Tipping Points

I've seen various iterations of tipping platforms where fans could put a few extra dollars in their favorite artists' pockets, but ASLICE, which launched Tuesday as a public beta, may be the first one I've seen designed for artists to tip other artists. Minneapolis techno DJ DVS1 founded the company, which asks DJs to voluntarily hand over a percentage of their live performance fees to the producers whose music they play in their sets, and gives them a tool to automate the process. "The existing models... don’t work," DVS1 told DJ Mag's DECLAN MCGLYNN.

The primary existing model is ASCAP and BMI, but DVS1, aka ZAK KHUTORETSKY, says it doesn't work well in DJ settings—"reporting our playlists [is] difficult or nearly impossible"—and producers are often making nothing from gigs that can be extremely lucrative for the DJs who play their songs. Aslice is asking DJs to share 5 percent of what they earn, though they can set the percentage to any number they like. Khutoretsky says DJs were receptive to the idea during a private beta, and the tool itself, which automates the process of uploading playlists and allocating the money, was a driving factor. Make it easy, he suggests, and artists are happy, eager even, to share.

The uneven allocation of payments between different creators is a familiar one in music. Think, for example, of the disparity between how labels/artists and publishers/songwriters are paid by streaming services (or the reverse disparity between how they're paid by terrestrial radio, at least in the US). The battles both within and without the industry to address those imbalances have been long and largely fruitless—at least partly because, as my friend BILL WERDE writes in his new weekly newsletter, Full Rate No Cap, "the music publishers... can't in any way publicly attack the labels that are taking an unfair share. Because they are all owned by the same people!" Aslice is basically saying if the suits can't—or don't want to—figure it out, let's do it ourselves. DIY royalties.

Will DJs take this up? Could it provide a model for cooperation between composers and performers elsewhere? Should this be an artist's job? It's certainly an interesting experiment. Says Khutoretsky: "I would challenge any DJ who earns money playing other people's music to really think about this simple question: Do you feel you do enough to support the people whose music you play? Do you think that the existing systems and opportunities are fair for producers?”

Dot Dot Dot

A Concert for Ukraine Tuesday night in Birmingham, England, featuring ED SHEERAN, CAMILA CABELLO, MANIC STREET PREACHERS, NILE RODGERS and Ukrainian pop star JAMALA raised £12.2million for humanitarian aid... ERIC CHURCH has canceled a sold-out arena show scheduled for Saturday in San Antonio because he wants to watch the North Carolina–Duke game in the NCAA Men's Final Four that night. In a note emailed to ticketholders by TICKETMASTER, Church called the cancellation—announced with only four days' notice—"the most selfish thing" he's ever done. Reaction on Twitter was mixed, not unlike reaction on Twitter to everything that's ever happened. Church is a Carolina native and a lifelong UNC fan... THE US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a copyright case involving a series of PRINCE paintings by ANDY WARHOL, based on a black-and-white photo by music photographer LYNN GOLDSMITH. Goldsmith, who was unaware of the paintings until decades after Warhol died, sued when she discovered them. A district court judge sided with Warhol's estate, saying the paintings had fundamentally transformed the original image. An appeals court overturned that ruling, saying a judge "should not assume the role of art critic." The Supremes are expected to hear the case this fall.

Rest in Peace

British DJ and radio/TV presenter SUPERFLY, remembered as a godfather to the Bristol music scene.