Karaoke Forums

Triplicate post- sorry. Tablet keyboards suck....

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

I would have left this alone if it weren't for the ending accusation. There is no reason for "hater" comments like yours. The fact is, like him or not, Kurt is a managerial disaster. Media- Cloque, no copyright protection, making the whole catalogue of factory original product available online for pirates to steal (which they did several times whether they admit it or not, through the original T-soft, Clark, and Dopi sites), non /bad- oversite of APS and Donna Boris, scewing up court cases, including the one in front of Judge Wright (horribly) and the Kandy Store case - which EVEN I thought was a gimme.

How about relinquishing all download and streaming rights to Stingray? Hell, I'm a Luddite disc based guy, but I'm still not too stupid to follow business trends. Only disc to pro Kj rights? Seriously?
The point? Kurt could screw up a free lunch due to bad management. This is not from the point of view of a disgruntled karaoke host, but that of a business man who has started, grown, and sold a few successful businesses. Not on a personal level, but professionally: Kurt will constantly make bad decisions, and it is my opinion that this is because he does so emotionally, without stepping back to consider the business consequences.

Your accusations in regard to Mr. BOO based on his opinions were completely unwarranted.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Duplicate post

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

I've resisted responding to the principal inquiries in this thread because I wanted to make sure I had all of the facts, which take time to gather. I've also been dealing with a back injury that has restricted my working hours.

Just so there aren't any misunderstandings, I've asked Kurt to put together an official release, the text of which follows:

We've recently received a lot of inquiries about two recent events: the withdrawal of Sound Choice's Foundations and Bricks products from the market and the removal of the Sound Choice online store. Although they happened at about the same time, they are actually mostly unrelated.

As those familiar with the karaoke industry know, our ability to sell our products legally depends upon licenses from music publishers. Those licenses typically last for a period of time, at which point we may or may not renew them. While the Foundations and Bricks products remain popular with KJs, recent sales levels for these products have not justified the expense of re-licensing them for continued distribution. Contrary to speculation, we have not been ordered by any court to withdraw these products.

Depending on demand, we may revisit that decision at a later time. We have more recently focused our attention on the GEM series and on developing new ways of getting our products into KJs' hands. The GEM series contains substantially more songs at a lower price per song and remains licensed and available, while we anticipate being able to announce a new product line in the near future.

As for the Sound Choice online store: Over the last year, the online store, which has not been revised or updated in many years, had become increasingly difficult to maintain because of database instability and other problems, as well as a low sales volume. Some time ago, we arranged with a third party to build a new site. Although we expected to have a functioning site by now, their work has not yet been completed. Ordinarily we would have waited to take the old site down until the new site was ready, but problems with the old site have made that impractical. The withdrawal of the Foundations and Bricks products made this an easier choice. We are working with our vendor to make the new site available as soon as practicable.

(This is Jim again) I know it's fun and fashionable to speculate as to what might be going on, especially when you sense trouble. It's less fun when reality doesn't match up with the speculation. As you can see, Ace Karaoke's comments--at least as they have been reported--are accurate. The products in question were removed because some of the licensing expired and SC made the decision not to seek renewal. (Licenses, by the way, are almost never for a "set number of copies." They are for a period of time.) Because the Foundations and Bricks are sold as sets, there are many, many licenses involved, and the expiration of one can affect the entire set.

I know the website has been a continuing source of frustration for SC, and it is not surprising that they are having issues with their vendor getting the new one ready--that's the nature of that business.

I think the release is a very wise move. I've said it before and I'll say it one more time, I am not one of those wishing harm to SC. I disagree with some of their practices but we are much closer on the issues than we are apart. While I won't contribute to SC due to those differences, I do wish them well.

Wait, we've been told again and again that foundations and bricks were the most popular set of karaoke tracks available and some kjs report that those songs are sung every week at their shows. Now they're not selling well enough to re-license?

Yes, that's correct.

Might I point out that the KJs who report that those songs are sung every week at their shows either (a) already have the discs or (b) have the tracks without buying the discs, and would thus not feel it necessary to buy the discs (either again, or the first time)?

I have been saying for five years, three on this board, that SC's central problem is that 90 to 95 percent of the commercial users of its product stole it instead of buying it. This is one of the consequences of that problem.

Yes you have. It may or may not be true, but you have never presented an iota of proof to back it. However, I would be the first to agree that you have posted it several times.

Do I agree with it? Meh... I certainly agree that there is a huge amount of piracy (on which no dent has been made by SC- but that was a KJ grown myth and truthfully not S Cs responsibility.). Maybe even as high as 60% or more. 95% ? Nah. That would mean almost everyone here on the forum is a pirate in Jim's opinion by default.

Though I haven't met most of you, I have spoken to several, and we have all been interacting for a long time. I simply do not agree with his opinion based on my own interactions. Does ANYONE seriously think 95% of these folks are pirates?
Think about it.
Sorry, but though there may be a whole lot of piracy, I think the percentage given by Jim is way too high, and even more unrealistic in regard to this forum.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Thieves, by definition, generally do not wish to attract attention to themselves. So I can see where most of the active participants on the forum are likely to be legit va being pirates. There are certainly some exceptions to this, but there always are.

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-Chris

Jim:
So if some of the Licenses have expired and is the reason for the recall how does that affect the sales of ALL the Foundations and Bricks? If you have sold them to someone and they are reselling them what difference does it make? Haven't the discs in question licenses all ready been paid for? Why should it affect those already sitting on a shelf somewhere? I can see if they are in storage at SC that is a different thing but if ACE has them in stock and has paid for them how does that affect them? Unless you are, I think the word is Floor Planning (not paying for it until it is sold) the Foundations and Bricks.

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I like everyone when I first meet them. If you don't like me that's not my problem it's YOURS!
A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet

Adding to the question above, how long would any current licensing on GEM discs have left?

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Wait, so the licensing is for as many as you can sell over xx amount of time?

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Most distributors don't inventory sets. They drop-ship from SC. For that reason, they could not be sold because there isn't a completed sale.

I think you could make a good case that they don't have to be returned if there is an outright sale, but that's not how most distributors operate. Even if they do inventory the sets, they generally get them on Net 30 Days or Net 90 Days with an allowance for returns, which makes those not a final sale for First Sale Doctrine purposes.



The GEM series was licensed and produced by FSC Mediaplas Ltd., which is a UK company, through MCPS/PRS for Music, and sold to SC. The sets that were sold to SC are licensed in perpetuity because of the First Sale Doctrine.



Yeah, pretty much.

You probably should have left it alone since i was responding to MR Boo's post. Let Boo fend for himself. And, as for your comments regarding Kurts management skills, unless you were at his place of business or directly did business with his company and were familiar with his actual day to day operations, you are pretty bold to call him a bad business man.

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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!

A good businessman would have figured out how to protect his product WAY BEFORE being practically driven out of business by pirates.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

First, pardon my late night rudeness, but who are you to tell me what I should respond to? Feel free to imagine what my response SHOULD be.

Second, the the examples previously given, and several others skipped, I state straight out that Kurt is an absolute managerial failure who would have been fired if working for any well educated business person.

Hell, his first response to me ever was insulting my library because it was not primarily SC based. Any DECENT SALESPERSON will tell you that one NEVER insults the competitor's product, but pushes one's own quality. The man is creative in his plans to make money, but absolutely worthless in his implementation. Should have stuck with chemical engeering. No boldness needed. He could plan to give away pure gold and find a way to make it fail. Did you bother to read the examples given, or have you been conditioned to simply give a knee-jerk response? He fails with every plan that he concocts. Not a KJ thing, but the opinion of a business man added to the facts.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Wait a minute Jim if the GEM series was licensed and produced by a UK company, through MCPS/PRS for Music, and sold back to SC for U.S. distribution, what makes them any different than foreign made and licensed downloads? Most SC supporters have held that such foreign made and licensed material is not legal to use here in the good old U.S.A. If it's ok to use GEM it also should be ok to use the foreign downloads as well, right?

NOTHING they did that to skirt all the US licensing laws. They did this to stay in business and have a product to sell to KJ's they sued. Being that some of the current licensing for the Foundation and Bricks have EXPIRED they had to do something so the went OVERSEAS to produce a product. Then notice what happened shortly after that! The UK decides that any product produced in the UK is ILLEGAL to sell in the USA and Canada in bulk. To me it sounds like SC had something to do with that also. but then again THAT IS IN MY OPINION ONLY......

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I like everyone when I first meet them. If you don't like me that's not my problem it's YOURS!
A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet

The reason why downloads from the UK are not licensed in the US is because the UK licensing of downloadable products expressly excludes the US and Canada. It has nothing to do with "bulk" versus "single" sales.

At the time the GEM series was created and first sold to SC, the UK license permitted sales to the US. It's true that the license no longer allows that, but all of the product SC is currently using was imported prior to that.

I assure you that SC has had zero control over the policies MCPS imposes on its licensees.

There is a logical fallacy at work here.

Just because a person or business does something legally, that later becomes illegal, it doesnt mean laws were "skirted" or something sinister or sneaky was going on.

Coca-Cola used to contain Cocaine. It was legal. Then it wasn't legal. Coke wasn't "skirting the law" or somehow being sneaky & underhanded. The laws simply changed, and they changed.

The speed limit recently changed on a road near my house. I guess everyone who went 50mph for years were "skirting the law" and somehow getting away with illegal activities prior to the change to 40mph?