Karaoke Forums

Opinion, yes. Unsubstantiated.....really?

How active is SC in here directly or indirectly? Do you see how many posts Jim Harrington alone makes in this forum? Do you think they aren't monitoring comments and considering what people are saying in their decision making? Really?

There was ZERO threat being made by me. I have ZERO to do with SC, CB or any licensing agency. I didn't even know what Kurt Slep looked like until I watched the Karaoke Summit video. I have ZERO financial skin on the line from any of this.

I just like karaoke. I was sharing a thought.

My bad for thinking others might understand it....

Did they address the $500 investment you have to make on the "starter pack" from DigiTrax so that you can use all the features of KaraoQ? Probably not.


DigiTrax and KaraoQ would like you to believe that everybody and their grandmother are for this but the reality is, most people are against it.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Steve,

My comment was directed at mrmarog. I'm agreeing with you. I'm simply saying taking action based on comments in this thread is not a 'threat'. If taking actions by SC (or whoever) based on comments here has happened before, it could be considered the truth, or even a fact, but not a 'threat'.

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DJ Don

For the record, we do "monitor" what's said here, and it does have some impact on what we choose to do.

(I hate the word "monitor" because it sounds sort of like "eavesdropping." Maybe "listen to" would be a better way of putting it.)

In fact, I participate here for two purposes--one, to make sure that correct information gets out and incorrect information is countered with facts, and two, to have a dialogue with people in the industry about topics of importance to all of us.

I'd hope that nobody views that as threatening or nefarious. I view our experience here as calling on an enormous brain trust.

Your opinions matter to us, and we really do want to hear your opinions about the CB brand, how we should handle the various aspects of this transition, and so forth. That should probably be done in a separate thread, which I'll start in a moment, or via private message to me, or you can email customercare (at) phxep (dot) com as well.

Thank you for clarifying, but I didn't take it that way. Sorry if I seemed like I was arguing with you.

With my comment: "Unsubstantiated.....really?" I was responding to the idea that SC monitoring this forum and seeing what folks are saying was anything but self-evident.

Sorry for any misunderstanding.

Excuse me? Please specifically point out exactly where in 1 sentence I trolled anything?

TROLL

verb
gerund or present participle: trolling
1.
informal
make a deliberately offensive or provocative online posting with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.
"if people are obviously trolling then I'll delete your posts and do my best to ban you"


Perhaps the strict definition of TROLL could be a bit harsh, but most rational people would see that the elements are there. Posing a question, whether rhetorical or literal, is to solicit a response in the realm of the question asked, not merely an opportunity to make a jab at correcting someone, and not even approaching the subject. Perhaps there is a more accurate term to describe this, but TROLL is close enough for me not to waste my time researching another one...

We're hearing that we could have done a better job of communicating how our newest programs are designed to help you earn multiples of your current income. We understand that there's a lot of moving parts and it's not always easy to grasp all at once, so we're working on an improved presentation that will try to lay things out more clearly.

I'll let you all know as soon as we've accomplished this.

if you read my post above, I don't believe I posed the question. Nor did I make "a jab at anyone," but rather, I believe it was simply a clarification of your phrase of "performance license" which is normally associated with a venue paying a performing rights society like ASCAP, to "broadcast rights" which is traditionally associated with network broadcasts – or streaming on the Internet.

Where, exactly, is there any trolling in that?

Being the only person here that has run a system/show like karaoq I can tell you 3 things..

1. Customers are fine with automated bumps, those that aren't will go for greener pastures (could be gleaned by number of repeat customers)
2. It nearly doubled my income. (Sample on bribe frequency)
3. Venue attendance shot way up (check number of new accounts per year)

I don't really think KaraoQ has to explain much more than this. Some of you might disagree with a single feature, others might disagree with the licensing model, but I can tell you it works. My data is there if anyone cares to do the data science on it. I'm just not in the mood to.

I believe they do owe us an explanation if only to clarify the scope of the numbers.

It's real easy to say "You can increase your revenues 2x, 3x, 4x!" and I will agree 100% if ones rate is $50/night. If one is already pulling $200+ a night, 2x is a stretch and 3x and 4x are likely never going to happen.

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-Chris

Good Gracious, they sang sweet caroline in the same quality as the summit. .

So I chatted with Ryan from PCDJ about the KaraoQ360.

1) 129.00/Month for use of the New KARAOKI software/Karaoke Cloud Pro Subscription/KaraoQ Song request tool (Still 25% revenue fees)

2) You can just get the KaraoQ service for just 25% of your revenue. PCDJ Karaoki software $99.00 (One time Purchase) and Karaoke Cloud Pro $99/monthly.

Hmmm...

the choices.... I can't stand the stress. Apparently everything will be in order within the next few days. So I agree with Pep.Rocks let's keep it all legal and jump on this, and we can all be Pharrel. (Happy)... get it?

On a side note some company paid millions for the napster name because the publicity apparently was worth it... I think the 360 approach will infact create publicity for all of us interested. so yeah... It's worth it... I'm in... I hope that have a good referral program.

You make an excellent point and I agree. They should throw out some exact numbers I was never exactly paid well to begin with. (I think somewhere in the range of $350 base for 5 nights a week) To Bamboo's owners, A KJ is no better than a waitress, and if you want to eat you better make the rest up in tips.

I'd average about another $70 per night. Weekdays not so much, weekends though I'd easily pull a few hundred a night in bumps, which raised my overall average.

Towards the end (Before I called it quits) I was starting to push around $100-140 @ night in bumps. No joke, as word of this "System where you can pay for bumps" started to spread, people were going nuts for spots. Owners decided to extract their own "50%" of my tips and didn't think I'd pull the plug if they screwed me.

Meh, still PTSD from that.... Jerks.

So, for all your equipment and music, you were paid about $70.00 per night from the bar, (If the bar treated me that way, I simply wouldn't work there, but that's me.)

And that might work great for you in California... that system won't work here.... it's a whole different mindset.



And did they replace you? Do you still have this bump system working somewhere else?

So, here's what I see here:
You made a $70 base and sometimes $100 - $140 above that periodically. Sometimes less, sometimes more.... (even though you served a dual function as "door guy/bouncer" at the same time) So you'd really make anywhere from $170 - $210 on an average basis.

I've been making $175/night solid for over 17 years at one place (2 nights) and $200 at another (1 night). Shorter-lived gigs were never less than $150. There's something to be said for the consistency in that.

I'm not knocking your system at all, I just think that it would be difficult to implement here -- but if I were to do something like this, it would be with your system - all the bugs worked out and no percentage to pay someone else....

I think one of the questions that went unanswered by KaraoQ was if a KJ's income could still be doubled/tripled/quadrupled (as they claim) without the use of the Bump feature (of which they answered "Yes")... AND, for them to show their numbers explaining how.

Chip I didn't throw what I was getting paid out there to compare me to you or vice versa. I'm simply saying, their statement of making 2-3x what a low paid KJ would make could hold water based on my own experiences.



Nope, wasn't replaced. Am I on trial or something? What's with the cross, cross examination? Owners ended up throwing in the towel and selling the bar a year later. Sales plummeted. New owner didn't want my system, and now features several different KJ's throughout the week. I did have it at 3 other venues post 7 Bamboo, but never on a prime night, and it simply became a matter of it no longer being worth my time or effort to continue pursuing it.



Chip we've known each other for years.. The system is no longer available to the public. Why? Look at this thread, look at the others. Look at your own cross-ness and combativeness. Our software, and myself personally have been called every name in the book, and accused of being "The ruin of karaoke" just like KaraoQ is getting treated now. We were a talented group with no association to the manufacturers. Sure, we wanted to make a buck on things, but we were always more interested in finding some common ground for both the KJ's and the Manufacturers. Even Tricerasoft at one point asked the community to follow my lead, advice which sadly fell on deaf ears.

I don't understand why. We gave our software out for free, but nobody ever took it seriously. We know we were (and in some regards still are) better than Latshaw, or MTU, or any of the other low level softwares.

My only reason for commenting on all of this now is I don't want to see history repeat itself. This system doesn't have nearly the hardware requirements mine did, so the barrier to entry is much much lower. I've spent a lot of time chatting with the CEO of KaraoQ on Facebook, and it's sort of neat because the more we talk, the more we find we have almost identical ideas. I won't disclose them, but let's just say there's no shortage of ways for a KJ, venue, karaoq, and manu's to make money off this ecosystem.

Maybe I'll throw one out there.. How much would your singers pay for a legal copy of their performance uploaded to youtube? Seriously, all that video streaming stuff I used to do, can be done on a phone now. Even better, with the manu's blessing, this type of monetization can happen, but people have to be open to it, and we have to take baby steps.

I think it could with future avenues for monetization (as explained above) but bumps seem to be a fairly universally understood concept no matter what industry you're in. Try explaining "youtube" to that 80 year old singer and he'll give you a confused look. Tell him, "Give me a dollar and I'll move you up a spot" he will understand without any further explanation.

I've been privvy to some stuff I just can't share, but there's a huge social media aspect to this software that we never got to do. KaraoQ has stumbled onto the same discoveries we made a long time ago, what they've built (outside of the bumps) is pretty incredible. I really wish I could say more about it. I'm not under NDA, but out of respect for my new friend I gotta keep quiet.

You acquired CB for one reason, and one reason only. You expanding your business of threatening and suing KJs. I have 1, yes 1 Chartbuster disc. it is the Dave Matthews disc. I DID rip it to my hard drive, because who gives a crap about one disc?? I am not going to remove it, either.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

The problem as I've seen it is that their "avenues for monetization" is one that permanently makes them a partner in my business.

You wanna sell me program where I can decide to use or not use bumps? Fine.

You wanna sell me a program that let's me insert commercials randomly for money from the beer suppliers or club? As long as I can choose to turn it on and off, no problem.

You wanna sell me a program that does this and gives me no choice AND takes 25% of my income? -- Take a hike. My work to buy the music, get the customers, haul in the equipment and actually do the job.... and for some reason someone wants 25%? Nope. I can post a sign on the wall that says; "$1 moves you up 1 spot" and not pay anyone a percentage.

Even you quit the club when the club decided to take a percentage of your "tips 'n bumps"



And I'm sure it all comes with a percentage for them built in somewhere. No thanks. They're wanting to be a partner in MY business. They need me, I don't need them. I already have the karaoke venues as customers and these customers are happy and making money. If they weren't, they'd be firing me pretty quick.

Their slimy non-transparency and underhanded mis-direction evidenced in their "summit" isn't winning them any friends. Obviously, they have shared stuff with you that they've kept secret from everyone else and that just adds more manure to the pile.

Do you really think you need them in order to be successful? Are you willing to give them 25% of your hard earned money for nothing?

Like Chip said, they need you, you don't need them. IMO anyone that has to rely on a tool or a crutch in order to be successful, certainly doesn't have the self esteem or believes in themselves regarding their hosting skills. Remember, you create your own success. Nobody can do that for you.

I've worked hard building up my business and reputation. I treat all my singers fairly and won't play favorites. I've created my own success simply because I believe in myself and what I do.

It will be a cold day in hell before I would even think about using this program.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.