I have avoided getting into this conversation because it has been discused so many times in the forum but as an active member, here is my $.02 worth.
Like Musicman144, I am a musician who uses Hoster to run backing tracks. I use karaoke tracks. This lead to me being a karaoke host.
I have over 11,000 karaoke songs that I use at my shows, not counting the doubles and tracks with vocals that I paid for and don't use. That's well over $11,000 I've invested in karaoke tracks.
I have found the karaoke track indusrty to be quite a mess. Being a working musician, I have the utmost respect for songwriters and producers and have never had any intentions on doing anything illegal. I ended up paying for (I have reciepts) and downloading karaoke tracks from a Canadian company before I knew that karaoke downloads are illegal in the USA. I have since stopped.
The Sound Choice/Australia issue is just more proof of how messed up the karaoke track industry is.
There are three songs in my karaoke collection that I made myself. I do have non-karaoke versions of these songs that I paid for so I have the rights to use them, I think. If karaoke versions were available, I would have bought them.
With the present climent of the karaoke track business being so cloudy, how can any karaoke host be 100% squeeky clean?
I believe that any company or person that sells thousands of karaoke tracks on a hard drive for a few hundred dollars should be arrested and thrown in jail like any other ciminal for they are obviously breaking the law. If you are not paying at least $1 a track, you are buying pirated material. So how do we get these folks in front of an entity that will enforce this? Is it worth creating the "Karaoke Police" when we have so many other long time social issues that are unresolved?
Until the climate of the karaoke track business clears up, all a karaoke host can do is be as legal as humanly possible, stand for what is right and work hard to put on an entertaining show that is one step above the rest, IMHO. Hoster helps us do this which is why I donate me time to be a beta tester.
Jim
This is today's Valdosta Daily Times front page aritcle. I am so honored to see that entertainers can have an impact on their community.
http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/lo...238233354.html