Continuous DJ Mixes

If you have a continuous mix that you’d like to make available on digital services, there are some special things to consider when creating your release on the portal.  Some digital services are very particular about how continuous mix tracks are presented so it’s important that you follow this guide to make sure your release is correctly prepared for digital distribution.

Continuous mixes supplied as a single, long track present a few problems for digital distribution;

• Customers are unable to see which tracks are included in the mix before they purchase.
• The contributing artists and DJs can not be properly credited in the metadata or linked to the release.
• It is very difficult for the stores to clear the underlying compositions and account to collection societies correctly.
• They are generally unsuited to streaming platforms – where the royalties generated are typically based purely on the number of plays.
• Onward accounting to licensors and/or performers on a pro-rata basis is difficult.

Some services (including iTunes and Apple Music) will not accept products which contain continuous mix tracks.  Your releases will be ineligible for delivery in these cases.

The alternative – and the only way to set up a continuous mix which will work well across all digital services – is to create a “continuous mix album” as explained below.  It is therefore important to make sure the terms of any applicable licensing agreements cover this type of use.

A continuous mix album is a digital bundle which contains only the continuous mix – with the audio sliced into multiple tracks such that they seamlessly recreate the continuous mix when played in sequence with gapless playback.  It’s essentially the download/streaming equivalent of having a mix on CD with track-points to skip through the songs in the mix.

These kinds of albums work well on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify and any other services which support gapless playback.  On streaming services, each play of the mix generates multiple payable streams – one for each track in the mix.  For downloaders, it works equally well when burned to CD or when played as a gapless album on a compatible audio player.

• The words “DJ Mix” must be appended to the bundle title in parentheses to indicate the product is a continuous mix.
• All track version fields must be set to “Mixed” to indicate that the track is an excerpt from a longer mix rather than a standalone track.
• If the excerpt itself is from a remix, the version information must be appended to the title in (parentheses) to ensure the correct formatting on stores.
• Only the artist(s) who perform the original track should be credited as Artist / Featured Artist.
• The DJ who created the mix may be credited as a Remixer on every track.
• Each track should also be assigned it’s own ISRC.  You should not use the ISRC from the original version.
• It’s advisable to set the clip-start time to a point during the transition.
• Mix excerpt tracks are unsuitable content recognition fingerprinting so UGC should always be disabled.

Example:

Bundle Title: The Best of Freestyle Records (DJ Mix)
Bundle Artist: Various Artists

Track 1 Title: Amen Brother
Track 1 Version: Mixed
Track 1 Artist: The Bamboos
Track 1 Remixer: DJ Kudos

Track 2 Title: Gave My Heart (DJ Jazzy Jeff Remix)
Track 2 Version: Mixed
Track 2 Artist: Omar
Track 2 Featured Artist: Leon Ware
Track 2 Remixer 1: DJ Jazzy Jeff
Track 2 Remixer 2: DJ Kudos
…