music producers everywhere.

Let’s hope Get Played Get Paid is more than just a cool PR campaign and gains some traction.

As Richie Hawtin says “The potential of this technology is actually revolutionary.”

Watch the Get Played Get Paid video and tell us what you think.