Karaoke Forums

There seems to be a lot of arguments about Cloud Karaoke. At the summit, ideas were presented about a "united front" consisting of manufacturers, publishers and software suppliers. Some of you have already noticed that there was no real representation from KJ's. That's because it doesn't appear that this new "Cloud Karaoke" program is really being marketing to them -- they want to market through them, making it virtually impossible for the average KJ to come out with any kind of measurable profit. The idea appears to be that by marketing to the venues (pay $300 a month for music and have Karaoke every night...) they can virtually cut us out of the mix altogether.

This proposal makes no sense for someone like us...If the bar can pay $300 per month and then a nominal fee for a host to come in and run their system, it makes far more sense for the bar to do that than pay $150 a night or more to one of us to run a gig. Welcome, $50 bar jockey.

For the average KJ, paying even $200 a month for access to the "cloud" lowers our profit margin even further. We all have overhead -- truck repairs, system repairs, music and if you have more than one system and more than one gig a night, host fees and possibly set-up fees. Most of us already own a good core library and then some, which doesn't seem to make this a profitable situation.

If you are unclear as to what I'm talking about, here's the link to an excerpt of Kurt Slep's speech at the Karaoke Summit:

http://dkusa.com/mp3/KurtProfit.mp3

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Birdofsong

In all fairness, this is a 76 second snippet and neither Kurt or Sound Choice are the major players in the Cloud Conversation here. While I agree with Birdofsong (and Chip via a Facebook forum) that Kurt's presentation of this isn't doing anything for the industry, making Kurt and Sound Choice the focal point of KaraokeCloud conversation is unfair.

The Karaoke Cloud sits squarely with DigiTrax. Comments and suggestions should be directed toward DigiTrax as they are the ones that can effect the change.

-Chris

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-Chris

...No they aren't a major player, yet? However this came right out of Kurt's Mouth (Of Sound Choice). As far as a Venue owning their own equipment, it's nothing new. It's been going on since the late 80's. Only difference is if they want to deal with the initial expense (back then). Now it's becoming easier and less worry of legal troubles. When I first started out as a KJ (late 80's) some people I worked for were Venue Owner's with their own equipment and some were mobile KJ/DJ Businesses.
...But a $400.00 profit (1-night, 4-weeks per month) for a KJ that uses the service? Come on! I wish I could click my Red-Sparkly-Heels and forget about all of the other expenses.

According to that soundbite, Kurt sounds like a typical fast talking salesman. I don't like typical fast talking salesmen.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Clubs might think that this is a good deal at first until things start happening like equipment breaking in the middle of a show and NO ONE knows how to fix it. Some drunk smashes their one and only mike on the floor. The computer crashes and NO ONE knows how to reboot it. The club forgets to pay for the service and 100 people walk out because they came for Karaoke and there isn't any.

Then they will begin to realize that renting a KJ, all his music and equipment for $150 a night really isn't such a bad deal.

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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!
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Smoothedge69,

"According to that soundbite, Kurt sounds like a typical fast talking salesman. I don't like typical fast talking salesmen".

Remember it is a selected soundbite...reserve your opinion until the entire summit is available...remember anything can be taken out of context and appear to be something it is not.

From personal experience I can assure you Kurt is not a "typical" anything much like myself...

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."
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"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

They just want a continuous income stream. Hosts have one so they figure so should they. Next step is to outlaw disc-based hosting.

well, it does say on the disc that public performance is a violation of rights.....

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

That's why you must first rip the disc to an unmarked hard drive to be completely legal

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KNOW THYSELF

Talk about taking the wind out of SC's sails. Piracy Recovery will be out of business before they even get started. OMG!! Harrington would have to find something else to do.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I don't know why in this clip he would attempt a sales pitch to hosts immediately after explaining to venue owners how to cut out hosting costs.

Just goes to show who they care about. They want the venues to get involved because they can make $299 a month on them. It's all about THEIR pockets. I hope this finally goes to show all the cheerleaders where the loyalty of the mfrs really lies. It ain't with them, that has now been proven.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Hey, hey - watch it now. Don't let JoeChartreuse see this post or he's really gonna be pi**ed. I believe he's " Disc based and loving it...". (can't resist - just kidding, Joe).

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

and Kurt did say "fully licensed from the publisher"
there is no way to license karaoke music for digital distribution like this.............isn't that what he has been saying even a few months ago?

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

People buying one song at a time doesn't make him money. People renting 40,000 at a time does. Typical shifty businessman. They are all alike.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

No, what he has said consistently is that (1) current licenses do not allow for digital distribution and (2) the conditions that the music publishers have historically imposed on digital distribution--high fees, primarily--have made legal digital distribution economically impossible.

Recently, however, music publishers have indicated a greater willingness to change those conditions.

I guess loyalty is a one way street?

Seems pretty crappy to me, that a vendor would even discuss going straight a venue to make them an offer that would cut the KJ out of potential earnings. How much is an audit/cert worth if venues buy into this?

So now not only is your library pretty much worthless so is your certification!

Even at $400 a month it would be worth it to a venue to be able to offer karaoke any night without worries of a law suit. Sure they'll have to buy equipment, keep up with it etc..., but bottom line is over time this would be a cheaper way of a venue providing karaoke.

Get ready for a lot more Crapioke and a lot less KJ's!

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My statements, opinions and conclusions are based on my own personal experiences, observations, research and/or just my own $.02. I'm not a "cheerleader", but that doesn't make me a Pirate.

Why is that shifty? A businessman is in business to make money. I wouldn't conduct a business that isn't going to make money That would be pretty dumb business sense!

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

I don't know, I have offered at times over the years to my current club that they SHOULD buy their own equipment - they don't want any part of that. They prefer that being left to someone who knows how to maintain, run, train kj's, etc. There are many clubs that i've worked with that have felt this way. But I have seen those that think that they can do it & buy their own, only to have it sitting or they do it for a while & quit because they have no clue.

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

Were you offering a discounted rate that would make it worth the purchase of their own equipment?

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My statements, opinions and conclusions are based on my own personal experiences, observations, research and/or just my own $.02. I'm not a "cheerleader", but that doesn't make me a Pirate.