
Why and how I am attempting to officially invent The SM-DJ(Streaming Media Disc Jockey) Movement, profession, and format. Why what I call the SM-DJ is not necessarily an actual DJ; and, why I hope that this is okay and productive for the music community… by TangenT D.‘Noir [Network Calendar :: Event Submissions]
My name is TangenT D.‘Noir a Conceptual Musician / Catalyst Creator, Project Manager, Web Developer, and Owner/Founder at TheXFactory.com :: Creative Network since 2000-06-18; and, although not so much now-a-days, I also just happen to be an independent musician/conceptual artist since 1984-02-28 at TangenTNoir.com. Truthfully, none of my music can be found anywhere on the Internet. This includes download & streaming media websites. Despite this fact, I consider myself an SM-DJ at TheXFactory.com/stream as TangenT D.‘Noir — Tidal-SM-DJ.007 “ALL DAY EVERYDAY” since August of 2018. HOWEVER, I AM NOT AN ACTUAL DJ.
This shiz gets deep. So please let me explain…
THE SHORT OF IT:
I created this SM-DJ(Streaming Media Disc Jockey) concept and acronym to define taking the responsibility for the on-going streaming of digital content for the purposes of earning money for artists who have their content listed in the catalogs of streaming media sites etc.
THE MORE OF IT…
I’m a serious supporter of all things that people make and small independent business types with creative collaborative spirits. This does not only apply to the creative arts etc. It also extends in to helping people truly see the benefit of local support via learning a craft in order to slow the wide spread corporate take over of our lives and providing choices for local communites. You may want to check out more about what I’ve written about this in my Mission Statement at TheXFactory.com page so as to not have this introduction over-take this already long winded explanation about helping to solve the streaming media delema for independent bands and musicians.
This little story began some time early in the year of 2018, when I started to think about what I could do to help derail the problem within the music community regarding the pseudo-fame making musician resource bleeding streaming media industry. You know — the problem where when you write music and you feel forced to have it listed within the catalogs of streaming media sites only to find that you’ll only receive fractions of a penny when people play your songs for more than 30 seconds and realize that because of this ease of accessibly — no one will ever really purchase your actual music on CDs or other forms of media, which help you earn money directly from the sale of the actual music you’ve created, because they can stream it whenever they’d like online. Also in order to make a reasonable living, thousands of people would have to play your music every single day — non stop(THIS WILL PROVE THE VALUE OF THE SM-DJ AS A PART OF THE MUSIC COMMUNITY). Additionally, streaming media sites charge millions of people monthly fees which equal millions if not billions of dollars every year — all profiting from music which you(the musician) contributed to their catalogs. Most of which is NOT shared with you, the musician. And I don’t even want to get in to the fact that record labels are probably discouraged from telling you that they get paid a statutory mechanical royalty rate for physical recordings (such as CDs) and permanent digital downloads of 9.1¢ for recordings of songs 5 minutes or less, and 1.75¢ per minute or fraction thereof for those over 5 minutes(SOURCE). If not for you(the musician), streaming media sites would be out of business. Yeah, that problem… So.. okay.. “F” that noise. This is the reason my music can not be found on-line or on any streaming media or downloadable catalog. I simply refuse to play this game. If you find my music anywhere on-line other than directly from my little world, please let me know. Nevertheless, my objective is to help those who’s music is on these sites already with a heavy dose of commitment, focus, and dedication to repeat streaming every day along with maintaining a playlist and a little social network mentioning and promotion. With that being said…
3. THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING;
- INTRODUCTION — ^ ABOVE ^
Hope it wasn’t too long. - WHY DO THIS AT ALL — ^ ABOVE ^
My strongly worded option about why I’ve bothered to make this a thing. - TABLE OF CONTENTS
You are here… It’s the table of contents. - MORE EXPLANATION:
How and why I came to this conclusion. - SM-DJ TITLE EXAMPLES:
Examples of how you might want to create your own SM-DJ title for non DJs, actual DJs, along with my working example at TheXFactory.com/stream page. - SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO WORK YOUR PLAYLIST:
A strongly suggested example based off of how I work the Tidal Daily Streaming Repeating Playlist page at TheXFactory.com. - EXAMPLES OF WHAT THE ABOVE CRAZINESS MEANS:
An explanation of what the SM-DJ acronym means, who should use it, how it should be used, and why you should seriously consider using it. - MAYBE TRY TO SHOOT ME A LITTLE HUMBLE MENTION:
You know — just a little tip of the cap. All I want is a little love for my hardwork and madness. - FINAL NOTES:
About what this might mean down the road. - RESOURCES:
Some links to resources to help you claim your streaming royalties. In some cases, this includes additional royalties beyond what streaming services pay directly to you.
So I started a personal playlist containing some of the more independent bands and musicians who I thought might like some additional support via a personal Tidal account. I quickly realized that if I simply kept the playlist going all the time that the artists who I chose would start to see a little extra money. So I thought it would be a great idea to promote and make what I was doing visible to the public by adding what I call a Tidal Daily Streaming Repeating Playlist page to TheXFactory.com’s web site to keep the artists and passers-bye informed. Also I thought it would help to spread the word to others who would want to do the same. You can find that page along with additional information by visiting the main streaming page at TheXFactory.com here. Basically my revelation was that the SM-DJ is the solution to the streaming media issue. We are willing to represent the necessary millions of people required to play the music of INDEPENDENT artists over and over again via a daily repeating playlist of the same artists every single day, day after day, until we help each artist make at lease 4 times the amount of what their albums are worth.
Thereafter, I started working on the SM-DJ concept as an idea to popularize as not only an occupation but also as something in which every day people actually might do on a daily and/or regular basis, and even as a way to drive donations to their Internet projects or what-have-you. There are some important ethical things which include keeping a log of how many times your playlist repeats, keeping track of how many songs each artist has within your playlist, and posting the results on a relatively regular basis somewhere visible to the public — something like once a month will do for most I think. Other than that it’s important that you do NOT let people listen to full songs online as it defeats the purpose of promoting the idea that you’re wanting other people to generate additional song listening or streams, thus earn money for independent artists. A simple link to the streaming media website which you are using will do. In all of this, the article which are reading right now was created.
My goal is to start a kind of name and/or system for people who stream the media of bands and musicians via daily repeating playlists in an effort to support musicians with actual money coming from the streaming media websites. The idea is for “normal people” to be like DJs of streaming media but without having to be an actual DJ, buy gear, etc. Simply use the computers or devices you already have to stream the music at home all the time. Although if you were a DJ you might still do this. Just find a device that you can leave streaming all the time and go about your business. Lol. However, the requirement for being a DJ is simply not necessary. You’ll just have to make sure that people understand that you are NOT an actual DJ so as to not confuse your occupation with these professionals.
I brainstormed ideas for quite a while; and, had a hard time settling on a solid simple acronym and a prefix placement that didn’t look like I was attempting to be a actual DJ. Honestly, at first I thought of not using the letters “D” and “J”. However, I found it much more difficult to have people understand without the letters “D” and “J”. So, I included them anyway. This is all mostly because I’d really like anyone to be able to say that they do the SM-DJ thing if they are willing to make it a routine. By using the SM-DJ acronym after their name, weather she or he is an actual DJ or not, people might have a sense of belonging to a group of people who are trying to correct an injustice done to musicians. So people know that a person is seriously dedicated to supporting musician’s in this way and that they are willing to provide a little proof via a simply playcount of each band etc. So below is a kind of out-line and explanation of how to represent SM-DJ titles:
- NON DJ TITLE
- EXAMPLE #1: TangenT D.‘Noir “TIDAL-SM-DJ.007 — ALL DAY EVERYDAY”
- EXAMPLE #2: TIDAL-SM-DJ.007 TangenT Noir “ALL DAY EVERYDAY”
- ACTUAL DJ TITLE
- EXAMPLE #1: DJ Whomever “TIDAL-SM-DJ.007 — ALL DAY EVERYDAY”
(this should only be used by an actual DJs) - EXAMPLE #2: TIDAL-SM-DJ.007 DJ Whomever “ALL DAY EVERYDAY”
(this should only be used by an actual DJs) - EXAMPLE #3: TIDAL-SM-DJ Whomever .007 “ALL DAY EVERYDAY”
(this should only be used by an actual DJs)
- MY CURRENT LIVE EXAMPLE AT TheXFactory.com:
- TangenT D.‘Noir “TIDAL-SM-DJ.007”
6. WHAT THE ABOVE CRAZINESS MEANS:
- TangenT D.‘Noir or DJ Whomever = Is obviously the name or alias of the person maintaining the playlist. In this case it’s me. Replace it with your own name. Only use “DJ” in front of your actual name if you are actually a DJ
- TIDAL = This can also be the first letter of the streaming media site which you use to stream the music to help bands profit from repeating streams. In this case it would be “T” instead of “Tidal” if you wish.
- S = Stands for the word “STREAMING”. Replace it with a $ if you’re feelin’ sassy.
- M = Stands for the word “MEDIA”.
- D = Disc. Although there are no actual discs. Just streams.
- J = Stands for the word “JOCKEY”. Yup. You would be the jockey.
- .007 = Although is optional, it is probably the most important part of your title. It’s the amount which the streaming media site pays each artist per play when the SM-DJ finishes playing each song. Most sites require at lease 30 seconds of actual song play before they count it as an actual play. In this case, Tidal pays $0.007 per play. So I kinda sound like a James bond spy or something. I don’t know of any streaming sites which pay over a dollar per play so all of the names should look cool like this. And you can say something like double or tipple “0” seven to add a little bad-assory to it. HA! You could even say the word “point” as in “.007”.
- ALL DAY EVERY DAY = This is simply the amount of time in which you have dedicated to streaming the music of others. Other alternatives may be used (ex: “6 HOURS EVERY DAY” etc).
7. SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO WORK YOUR PLAYLIST:
First of all, I strongly recommend adding INDEPENDENT bands or musicians to your playlist as they won’t have to share as much with their record label. Many record labels split it 50/50 with the artists. Although you don’t have to do this my way, I also suggest trying to keep a playlist near 11 or 12 hours in length. This makes it much easier to know when your playlist has been paused or stopped by the streaming media site for “unknown reasons”, “updates”, or other excuses. HA! It also helps to keep you from loosing track of how many times your playlist has repeated, which is important when showing people how many plays you have generated for the bands. Basically, the idea is to have the playlist repeat a least 2 times per day so that you can be accurate about how many plays you’ve completed. Repeating your playlist 2 times per day will give an 8 track album 448 plays in one month, 1344 plays in tree months(one quarter of a year), 2688 in six months(half of one year), and 5376 in one year. This should make the artist about $37.632 on Tidal assuming that the payout is still $0.007 play per song. If you can keep track of a shorter playlist, then go for it. It just means more money for fewer artist, who I’m sure will greatly appreciate the extra cash.
8. MAYBE TRY TO SHOOT ME A LITTLE HUMBLE MENTION:
If you use this idea I would love for you to give me a little shout out(web links or other wise) and/or simply credit to me “TangenT D.‘Noir Owner/Founder of TheXFactory.com :: Creative Network” for working out this little culture jamming idea as I’d like to officially be known as the first person to seriously start and continue to do this for real.
If everyone took the time to do what I am doing by making themselves an SM-DJ. Musicians may actually earn a decent living having written the music they’ve already written and be encourage to continue to write more, perform if they’d like, and do all of the awesome creative things that musicians do.
If the streaming media sites decide to make it more expensive to have an account. It may be easier for musicians to actually make money from selling their actual music without having to be dependent on doing live shows and selling merchandise instead, because not everyone can or wants to perform live or wants to market merchandise(not that there’s anything wrong with that). Because, some of us simply may not be healthy enough to perform and/or actually want to get people to connect with the music without connecting it to pop-culture ideas of “The Rockstar”. Making selling your actual music very very important.
Some links to resources to help you claim your streaming royalties. In some cases, this includes additional royalties beyond what streaming services pay directly to you.
- How it Works | Mechanical Licensing Collective
- Locate Missing Music Royalty Payments | Unclaimed Assets
IMPORTANT: These links have been added here purely to help musicians level the playing field by keeping the money owed to them. *TheXFactory.com is not affilliated with any of the resourece in the section and does not receive any money etc when you visit. However, If you would like to help TheXFactory.com continue it’s support, please donate directory HERE. If you can not donate yourself, feel free to copy, paste, and share the below link with your friends.
🙂 Your support is greatly appreciated. 🙂
CIAO:
Okay, That is all. Sometimes I have weird quirky ideas which I must express and bring to light; or, I’ll simply go nuts thinking about them. Let’s hope that all of my insanity somehow finds you well.
‘Til the next time, A good man let’s his demons die.
Peace.
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