Karaoke Forums

There's also fair use doctrine covering public recording for commercial vs private use. This has all been argued out over recording devices at concerts. (Iama HUGE Grateful Dead fan BTW)

The consensus now is, while studios don't like it, they can't stop folks from bringing in their cell phones.

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Living my life as Robert Cortese, 162 E. Jackson St, San Jose CA.

It's like the difference between high and low budget toilet paper, it really doesn't matter in the end. -exweedfarmer

Which is smarter? Just sticking to making/selling karaoke, while people all over the world create software FOR FREE that helps you sell it, or trying to compete with them and keeping it a closed loop while you blow your money into an industry (software) that you(the karaoke manu) knows nothing about?
-me

i'm still lost on i do this for monetary gain, i thought that made it commercial use. making profit from this does not make it commercial?

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

Yes that one really confuses me as well.

com·mer·cial (k-mûrshl)
adj.
1.
a. Of or relating to commerce
b. Engaged in commerce
c. Involved in work that is intended for the mass market

2. Of, relating to, or being goods, often unrefined, produced and distributed in large quantities for use by industry.

3. Having profit as a chief aim

4. Sponsored by an advertiser or supported by advertising:

n.
A paid advertisement on television or radio.

A KJ is a performer, just as a DJ is a performer, as is a live band, a magician, or a stripper.
That's covered by the venues' licensing.
Even a pirate would be covered for the performance, his liability lies within the theft of product and redistribution.

A KJ who purchased the material he uses in his show does not need to worry about losing a suit to anyone who disputes his use of the material. That doesn't mean you can't be sued by anyone, at anytime, for any dumb reason.
But if Nike sued you for displaying their trademark on the shoes you wore during your show they would lose after putting you through the inconvenience (unless they could prove you put their logo on a pair of skechers - and not for parody).

Your discs are only tools of your performance like your amps, mixers, speakers, microphones, the clothes you wear, etc.. If you sing during your shows, good or bad, you can consider yourselves professional singers, because it was part of the perfomance of your show.

You're making money on your performance - not your tools.

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KNOW THYSELF

We our not performers. We enable any Joe off the street to be one though.

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Living my life as Robert Cortese, 162 E. Jackson St, San Jose CA.

It's like the difference between high and low budget toilet paper, it really doesn't matter in the end. -exweedfarmer

Which is smarter? Just sticking to making/selling karaoke, while people all over the world create software FOR FREE that helps you sell it, or trying to compete with them and keeping it a closed loop while you blow your money into an industry (software) that you(the karaoke manu) knows nothing about?
-me

thats my thinking, we are not the performers, but the venue pays me to use my discs and system for other people to be performers. damn, wish i was smart enough for law school so i could understand this crap.

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

If you are not a performer then you are a jukebox, I understand Toger's position because he is not a KJ he operates a jukebox, but any KJ that puts on a show is a performer by simple interaction with the people you become a performer be it telling jokes, singing or just bantering with the people at the venue (audience), you are there to keep and or motivate the people in the venue to be entertained if you are doing this you are a performer. Even if you just sit there and call up the next singer all night you are still performing your function to entertain the crowd for compensation (even if it for the bar tab) which in rough terms translates into "Having profit as a chief aim" unless you are doing it for free!

Exactly, WE are not performers, we are hired (for monitary gain) to provide the means for the customers to be the performers.

I figure if I have to file taxes off of the income I make, then that is pretty much a commercial job I am in.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

But this is all covered by the ASCAP/BMI/Sesac agencies (and soundexchange if you do any kind of streaming) At least, that's the way congress said it's supposed to be.

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Living my life as Robert Cortese, 162 E. Jackson St, San Jose CA.

It's like the difference between high and low budget toilet paper, it really doesn't matter in the end. -exweedfarmer

Which is smarter? Just sticking to making/selling karaoke, while people all over the world create software FOR FREE that helps you sell it, or trying to compete with them and keeping it a closed loop while you blow your money into an industry (software) that you(the karaoke manu) knows nothing about?
-me

I think if you can say you do a better or worse job of entertaining your crowd than the next guy does, you are a performer and while your are enabling your singers to be performers, they are your guest performers.
Dick Clark didn't sing on American Bandstand, his guests did, yet he will tell you he's a performer and the reason his show was a success. Same with Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, they all do similar performances on a larger scale.

If your crowd comes to your show because they like YOUR show, then you are putting on a fine performance.



Your mechanic pays taxes, but he doesn't pay royalties to snap-on for each turn of his wrench to the guy that invented it, that was covered by snap-on in the manufacter of that wrench and passed on to him in the purchase price of his tools. The same is true for your discs and downloads when you buy from a reputable source.

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KNOW THYSELF

nice analogy, i can follow that one. the Snap On reference though i think is too far different as that is not so easy to make exact copies of Snap On tools as it is to make exact copies of karaoke CD+G. but we are performers, and get paid for doing so, and paying taxes on that money makes us legally for profit, and i assume that makes it a commercial venture.

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

I am not the entertainer. I provied the means for others to entertain and once they are on stage, I am nothing more than a sound man. People like coming back because I do not try to be the entertainer.

My slogan: WE don't entertain YOU, YOU entertain EVERYONE!

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I am not the entertainer. I provied the means for others to entertain and once they are on stage, I am nothing more than a sound man. People like coming back because I do not try to be the entertainer.

My slogan: WE don't entertain YOU, YOU entertain EVERYONE!

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Lonman... that's nice. There are those of us who are not INSTALLED in ONE venue.

We ARE entertainers, we differentiate ourselves from the competition by producing a karaoke show.
I am not a jukebox attendant. I am not a disc-jockey. I have a personality and I am driven to engage the participants and the audience through whatever means at my disposal.
You bet I'm an entertainer. I sing, I joke, I banter, I introduce, I encourage, I commend, I seg-way, I toast, I promote the bar, I queue up songs, I help people decide, and I adjust sound... all night long.

I've had an extraordinary number of people including another just this past Friday who've stated that they love karaoke, but they keep coming back to my shows because I make it something special for them.

I checked wikipedia for a definition of MC (or emcee) and I found this about Comedy Clubs (I like the analogy of karaoke & comedy)... the description of a "compère" comes closer to a karaoke host than any other, check it out:

Comedy clubs

In the context of a comedy club, the role of MC is traditionally filled by a "compère". In any comedy show, the compère is the host of the evening's events, but the precise role and responsibilities will vary depending on the country, venue and style of event. The compère is usually a working comedian, and whilst they may incorporate elements of their regular set, the role broadly requires a greater level of improvisation - creating a sense of place and community, interacting with the audience, dealing with any hecklers and encouraging them to focus on the other acts. The compère will normally do longer bits at the start of the show and after any interval, and shorter bits between acts. The may also be required to make announcements, such as birthdays, anniversaries and bar promotions.


Don't sell yourself short my friend.

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Never the same show twice!

Wow mountain, you want to discount what I do?

I wire machines up, I write tech docs, I carefully have watch singer habits, and designed a system around them, that keeps them entertained. Keeps them empowered, let's them know exactly when they're coming up (instead of the typical, scratch a song on a ticket and hope I get called up) They can change their own songs, and have instant feedback that their changes weren't ignored by some doofus in a booth trying to invoke the soul of Casey Kasum.

I have a small platoon of computers that I have to ensure keep talking to each other. Playlist computers, Kiosks, servers. The list goes on.

I find bugs. We fix bugs, new bugs pop up. I log things in our bugtracker and things get fixed, new bugs pop up.

But people are no less entertained by what I do than what you do.

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Living my life as Robert Cortese, 162 E. Jackson St, San Jose CA.

It's like the difference between high and low budget toilet paper, it really doesn't matter in the end. -exweedfarmer

Which is smarter? Just sticking to making/selling karaoke, while people all over the world create software FOR FREE that helps you sell it, or trying to compete with them and keeping it a closed loop while you blow your money into an industry (software) that you(the karaoke manu) knows nothing about?
-me

Toger I know you can't see this but that's OK.

In short there are bars that have Jukeboxes and people sit around generally bored listening to them but enjoying themselves in their own bored way. And there are Bars that are hopping because they have a DJ who is running the music and entertaining the crowd. And there are bars that have Jukeboxes and people sit around generally bored listening to them but enjoying themselves in their own bored way, And there are Bars that have bands that are playing the music and entertaining the crowd.

Then there are bars that have Jukebox karaoke (which has been in exsistence for sometime I saw my first in New York back in the late 90's, it ran on a carosel Player, monster of a machine) and people sit around generally bored listening to them but enjoying themselves in their own bored way. And there are Bars that are hopping because they have a KJ who is running the Show and entertaining the crowd.

Any computer geek can wire up some computers and make a Jukebox but there are few who can actually entertain!

Of course that is not saying that a Jukebox system doesn't have it's place!

Have you thought about doing a Karaoke/Photo booth setup? That should be a major hit, the only thing you would have to add is a camera and photo printer. Even better make it a Karaoke recording/Photo Booth and for a dollar the crowd could get a picture of themselves to look at while playing their brand new CD.

No, Toqer, I wasn't disparaging what you do.

I was relating that I see KJ's as more than attendants or DJ's, but incorporating both skill-sets.

However, I cannot compare the entertainment value of a good KJ to a good GEEK.

When's GEEK night at 7 Bamboo? (I keed, I keed you.)

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Never the same show twice!

Tuesday night is Japanese night. PC is only used to lookup songs. The KJ on that night is a 60+ year old lady that has been doing karaoke since she lived in Japan. She won't use the PC for playback, because she thinks it cuts down on her "Tips"

We did have a fairly CD>PC accurate songbook, but with the addition of the SC Diamond set, our collections grown by 1/3rd. Kind of sad now, cause there are a ton of songs she can't play from the SC diamond set. I would love to transform them into CDG's for her, but then I'd be breaking the law according to some people. We did burn a few downloads from tricera to CD (5) but I quickly got lazy about the process.

The next 4 nights of the week are "Geek". Where I live, that's a compliment.

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Living my life as Robert Cortese, 162 E. Jackson St, San Jose CA.

It's like the difference between high and low budget toilet paper, it really doesn't matter in the end. -exweedfarmer

Which is smarter? Just sticking to making/selling karaoke, while people all over the world create software FOR FREE that helps you sell it, or trying to compete with them and keeping it a closed loop while you blow your money into an industry (software) that you(the karaoke manu) knows nothing about?
-me

Toqer, that was Virgin/Thunder who made the original comment. Mt. was addressing Lonman.

You mentioned that you have the GEM diamond set? You actually agreed to pay SC a licensing fee? Others might, but you surprised me..

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Wow Joe, Toger has me on ignore so he was directly addressing Mountain, you just can't help yourself can you! Did you hit the report button on that post?