Karaoke Forums

Wondering if any other KJ's have bought into Stellar Records / Pop Hits Monthly C.A.P. Program as listed here -

http://www.stellarrecords.com/cap_info.html

I did buy into this back in July of this year. I did so because I had bought a system from a KJ that claimed to have thousands of original discs when in fact they had very few original discs but 10's of thousands of tracks on hard drives. I investigated ways to get legal and in the process discovered the C.A.P. program. in the mean time I have picked up used discs here and there to get original copies of discs to ensure.

Back in July I contacted Stellar, spoke to one of their execs about CAP and then made the investment in the program. I also purchased an annual subscription to monthly updates. Since then, I have had to contact them every single month (except for the most recent Dec shipment) to get them to ship out my monthly discs. I have sent numerous emails to them requesting my CAP certificates and still do not have them. The issue was escalated to Tom Viveiros, the president of the company, and I was told that the delay was due to upgrades to their computer network. The last contact on this was made two weeks ago.

Has anyone else signed up for this program?
Have you received your CAP certificates?

Chris

You actually paid $3,200 for a piece of paper and a promise?

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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

Something is fishy, both with the OP and Stellar.

Did you contact the sell of the system you purchased so he could make good on his claim of all those disc? He ripped you off. Good luck with PHM

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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!

The seller of the system has long since vanished. I am chalking up a loss on that aspect of the sale. It was a lesson learned. I have since picked up another system that I did much better research on and I am quite happy with it.

As for PHM/Stellar, on Friday,I formally requested a refund for the CAP program via email. Since they have not delivered the certificates, and they have had 6 months to do so, I don't feel I should have to be out the money. No response as of yet, but I am pretty sure that Tom Viveiros has seen my email since he accepted my LinkedIn invite this morning. No response yet so I will see what happens.

By the way, I will be blogging about Karaoke and specifically this experience over at http://afairrotation.wordpress.com

I am working on a blog post about the experience I have had thus fait with Stellar and PHM and will be posting it later today.

Chris

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-Chris

DELETED: Posted in wrong thread- sorry...

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

I just made a post to my blog at http://afairrotation.wordpress.com about my experience with Stellar Records. Tomorrow I will be posting the full email thread that has transpired since July regarding my CAP Certificates.

Chris - Feel Good Productions

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-Chris

Latest Update - I asked for a refund and was basically put on notice that I could be subject to legal action. i made two new postsa to my blog regarding this. I would like to encourage you to all read and comment on the blog as well as the thread here in regards to this.

http://afairrotation.wordpress.com

Thanks,

Chris

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-Chris

Chris,
I did not Buy into this program however for a very short period of time SC and Stellar had a joint audit agreement. We passed Audits For SC and CB and Kurt audited all of our Stellar product too. We received a email From Tom advising us that we would re receiving our proof of legality within 2 weeks. We have had communication and been advised that they were having difficulty with the computer system as well. Although our situation is a bit different than yours we share similarities. I can tell you that we use being approved by all 3 us manus and have had venues call to verify and stellar has verified our legality. I empathize with your frustration wholeheartedly, please If you intend to continue to use any of the Stellar music from the first system (pre 2007) think hard before withdrawing your CAP program that protects you and your venues...if you are just going to wipe the music and use the new system that is 1-1 then do as you see best.

Bright Blessings
Athena

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

I have actually never used any music in my show for which I did not have the physical disc for. I even point out in the long email thread with Stellar that I made a conscious choice to not use the digital music that would be covered under the CAP agreement until I received the certificates. I am 100% legal and always have been at my show. Yet when I push back and ask for a refund they, they suggest potential legal action.

I am taking a stand.

Chris

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-Chris

you have stated many times that you are not using the music, and havetried for 6 months to get what you paid for. if they can not draft a simple document stating that you are compliant (what could they possibly need in the broken server that is not on the working server) you are justified asking for a refund. let them start legal action, this could easily put them in a worse PR position than SC. well, now i dont feel so bad about being ignored by many emails and calls about an audit. seems to be par for the course for them.

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

It appears my efforts have paid off. I was contacted via email last night by Tom Viveiros. He sent me the forms to get the CAP certificates going.

As a heads up, he requested that I remove my blog post that included the email thread I have had with them. While I don't believe that I am legally obligated to remove the posting, I did so anyway as a show of good faith since he is finally moving the ball along.

Will update more over the next few days as the certificates are being made and sent out.

Chris - Feel Good Productions

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-Chris

congrats crisavis I am glad you have had a happy out come....start using your music and thank you for bring legal. I respect you and wish you much new business
Kj athena

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

damage already done... we've all read your blog and forwarded it to other to read

so they would be aware of what stellar is doing to it's customers...

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It's all good!

I can't believe Stellar would suggest you write your own certificate! Unbelievable!
You would think that for your $3200 and with six months time, they could have just drafted something themselves and sent it to you. It would take the average person roughly half an hour to draft such thing, and that includes checking for mistakes, dotting the "i's" and crossing the "t's". I know that if I had paid that kind of money, I would be beyond incredulous at the mere suggestion!
You are indeed patient, because if it were me, especially after the threat of a lawsuit, I would have told him to bring it on and filed a suit for the return of my money immediately. Six months is more than long enough. Legally, they have committed breach of contract and I seriously doubt they would have any teeth to try and sue you for infringement, particularly with all your emails and documentation to back up your side of things.

I appreciate the support from the community on this. I also appreciate you forwarding along the blog info. The blog is going to stay up beyond the resolution of the Stellar Records matter. Like KJAthena, I am taking an active role in the Pacific Northwest to combat piracy and illegal KJ's/Venue's. The blog will be my primary portal for talking about what I encounter along the way.

I would like to make karaoke shows my full time business someday. Kind of a pipedream considering the state of the industry. But if I can do the right things along the way and do my part to support the industry then I can sleep well at night.

As for what is going on with Stellar right now....I sent my signed paperwork to them via snail mail this morning. Take a day or two to cross the country and another day or two for them to process and send along the certs. I believe that in about 7 business days the whole matter should be put to rest.

I am still undecided about whether I will use any Stellar products beyond my first venue. I have a pretty large collection of discs these days and with the acquisition of two of the Chartbuster 12,000 song packs I can easily use my existing discs and the Chartbuster drive to support a second show without using Stellar at all. I will reserve my decision on that until the Stellar matter comes to a close.

btw....this is a portion of my currect CDG Collection. This DOES NOT include the TWO Chartbuster 12,000 song packs I bought yesterday NOR does it include the Pop Hits Monthly Collection I picked up from Stellar under the CAP agreement. I am currently negotiating the purchase of about 5000 original discs that I am trying to wrap up before Christmas.

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-Chris

I believe that you have already shown your good faith, and at this point I would not remove anything until you have received the certicate- IF then.

Personally, as soon as they threatened legal action ( which would have fallen flat since you possess the discs) I would have initiated a suit for the refund.

$3200, in my humble opinion, was too much to pay for a piece of paper that you really don't require, again, because you own the discs.

At the very least, I would have waited until I saw any evidence of investigations by Stellar before I would have even considered it.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

@Joe - Point taken. I have to admit that 6 months ago I had a lot to learn when it came to hosting a karaoke show. In the past 6 months I have educated myself on a lot of the ins and outs. I also completely misunderstood the CAP program when I originally bought into it. Had I known then what I know now, I would never done it.

Fortunately, karaoke is not my only business. I do it for fun right now. I have a great day job and I also have resources at my disposal that allow me to push back pretty hard in cases like this.

Chris

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-Chris

Chris, The way I read it tells me that no matter how you acquired the Stellar karaoke tracks be it legally or other wise, any or all tracks up to 2007 are now legally yours for $3200. Here is a statement from Stellar:

"Overview: Covering all products produced between 1995 and end through 2007. This includes the brands UK Karaoke®, American Gold®, Top Hits Monthly® (1995 & 1996), Rising Star, and Pop Hits Monthly®.

Also includes products bearing the unauthorized use of the Top Hits Monthly brand by Panorama (i.e. Platinum Series, Decades, All Time Greats Series, etc.) including the 1999 through 2007 monthly releases."

Is this an accurate assessment?

That is the way I read it as well.

When I initially bought my karaoke system. It came with a hard drive with a bunch of karaoke tracks on it. I started looking for ways to make them legal or sub them out for original discs. Stellar was the only one that had a program where by you could keep the music you have on the drive wihout having to be 1-1. So I started with them. I deleted everything except for what I thought would be covered under the CAP and shelved that drive and have used only 1-1 since then for all manufacturers and I intend to do so until I have the CAP certificates in hand. Once I have them I will revisit the drive and determine if there is enough there and/or tracks that would be requested if I added the drive back in.

I have not even looked at the drive in 6 months so I don't know what was left on it after I deleted everything but Stellar music.

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-Chris