Legal stance on Sound Choice and Stellar Records

[monty40329]

The approach taken by SC and Stellar is a foolish one. While legitimate pirates should be tracked down and prosecuted, a KJ or individual who transfers their purchased CD + G's to a hard drive is hardly breaking the law - even if it is for commercial use.

CD’s are dead. There is no doubt of that. What is needed is a licensing and delivery process where legal karaoke material can be delivered via digital methods and reside on hard drives or other digital media. There is no other answer for this problem. Technology will move forward and companies such as SC and Stellar have no real power to stop it no matter how much they rattle their flintlocks.

The real question is how to expand the market for products for singers. The hundreds of millions of personal computers in the world present an inviting platform for karaoke software and music. Turning those platforms into virtual singing machines is an inviting challenge. Trying to strangle that huge potential market is a real study in foolishness.

[SteveWalker]

Karaoke has been ruined by those kj's that cheat the system by not purchasing the karaoke CD+G's. These cheaters copy someone elses CD+G's and therefore never have to pay for them. As a result they can go out and do shows at half price because they have made no investment in the business. I think back to the pre-CD+G days when the Laserdisc was the only medium available for karaoke other than magnetic tapes. You can ask any KJ, who did shows back at that time, and they will tell you they made twice the money per show compared to today. Why? KJ's today are cheating. They have over 100,000 songs in their books. Do you think they paid for all those songs? I guarantee you they are cheaters. Laugh about if you want to but this trend is making the karaoke business a part time hobby for those who otherwise could have made a full time living. What percent of the users on this forum are in the cheaters camp? Anybody want to make a guess?

[hwheeler43]

I agree. I have over 5 k invested in computers, audio & video equipment, mics etc.... Somewhere around $2000 of that is just in CDG's and I only have something close to 4000 songs. I am not sure if the $2000 is completely accurate as I have not added it all up. I started with the 7 Chartbuster 450's and that was over $1400. I have had at least two individuals who wanted me to do illegal stuff. One wanted to combine her 4k songs with mine and the other thought I would give him a copy of my kma files since he was a friend. The answer to both was no. I am often asked to keep a song so that I do not have to reload their cdg each time they come to the show. The answer is always no, but I will try to get that song on my next cdg order. Many of the singers do not have a clue about the expense of keeping up song books and stuff. At any rate, they can bring it on cause I am legal. Now if I can just get Windows XP and all the drivers installed on my backup laptop I will be a happy camper.

[SteveWalker]

Originally Posted by hwheeler43

I agree. At any rate, they can bring it on cause I am legal.

Good for you hwheeler43. I notice that no one else has come forward to put in there two cents on this. Maybe they have something to hide?

[Lonman]

Gees, you just posted this last night - not everybody checks this every waking minute of the days?
Anyway, are you knocking computer users in general like those of us who use Hoster? Or just the truly thieving kj's that buy a preloaded hard drive off of an auction site? I have over 14K songs with dups (11k w/o dups which is the number I advertise) that's still on the low side for many & have a corresponding cdg sitting next to the computer with me at every show. Nothing in my hard drive that I cannot prove I actually have the original for. Funny thing is I still get people coming into my show that go to the 100K library computer shows down the street & say I still have stuff that they don't??

I get hosts that come in asking to swap libraries to copy & I ask them why, their reply is so we can grow each of our libraries. I ask them what do they have, they respond SGB, Backstage, NuTech - etc...., I laugh & tell them well I can understand why you would want to swap your crap to gain my quality Sound Choice, Chartbuster, Pop Hits, Top Hits, Dk, etc...Besides, there would be absolutely NO benefit to me giving up my library to someone else - especially a competitor, why would I want to give them the edge I have over them right now by having songs they don't??? STUPID!!!!!!

[admin]

Originally Posted by SteveWalker

Good for you hwheeler43. I notice that no one else has come forward to put in there two cents on this. Maybe they have something to hide?

I think most of the registered members here are legit. Those who steal have probably quit this Forum a long time ago.

I think you're coming on a bit too strong here.

[George]

HOT off the presses.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology...3691170&page=1

They now have establisdhed a legal precedent.

[SteveWalker]

Originally Posted by admin

I think most of the registered members here are legit. Those who steal have probably quit this Forum a long time ago. I think you're coming on a bit too strong here.

This is not an argument against Hoster nor is it an attack on any of the members of this forum. I would hope that most KJ's discover Hoster as it may be the best program available for doing karaoke shows.

However, I bring up a legitimate problem in this industry and you especially should know that this is true. I've observed the behavior of those kj's in this business for over 19 years and I know for sure that many of them don't see it as a problem and would cheat in this regard. It is not "a bit too strong" if you are being objective. Just remember that I am not concerned about how cheating affects the sales of Hoster. I am concerned how cheating affects the "income" of the legitimate kj.

[ddouglass]

I look at it as hwheeler43 says, I have some where around $8,000 invested in my computers, audio equipment and CDGs. I can't even hope to recoup that amount and the additional I will spend to keep my library up within a reasonable amount of time simply because of the illegal KJs in the area. I refuse to do anything illegal even for friends.

[bobcox- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by SteveWalker

Good for you hwheeler43. I notice that no one else has come forward to put in there two cents on this. Maybe they have something to hide?

That sounds like an accusation to me??.

I have been checked by sound chioce, 7 years ago when i was using disc.
100% legal and they checked both my systems that night.
we were the only ones in the area that passed.
we now have over 200,000 in equipment and disc.
and are 100% legal always. and i belive the people on this forum are too.
and should be treated as such, unless you can prove otherwise.
theres my two cents worth you ask for. Bob

[SteveWalker]

Originally Posted by bobcox

That sounds like an accusation to me??.

I apologize if my post was "a bit too strong" but the purpose of the post was to make people think about this issue.

We have many kj's in my area boasting of their 100,000 song list. The kj would have to buy 6667 CDG's costing $146,674 (100,000/15 * $22 = $146,674). To pay for all of this, the kj would have to be paid $403.00 a show and work 7 days week for a year without making a profit.

Suppose a rock band went out and robbed the music store of $146,674 worth of equipment, then went out to perform in the clubs. Would you be surprised if they were arrested at one of the clubs?

Maybe I'm preaching to the choir!

[kilith]

Originally Posted by SteveWalker

I apologize if my post was "a bit too strong" but the purpose of the post was to make people think about this issue.

We have many kj's in my area boasting of their 100,000 song list. The kj would have to buy 6667 CDG's costing $146,674 (100,000/15 * $22 = $146,674). To pay for all of this, the kj would have to be paid $403.00 a show and work 7 days week for a year without making a profit.

Suppose a rock band went out and robbed the music store of $146,674 worth of equipment, then went out to perform in the clubs. Would you be surprised if they were arrested at one of the clubs?

Maybe I'm preaching to the choir!

No you are right on that. Just today while I was out doing my other job which happens to be collecting money in bars for a company that does viedo games, dart boards, pool tables, and whatever else.... I was talking to a guy that does karaoke I guess... He said recently he bought a 500gb hard drive off ebay with 100,000 songs on it from a guy out of flordia. He paid around $450.00 for it. The person who sold the hard drive PIRATE!! and guy that bought the hard drive moron.... but hey now days who can you turn in and who will listen anyway...

My system I took over from my parents 9 years ago. The system (or shoudl I say company?) is a total of almost 14 years old. We have almost the full collection of DK Karaoke... I have seen DK on what I suspect to be a CAVS system which I know CAVS does not have access to this and also that this person (which is different from the person above) just bought their system. Yeah you can get DK off ebay but people are not selling it cheep. I have seen the cheepest being $999.00 +S&H and most being $1400.00. I also suspect this person to be running copied versions from the old karaoke company she used to work for which also used pirated CDG's on their old systems.... so i guess she went ok well they did it I might as well too maybe?

My system is 100% legit and I stick with only one system just for that reason. What reason you may ask.... lol the reason like stated in the post before mine.... $146,674..... yeah i dont have that kind of money.... lol

Anyway it seems like this is not much that can be done anyway... who knows.

[quaizywabbit]

Originally Posted by SteveWalker

Karaoke has been ruined by those kj's that cheat the system by not purchasing the karaoke CD+G's.

Karaoke was ruined years ago by all of those idiots who were stupid enough to pay for the same poorly recorded song put on several disks because they wanted the "one" song on the disk that actually was new....


We let them ***** us.............

[SteveWalker]

Originally Posted by quaizywabbit

Karaoke was ruined years ago by all of those idiots who were stupid enough to pay for the same poorly recorded song put on several disks because they wanted the "one" song on the disk that actually was new....We let them ***** us.............

Duplicates rarely adds value to your song book!

Karaoke may have been ruined years ago (for kj's) and for many reasons but it would take some very convoluted logic to use this excuse to justify pirating karaoke songs today.

[kilith]

Originally Posted by SteveWalker

Duplicates rarely adds value to your song book!

Karaoke may have been ruined years ago (for kj's) and for many reasons but it would take some very convoluted logic to use this excuse to justify pirating karaoke songs today.

Just like Steve said... what gives them the right to keep doing it. It is not the people only that copy songs over and over to have on several disks... it is the people that go out and buy the cheep equipment and then copy songs from system to system from 1 disk that hurt karaoke.