DJs have done a lot during quarantine to give back to the community, foregoing their usual performance fees in lieu of donations to COVID-19 relief charities, such as MusiCares. Others involved in the show production business have had to rely on grants, loans, unemployment, and special funds created for their specific jobs, those of which are few and far between.
However, a group of DJs including Carl Cox, Seth Troxler, Dubfire, and Jamie Jones banded together to directly help out their tour managers. Each TM released their own mix on Bandcamp with exclusive songs from each of the DJs, with all proceeds from the sales to be distributed among them.
This did not sit well with fellow DJ John Askew, who fervently called out the group of DJs for the seemingly selfless act.
“Out of desperation for income in these trying times the tour managers of some of worlds richest DJs launch a mix series to try and raise donations from the public to help keep themselves afloat while out of work,” he begins. “And then the millionaires they work for have the audacity to beg and plead to the general public to get involved / donate give money I’m guessing so that they don’t have to themselves!!!??. What the actual fuck????????”
Tour managers are employees of artists, technically, so the argument can be made that artists should pay them during these difficult economic times, especially if they’re such millionaires as Askew claims. On the other side, we don’t truly know the financial situation of any of these DJs, and an artist can’t just hemorrhage money when they’re not making any themselves.
Seth Troxler has since clarified that his TM is taken care of, he just donated a mix to help people, because “that’s what you do.”
Askew’s video caused enough of an uproar in the community that the TNT Sofa Sessions Bandcamp and Instagram pages have both been taken down. There hasn’t been any response yet from any of the DJs involved in the comments on his video.
Watch it below.
Photo via Rukes.com