#RespectTheCreators, a new social media campaign from the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM), is setting out to give producers their flowers on social media
Launched on Thursday, September 12, the campaign encourages DJs, promoters, and other platforms to credit the producers of the tracks they play live and use in promotional social media posts.
#RespectTheCreators calls attention to a music industry problem wherein live and recorded footage from DJ sets and festivals shared on social has become an important marketing tool for the world’s biggest artists and events, but the frequently lesser-known producers who made the music in these social media posts often go unrecognized.
The campaign asks DJs that when they “post a video of a gig or a mix and the music isn’t yours, tag the artists, and list the full names of the tracks in the most visible part of your post.” Online platforms are asked to “include track lists for all sets, visible directly below the audio or video,” and promoters are asked to credit the music featured in all their social media promo for events.
Billboard reports that research shared in Dutch artist Frank Nitzinsky’s keynote speech at IMS Ibiza last May shows that on average, only three percent of a DJ’s set is music they have produced themselves, and up to 90 percent of performance footage shared on Instagram doesn’t credit the music featured in the video.
Alongside AFEM, #RespectTheCreators is backed by industry power players such as London’s fabric nightclub, Kevin McKay’s Glasgow Underground label, and Detroit techno pioneer Richie Hawtin.
“I thought supporting the community and the musicians who make the musical structure that our scene (and DJs) stand on was simply common decency (and sense),” Hawtin said in a statement. “So why do we see so many social media posts from DJs, promoters and festivals that completely fail to tag the music being played in the clips? It’s disrespectful and only takes further advantage of the musicians who are already struggling for recognition and a fair share of the economic pie of our ‘beautiful’ culture.”
The campaign follows the closure of Aslice, a platform that allowed working DJs to donate a portion of their earnings to the artists whose music they played during their set. Hawtin, a vocal supporter of the platform, said about its closure, “Aslice was working, and the only problem was that not enough DJs, especially the successful ones, agreed to sign up and share back into the music ecosystem that they have built their careers on. Aslice did not fail. The most famous, most followed DJs of our scene failed us all.”
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