the law is complex but you actually get copyright on any content you create the moment its published in any form. For instance clusterfrog owns the copyright on message 5 in thread 52907 (and any others he wrote), same with anyone else on here, we do not own it even though its on the party vibe server. Similarly with tunes put on soundcloud or stored anywhere else. I hold the copyright for most of the content on my blog, where stuff has been borrowed from elsewhere its credited to the authors. I licensed the picture of the cat from the women in Northern Europe who made the font, that on its own is not copyright but the various logos are (I thought up the slogan before I found the picture))
but sadly I’ve found the culture of blatant theft to be much more commonplace on English EDM scenes – whereas in somewhere like NL everything is done by the book, though trance is more commonly produced with synths and vocals alone and fewer samples.
One really good thing I’ve noticed recently (though only unearthed it whilst listening to a recording of ASOT where unusually he presents a lot of it in Dutch rather than English) is Armin Van Buuren spends a lot of time seeking out and providing a platform for up and coming trance artists and amongst the artists associated with him there is an ethos of sharing ideas rather than competing for every last euro-cent even in this economic depression – and he is clearly bankrolling these riskier projects with his personal cash. he actually takes regular breaks from producing and releasing to keep up with stuff like his law studies and more recently fatherhood. The whole image of that scene is also made to be a lot more clean cut than other EDM scenes, it does not deny that drugs are taken but thats not whats bankrolling it, the money comes from legitimate music sales, royalties from radio airplay on more commercial stations like 538.
That said I think the days of musicians or anyone creative being able to pay the bills with their talent (i.e get the same as a normal full time day job) are long gone, they went in the 90s with the decline in paid-for content as well as other advances in technology, as well as the wider effects of the economic depression impacting on how many live performances/venues get licensed.
what remains is way more democratic and accessible and I think its better in many respects than the old days but once the current star talent gets old they will be the last of that generation what could make a living from creative endeavours alone, the best case is that the bulk of musicians, producers and DJ’s will have normal jobs but sales will subsidise the costs of making music as a hobby, whilst the jobs actually created are going to be in things like ICT and logistics associated with music scene..
