Karaoke Forums

I would dump my cell phone tomorrow if it weren't for my day job requirement to be accessible basically 24 hours a day.

I buy discs (a lot of discs) but for slightly different reasons -

Bulk disc buys are absolutely the most cost effective means of buying karaoke music - In spite of the many thousands of dollars I have spent and the many thousands of tracks that will never get sung, I have averaged in the penny's per song area since the beginning. I could not easily and simply replicate this via legal downloads.

In the current climate, discs are the best "proof of purchase" anyone can have - Really hard for anyone to dispute you are legal if you have the physical item.

Diversity of content - There is a fair amount of karaoke music that was made only on disc and is not available for LEGAL download anywhere.

Barring all of that, if there was a super simple way for me to buy in bulk *AND* get discounts via the download sites *AND* download in bulk *AND* have access to obscure tracks *AND* have files named correctly, I would stop buying discs tomorrow.

-Chris

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-Chris

I too buy, and will continue to buy, discs for the same reasons as you. Other than my first 1000+ cd's that I purchased new, most of my other discs have been at bargain basement prices. Further more I have witnessed hosts trying to run a show with streaming/downloading, it so far, has fallen very short of professional performance levels.

Give me "Local Hard Drives" or give me death

I think one point being missed here is that you can't buy disc if the manufacturers stop selling them. You can want ownership of hard storage sources all you want, but it won't matter, there won't be any.

There have been some interesting developments in this area concerning digital assets.

Obviously, with physical media, the concept of "scarcity" can help physical good maintain resale value. For example, SC8125 still sells for a high premium because there were a limited number of these that made it into the hands of consumers and they aren't being made any longer. If the complete track list for SC8125 were to become available for legal download again, the price for the physical disc should drop because the tracks are available by other means.

In theory, every day that goes by should reduce the number of available out-of-print CD+G's that are available for resale as discs get lost, damaged, destroyed, forgotten. For music that was produced only be a specific defunct manufacturer, or on discs that are now out-of-print, those tracks should increase in value over time relative to the popularity of the tracks. This is one factor in why SC8125 still commands a premium on the free market.

Digital assets by their very nature can be copied and recopied again and again which effectively prevents "scarcity" from ever causing the asset from gaining any value. Digital assets will always decrease in value over time. This makes it difficult to resell digital assets and recover the investment because they are easily attainable already. Also, the "scarcity" of physical assets can be diluted when they are converted and illegally distributed in digital form.

Imagine how much SC8125 would go for *IF* - CD+G Ripping was never created, *OR* people actually refrained from distributing it so broadly for illegal downloads/burns.

Digital Rights Management (DRM), for all of it's downfalls, was/is an attempt to create artificial scarcity and help maintain the value of digital assets. Even without DRM, there are still a variety of 3rd parties that allow you to upload a digital asset and then they act as a clearing house for reselling said asset. But without effective DRM, they will likely never have any major mainstream success.

-Chris

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-Chris

People don't like DRM and never have. Steve Jobs talked about this before his death. It's why Apple kept going back to the music publishers trying to push for unencrypted content that people wanted, so they could have control themselves of what devices they put stuff on. It's why iTunes "plus" songs exist now that aren't encrypted. How the karaoke cloud didn't pay attention to this is beyond me.

There's no question the end of selling physical discs is upon us, and it's because downloading a song is just a LOT easier. People want easy, but as Steve Jobs explained, they also want control, and this is where the karaoke cloud is totally missing the boat. Yes, at first some people will look at the karaoke cloud and see it as "simpler", but like I've said many times, these are people who have yet felt the lack of control with this business model. Once they do, like lets say the internet goes down, THAT is when they learn the hard lesson of who is really in control of their music, and just like with iTunes, they WILL rebel once they make that realization.

This is a LOT more true when it comes to the professional KJ. Yes, some people will love the ease of streaming music on their personal device like their phone, but if the internet goes down for a day, most of these people can go without their music for a day, and the lack of control doesn't seem THAT inconvenient. With a KJ though, one hiccup in the internet connection could cost them a gig, their job, and even their reputation.

If Apple got enough complaints from users to prompt Steve Jobs to talk to the music publishers and enlighten them on the control people so desired, I can't imagine how any of you can't see it happening in the KJ world when the stakes for the end user are much higher.

This has never been an issue about "ownership". It's all about control. Even when you bought a regular music CD, you still didn't "own" the song. You simply had the control to put that CD in any device you wished. People just want that same control in the age digital content. The folks at karaoke cloud are asleep at the wheel because they obviously did NOT pay attention to how this played out in the itunes world, and obviously had this strange notion that KJs will give up control of their music much more easily. Oh how wrong they were. You won't find a karaoke forum on this planet where the majority of KJs support losing control they previously had. It just doesn't exist, and to think that KJs will "eventually catch on" is extremely short sighted, and shows a serious lack of understanding human nature.

I don't think it's any coincidence that I was able to read on Latshaw's facebook page that iCroons usage grew over 67% just since the last quarter, yet we don't seem to hear the karaoke cloud bragging about its usage or giving any numbers. If I am to use what I've been reading over the last year as my only evidence, I'd have to guess that the karaoke cloud is actually failing miserably. They just simply started with enough capital to hide it for a while. Mark my words, within a year, either the karaoke cloud will make some REALLY big changes, or they will be filing for bankruptcy.

Does anyone also remember late last year when Selectatrack suddenly had the Chartbuster catalog available? ...but then within days it mysteriously was pulled? When this happened, it was a sign. For starters, if the karaoke cloud owns the chartbuster catalog and they're convinced KJs will be completely happy with streaming and DRM, why would they suddenly go against that business model and offer non-DRM downloads on a European owned site? Well, the obvious answer was that the cloud concept wasn't producing and they were desperate for cash. Then we have to analyze why it was suddenly pulled. The "official" reason given was that they needed to remove some old chartbuster copyright stuff in the lyrics display. Well, they've certainly had enough time to do that, yet the catalog has never reemerged. I have no doubt the real reason had to do with the American music publishers, who are the strictest in the world, and are the reason and source of forcing this new business model in America only.

One of two things is going to happen. Either the American music publishers will be forced to give up on their strict controls, or the karaoke cloud is doomed. Period. End of story. The KJs are winning. It's just a matter of which entity caves or fails first.

All good points karaokeian.

side note that doesn't really matter...but at MBLV this year i noticed at the expo 2 different days that most people walked by the "cloud booth" (back left corner) and even avoided Kurt Slep (SC) and his assistant for the most part. I did say hello to Gretchen and she was very sweet.

I spoke to about 10 different djs. 7 said they also host karaoke but weren't interested in any form of streaming content. Everyone was still buying discs and doing downloads.