This simple looking box, not too dissimilar to your home modem could be the solution to Australia’s current club royalty problems that have been plagued by back scratching and favouritism in recent years.

The current system for divvying up royalties is run by APRA – the Australian Performing Rights Association. Which based on voting by selected members, essentially the top tier of Australian producers and industry means that it’s possible for those members to choose who gets paid versus what tracks are actually being played in clubs, and who should be earning those royalties. Too often you’ll check in on your weekly charts and notice a ton of garbage being charted that couldn’t possibly be getting played that much.

Don’t get me wrong, the system has been built for a purpose and it does serve just that, but because of it’s simplicity and certain cliques that exist within Australia means a giant loophole exists that votes can be placed on tracks not necessarily being played nor popular within the scene. Not so great.

Enter stage left Pioneers new mystery tech-box.

Fondly named the NXS-GW it looks integrate into club systems to help track and monitor what is actually being played in real time using everybody’s favourite thing… the internet! Although details are thin we can tell once the box has been installed into a majority of clubs around Australia it’ll then read either metadata, meta tags or the track names to gauge what is being played.

Although there are flaws with tracking metatags/metadata, across the board there should be an increase accuracy of what is being played in clubs and artists genuinely earning royalties.

It should mean new producers ie Wave Racer who’s tracks are being played in lots of clubs, just not so much commercial clubs will get a fair cut of the pie when it comes to royalties as well as help DJs and punters find that big track they heard in the middle of a night without waving Shazam in front of the speaker or DJ.

It’s great to see that Pioneer are continuing to build technology that helps level the playing field.