[nudgeee]

Hilarious. Reminds me of Pioneer CDJs as well, even on the flagship CDJ-3000 models. If you read the user manual it says:

> About using MP3 files

> This product has been licensed for nonprofit use. This product has not been licensed for commercial purposes (for profit-making use), […]. You need to acquire the corresponding licenses for such uses. For details, see […]

Best use an open audio codec instead.

[Dwedit]

Nowadays, MP3 is an open audio codec. The patents have expired.

[MrDOS]

The format itself is patent-unencumbered. That doesn't mean I couldn't still write a non-free decoder and license it to Pioneer for use in their CDJs. Due to organizational inertia, I suspect that's what's going on here (e.g., they licensed a decoder from Fraunhofer or another commercial implementer twenty years ago, and have been using the same one since).

[immibis]

In this case, everyone at Pioneer knows their CDJs are used almost exclusively for commercial purposes, and perhaps they couldn't get away with lying about it in the fine print.

[troupo]

> Best use an open audio codec instead.

You will still need a separate license (or multiple separate licenses) for commercial purposes.

Music licensing is unbelievably complicated

[t0mas88]

That's about the music royalties, the comment above is about the CDJs ability to play MP3 encoded audio.