Karaoke Forums

Bring your disks or memory stick to my show and I will play it.
That also goes for your guitar, saxophone, synth and mic.
Sorry NO bagpipes.

It's easy for me to say that though.
I'm outside the US.

I feel I have an unfair advantage over you.

We still have loads of pirates though.

I will not play customers discs. I tell them because of licensing issues, I can only play music that I legally own. It's not worth the hassle. And it eliminates having to bring another piece of equipment with me.

Thing is I don't treat a pirate as enemy.
I will go show to show with him.
Mine has always been better.
Lights and sound.
He- She has often been better host.
Then again I will not drop as low as a pirate will.
Won a few because of my lighting.
Lost a few to a really good host.
Don't compete much.
Pirates outdo me.
Some great hosts.
Some because sooo cheap.

Has actually worked alright.

I like the gigs I do.
Poor venues tend to go cheep.

They are welcome to it.

Why do you even go toe to toe with them, they don't even need to be in the race.

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

I play customer's discs. I like to keep my customer's happy. I have a HUGE core group of people that travel around with me, in addition to those who frequent only one or two of the venues....and they like their own music. I don't need to buy obscure music that would never get sung by anyone else. Most have original music, one time in years someone brought in a S/C disc. I play it. I am not an illegal harddrive user. Simple. Any "inspector" is welcome. What the heck are the chances of that happening anyway? I am willing to risk that they will come in and see me play a S/C disc. Then I will present them with all of my discs. Again, what are the chances? There are multiriggers in this area who have been running 6-8 shows a night, one that has been doing this for years and years, who just goes and duplicates his harddrive, buys a set of cheap speakers, brings in a warm body to host, and has books that haven't been changed in years and years if ever, and advertises 100,000 songs.

I don't think this makes me a renegade but I choose to be legal, and I choose to play customer's discs and everybody is happy. Who is it that said paranoia will destroya?

Maybe all the pirates over the pond are pretty bad.
I have seen some really good pirate shows here in the UK.

I have as well. Pirate does not necessarily equal bad show. I know of a couple of pirates that do great shows. It's just like any other business. Just because a business is illegal, doesn't mean the business owner doesn't know what he's doing.

I am "over the pond" (in the US) as you put it, and I too have seen some pirates who run great shows, and charge a premium price as well.

I am not condoning piracy, but that is one of my pet peeves here (in this forum (and I've voiced this before))... when some of the people here start kvetching (not sure how to spell Yiddish words in English) about the pirates out there, and how they are all running sub-par shows and undercutting everyone else.

In my market, I am one of the higher paid KJ, I even had the girlfriend of another kj ask me how much I was paid and i wouldnt tell her. She did volunteer that he was being paid $125. I know who the guy is and he is a pirate. I asked her where he got his music and she said he downloads it off the internet and doesnt pay for any of it. He runs his whole from the laptop and the singers use the screen on his laptop to see the words.

Piracy is extremly rampent in my market. I am surrounded by 5 shows that are all sharing the same hardrive (differant kjs), now isn't that a pirate?

I don't care how good or bad their show is, a pirate in a suit is still the same scum as a pirate in shorts and flipflops.

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

Yes.
EDIT:

No. Worse.

That's one of my problems with the KIAA... that they expect the KJs to police the discs that customers bring to the show. I feel like the manufacturers should provide KJs with a written statement to show customers along the following lines...

"Dear Karaoke Show patron,

We regret to inform you, that you must bring your original discs if you wish to sing in public. If you bring a copy of your karaoke disc we can't do anything to you, but we will sue your karaoke host out of business for playing them.

Cordially Yours,

Sound Choice, Chartbusters, Stellar Records, et al"

"Paranoia Will Destroy Ya".................That was RAY DAVIES and the KINKS.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Kurt I know you're one of the good guys here, but I'm not being paranoid. Here's a link to the KIAA agreement that is to be put in the front of the song books...

http://www.thekiaa.org/images/stories/sample%20of%20kj%20songbook.jpg


Sorry I can't post the songbook page here, but you can follow the link if you like.

Or just read the relevant portion here if you so desire...


"As a member of the KIAA I am bound to comply with the following...

"To agree to a "no home burns" policy for singers. This means that if you do not have the original manufacturers disc, I will not play it at my shows"

And what exactly is this statement going to do for you? Your patrons really don't care about SC... they WILL care that YOU are the one not playing their song. I have a poster up on the wall that tells patrons that I will not play ANY Sound Choice track, whether it is an original or not and that seems to change the focus off me and on to the responsible entity... namely SC.

And besides, SC just sent a letter of intent to sue a KIAA member in North Carolina... Left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing....

That was in response to Karen's question of who penned the phrase "Paranoia will destroy ya" only.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Ah ok, sorry I misunderstood what you were saying Kurt. Hope you're doing well!

Chip, I agree that statement doesn't do anything good for me as a karaoke host. That's why I'd like a letter from the manufacturers that I could show the singers that would make it clear just WHO the heavy is on the issue of cdgs burnt at home.

Tell us more about that KIAA member getting sued. Do you have a link to a story?

I know of two KJ's who got sued and went through the audit and came out clean. KJathena was one and the KIAA member was the other. Neither had to sell their eldest child to pay SC because there was no suit after passing the audit as it was dropped.

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

The story was in a private forum by a person who also posts on here. I'm thinking if they wanted their story known, they would have posted it on here themselves. But at this point it isn't public reocrd, I don't think.

I am not sure if being a KIAA member guarantees you protection from anything unless you are actually on record as having passed the audit that is required as part of membership. And with no staff, haven't heard of anyone getting audited by them yet. There is no "covenant not to sue" without an audit, in other words.

So the point of membership is..............?