Industry desk
Tools for DJs, producers and labels
Working tools for the business side of dance music: who gets paid when a track is played, how to split a record, what streams and pressings are worth, and the maths done in the booth. Figures are published estimates with their sources. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.
Share the fee with the producers
DVS1 launched Aslice in March 2022: software that read a DJ’s playlist and passed a share of the gig fee to the producers of the tracks played. It suggested 5% of the fee, with a $10 minimum per playlist (Resident Advisor, Mar 2022). Aslice announced its closure on 3 September 2024, after paying out $422,696 from 935 DJs to 27,395 producers for 85,265 tracks (DJ Mag, Sep 2024). The sum still works without the software.
Split sheet builder
A split sheet records who owns what share of a track. Agree it before release, have everyone sign it, and register the same shares with your collecting society and distributor. This one stays in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Samples and templates you can release
Bought sounds are only safe to release when the licence says so. Two large stores for dance producers, in their own words:
| Store | What it sells | Licence, as the store puts it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Splice | A sample library of millions of sounds made by artists, labels and sound designers, browsable by genre, instrument and pack; also rent-to-own plugins and a free instrument. | Royalty free and cleared for commercial use; every sound you download is yours to keep. Full terms: Splice Terms of Use. | Splice, checked 11 November 2026 |
| We Make Dance Music | A marketplace, online since 2012, for DAW templates, stems, MIDI packs, presets and production tools from more than 550 creators. | Royalty free, per its home page. | We Make Dance Music, checked 11 November 2026 |
Keep the licence or receipt with the project files, and note any sampled or template material when you fill in the split sheet above.
Get paid when your track is played out
Clubs and festivals pay licence fees to collecting societies: more than €400 million a year, by AlphaTheta’s estimate (AlphaTheta, Nov 2024). That money reaches the right writers only when the society knows what was played. How that works in the six cities this site follows:
| Territory | Society | How club plays are identified | What you can do | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | GEMA | Monitoring boxes on the DJ booth output in panel clubs sample the tracks played; YACAST identifies them by audio fingerprint. | Writers: upload your audio through GEMA’s sound file upload so your tracks can be matched. | GEMA |
| Netherlands | BumaStemra | DJ-Monitor registers club music in real time from Pioneer equipment data and audio fingerprinting. Festivals can submit audio to build setlists. | DJs: submit sets and playlists in MijnBumaStemra, or record sets with the Vollou app, which reports them. | BumaStemra |
| United Kingdom | PRS for Music, PPL | DJ Monitor tracks where electronic music is played. KUVO powered by DJ Monitor pilots capture CDJ metadata and audio fingerprints in clubs. | Producers: upload your tracks to DJ Monitor so they are recognised. | PRS for Music, AlphaTheta, Nov 2024 |
| France | SACEM | YACAST, GEMA’s monitoring partner, also works with SACEM. | Ask SACEM how to submit your tracks for recognition. | GEMA |
| United States | ASCAP, BMI, SESAC | Writers report their own live sets: ASCAP OnStage, BMI Live (performances from the previous six months) and the SESAC portal. The guide does not cover DJ sets of other people’s music. | If you perform your own tracks, file your setlists with your society. | Hypebot, Aug 2025, ASCAP, BMI |
| Vietnam | VCPMC | No public description of DJ-set reporting found (checked 9 November 2026). | Ask VCPMC directly. | – |
Songwriting royalties in the United States
When a song is played in public, its songwriters, composers and publishers are paid through a performing rights organisation. ASCAP says it represents more than 1.1 million members and is the only US performing rights organisation that operates on a not-for-profit basis (ASCAP, checked 11 November 2026; Join ASCAP). BMI calls itself the largest performing rights organisation in the US; it licenses businesses to play more than 25 million musical works and pays the fees back to its songwriters, composers and publishers (BMI, checked 11 November 2026).
Recordings played on US digital services
The table above covers club plays. Plays of your recordings on services such as Pandora, SiriusXM and iHeartRadio are collected separately. SoundExchange describes itself as the sole organisation designated by the US government to administer the Section 114 sound recording licence: it collects digital performance royalties and distributes them to artists and rights owners. Its SoundExchange Direct service is free and lets creators search for and claim their recordings and track royalties (SoundExchange, checked 11 November 2026). Register with SoundExchange.
Three habits that help everywhere
- Register every track with your society before it is released.
- Upload the audio for fingerprinting wherever your society offers it.
- Keep your playlist after every set and submit it where your society accepts DJ setlists.
What streams pay
Estimated recording royalty per stream in 2026 (Royalty Exchange, Jul 2026). Services do not publish a fixed rate; payouts depend on the listener’s plan and country.
| Service | Per stream (USD) |
|---|---|
| Spotify | $0.003–$0.005 |
| Apple Music | $0.007–$0.01 |
| Tidal | $0.013–$0.015 |
| Deezer, premium streams | $0.005–$0.007 |
| Amazon Music | about $0.004 |
| YouTube Music | $0.001–$0.002 |
| Qobuz | $0.015–$0.019 |
Pressing a 12-inch
Published package prices for a 12-inch run at a US plant, August 2026, including cutting, plating, five test pressings and printed jackets (Chartlex, 2026):
| Copies | Black vinyl | Per copy | Translucent colour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | $1,509 | $15.09 | $1,566 |
| 200 | $1,928 | $9.64 | $2,022 |
| 300 | $2,265 | $7.55 | $2,396 |
| 500 | $2,782 | $5.56 | $3,067 |
In Europe a 300-copy 12-inch with cover and inner sleeve runs €4.50–€6.50 a copy, plus a one-time cutting fee of €300–€800. Allow 8–16 weeks at mid-size North American plants and 3–7 months at the largest European ones; brokers add 10–20% (Chartlex, 2026).
Booth maths
Tap a tempo, find the pitch to beatmatch two records, get delay times in milliseconds, and check which keys mix.
Tap the beat
Tour calendar feed
Every upcoming DVS1 date as a calendar feed for promoters, press and fans. It is built from the dates on the home page, which are read from Resident Advisor’s public listings.
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