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I think what SC is suggesting is that "illegitimate KJs" made lots of money because they did not put out a fortune to buy 6000 licensed tracks. I could not get a feel from the document of how profitable they felt legitimate KJs may be.
I'm sorry if I sounded like I was supporting SC's position. I am not. I was just suggesting that they have described their problem in terms a jury can understand, in a few simple four letter words.
SC's problem is real. If they cannot make a profit on CDG sales they are out of business. Piracy, which they have described, contributes to that problem. All of Canada's karaoke producers have gone out of business. None of them credited this to piracy. All of them said it was due to rising license fees from rights holders. Even fees on manufactured products went up so they had to raise sales prices to between $40 - $50 a disc at which point sales fell off a cliff. Result? The Canadian industry killed itself.
SC makes no mention of rising royalties impacting their bottom line, though I am sure that is a big contributor.
I have heard that country music rights holders have not increased fees as much, which may explain why 90% of Chartbuster new releases are country.
SC also makes no mention of increased competition from UK manufacturers, which as far as I can tell are taking over the market. Canadian karaoke suppliers all carry UK brands, most at better prices than SC. I have seen play books here with virtually no SC tracks and I think this is because the KJ only bought cheaper discs (which is often painfully obvious).
I agree that SC is going about this whole business backwards and all they are really doing is just speeding their demise. If piracy is the final nail in the coffin (which it isn't) then the entire industry will soon follow. Because the entire industry won't die but will just go global, SC is clearly wrong.
I mentioned in a post many months ago: the only KJ here in Calgary with HD that I have talked to about licensing says she gets her discs and HD audited twice a year as part of her business licenses. Seems to me that is a far better solution. (She uses Hoster BTW)
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