I think this can be a heavily debated subject which can be argued from both sides, personally ive never liked the thought of carving a djing career from cd, i bought final scratch to aid my live sets but quickly sold it after audio quality, getting problems and also seeing sets from dj's infront of 2000 clubbers come to a grinding halt because of crashes. Ive seen the impact that mp3 has on the industry and i think if dj's move to cds as a major percentage of their media it will spiral where it wont be financially possible for new breed producers to work, or labels able to pull new talent, piracy will be out of control with cd burners currently being a part of everyday standard computer these days, with internet connection speeds on the rise full blown tracks will be as easy to swap as top trump cards in the playground. I understand that there are concerns about record prices from most countries, but i think we have to look a bit closer at distribution and shops also, i mean if you imagine the average import in countries is probably what £7.00 to £8.00, for most records i sell i have recieved a distributed price of between £1.90 - £2.00 per unit with pressing cost of about £1.00 per unit, you have £1.00 profit and we havnt even got to paying out any running costs of the label yet, phone bills, royalties, elctricity, insurance, mcps, promotion, postage, etc, etc ,etc. As you see if you could sell 10.000 units of each release no problem but thats far from the case in a scene at the moment where selling 2,000 units is considered a major result. So its fine for Mr Clarke to ask for cds for nothing more that a handfull of reasons, probably accumulating to

1: you can programme a start point

2: you can programme a loop, "isnt theres a handfull of stuff doing that anyway"

3: you can save the valuable time getting through customs helping you cram in 2 gigs in a night @ €20,000 each

but probably the most inovative ground breaking use is

4: you can carry your set in your Louis Vitton or Burberry wallet

Now this is not a direct attack at Dave personally because i know that its probably a scene shift, an evolution of technology call it what you will, but mostly it comes from people who have been rewarded plentifully from the scene, Final scratch same thing "Mr Hawtin & Mr Acquaviva" nice idea but the technologies not there to stop the piracy, so why not try to preserve a little of that for the next generation to encourage a flow of inovating talent to shine, or if not who knows what will happen. I mean if Dave had missed his birth slot by 20 years he would have seen its easier keeping "The Wolf" from the doors building the clubs than playing in them.

just a few thoughts no offence