Karaoke Forums

Hi everyone,

I am starting a new Karaoke business in Salisbury in February and am leaning towards buying my CDG catalogue. I notice there are some good collections by decade advertised on eBay produced by Zoom. Can anyone confirm if these are legitimate, legal for professional use and legal to rip to hard drive only for my use. Thank you in advance for any replies, kindly Robbie

Zoom is legit.
Nothing is legal for professional use unless the clubs you play in are paying all their Performance Royaly Organization fees (ie ASCAP/BMI/SESAC) then yes they are legal for professional use - if it's only for home use, then yes they are fine and fine to rip - just do not rip then sell the discs, that is not legal.

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Start off with the Karafun pro subscription (30,000+ songs) will make for a very satisfying show using their software.

Make money first then:

1) Grab the ChartBuster 4500 song set. CB tracks are very popular at shows. and they only cost about 15 cents per track.

2) Get the DK disks if possible. (You can get DK millenium 2 disk set 1800 songs from Amazon)

3) Buy on the fly requested tracks from places like Karaoke-version.com, Karaoke.net or even buy and download using software like OpenKJ.org, Compuhost, Hoster, PCDJ Karaoki and others.

Stay away from UK tracks because of the licensing restrictions.

That's a little misleading. Those restrictions are on the manufacturers, not on the buyers nor on the re-sellers. If you buy a Zoom set, Sunfly, or Mr. Entertainer disc on amazon or ebay, or a garage sale for that matter, you are perfectly within your rights to use it (as long as it was original manufacturer discs in the first place).

And of course SBI is a UK producer, and you can buy immediate downloads from them. If there's a restriction on a track, then they simply won't offer it to you, but there's no reason to stay away from the ones they will sell you.

Personally I believe Sunfly UK, Zoom, Mr Entertainer along with other UK brands are not a licensed product to be sold outside of their Territory.

If you acquire them in North America then it's the same as using bootleg music under your licensing. But that's just my opinion.

Sunfly however does have a US website with a limited amount of available tracks.
SoundChoice also offers the Gem series under a subscription
KaraokeCloud also has some very nice tracks available for Download or subscription.
Karaoke.net has many new requests for download or Subscription.

These are more than enough to run a professional show.

Thank you all for your replies so far. I should have been clear I am from the UK. I am considering Karafun to start with although subscription is £79 a month. Alternatively I am prepared to spend at least £200 - £300 in advance to get started. On that basis I may practice downloading on the fly any popular tracks I may he missing from that initial collection. Thanks again for any replies in advance. Robbie

Leave the Karafun songs for buy on the fly. Get Hoster and the Party Tyme subscription service, 14000 plus songs. You get the choice to pay monthly or for a 48 hour plan. If you pick up Sound Choice, get yourself certified and then you can get access to the new Content.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Just means they are not allowed to sell to the US directly. If I buy a set off ebay from a 2nd party seller, there is nothing prohibiting me from using those tracks in a venue paying their PRO fees.

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Just wondered what the consensus was on Vocal-Star recordings. What I heard sounded like recordings of live instruments, nothing synthesised, so good. There is a 1350 song pack for £90.

Any comments would be appreciated,
Thanks in advance,
Robbie

They sound like SBI tracks (since from what I understand and can verify from the tracks I have) SBI makes their tracks.

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If you are in the UK that's good news. You can contact (Colin) Sunfly UK directly and make a deal on the entire SF collection for as little as 50 cents per track.

That's the best deal and you own the tracks.

Professional solution here: https://www.sunflysolutions.com/services/sunfly-showcase/

You can check out alternate products from sunfly here: https://www.sunflykaraoke.com/karaoke-equipment

Here's my opinion, for what it's worth

i have a collection of SBI tracks that are all very decent except for one.

Karafun pro subscription would be the best option, EXCEPT for the fact that you are stuck using their software, which i wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.

Zoom packs are fine, Sunfly is a lot better than it used to be

Whatever option you go for, just remember to pay your hard drive licensing fee for karaoke. I forget what it's called, but they don't have that in the US and Canada yet (not for karaoke anyway*, altho for simplicity's sake, i sometimes wish they did

_james

My suggestion is go with Zoom stuff, as Joe the owner is great as is the product.
He is happy if you buy discs to then rip them to hard drive, he believes once you have paid for them you can do what you want with them.
As regards Vocal Star up until recently most of their backings were made by a guy in Argentina that now lives somewhere in Europe.
It was the same guy that did the backings for Homestar a while back.
Now Vocal Star tracks are made by someone who used to make Sunfly tracks but according to them it is not SBI

Even Zoom has some real clunkers (just like any other brand). Guns & Roses Civil War is one of the worst music wise .

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and that's how it SHOULD be.

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