One day during the summer of 2006, The Phantom Hillbilly struck upon an idea: DJs are not in short supply. He loved music and entertaining crowds, but needed to offer something above and beyond the traditional in order to secure a spot at his favorite local haunt. A perusal of his DVD and VHS collection revealed he'd been inadvertently collecting music video collections of his favorite artists and his basement studio sported video as well as audio mixing equipment. He bounced the idea of an all-video night including his short comedy films produced for Independent Tuesdays film showcases off of Beulahland proprietor Jimmy Langen, who agreed to give it a biweekly trial run on a night that sorely needed more business.
The Phantom Hillbilly invited his con-conspirator in filmmaking and then-housemate, VJ Norto, to help wrangle equipment and found that he too had been an avid music video collector. Together, the two devised a system to make smooth transitions between music videos by separating the visual and audio elements, but their repertoire was limited. Within one year, their library had grown considerably due to a proliferation of digital-format videos which filled the gaps and broadened the variety they could present.
The legal ramifications were fuzzy in intellectual property terms until research revealed that music videos are promotional films for the very music bars pay ASCAP and BMI licensing to play.
No comments:
Post a Comment