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SC has always claimed that it was piracy that put them out of the production business. It has always been my opinion that their problem was mis-management, and several managerial mistakes then and now would allow that theory to stand on it's own.

However, something else always bugged me about their piracy excuse, but I could never really get a handle on what it was- until last night- TIMING.

SC stopped producing new tracks- except for one very short run of a single disc- in 2008, and weren't really doing much for some time before that. They started effectively hitting the brakes in 2006-2007.

Well, PC hosts, and sources for downloadable MP3+G karaoke tracks & pre-filled hard drives were simply not all that easy to come by back then. Though it seems like it's been going on forever, these are very recent developments on the time scale of SC's actions.

Well, how about burned disc pirates?

Uh uh. For those who don't remember, back in the day making copies (even for backups) was a laborious, time consuming, and even expensive process by comparison to MP3+G pirating. One had to buy blanks and labels, a GoldenHawk drive and software, and spend a LOT of time on the copies, burning at 1X, 2X, or maybe 4X tops. Even a hundred discs would take a lifetime.

Not only were burn pirates a miscule fraction of today's MP3 pirates ( and so would represent a miniscule fraction of today's piracy losses), but they chose their brands based on best bang for the the time, energy, and money.

They would burn the DK 1-99 , maybe the KJ Tools 1-12, some of the MM 6 disc oldie sets, and some CB if they had a country base. They would BUY SGB because it wasn't worth the time to copy them at less than $100 for 66 discs.

This would effectively give them about 2500 of the most used songs back then.

Burn 100 SC Spotlights and- if one is VERY lucky- The yield would be about 300 often used songs. SC was simply not cost effective, even for a thieving pirate. Too much time, energy, and money for too little yield. Though they might do some CB for a country crowd, it would be by request, as CB had a similar problem.

Did SC lose a lot of sales due to piracy? Absolutely. Was it the cause of their bowing out of production? I highly doubt it.

Sorry, SC. At the risk of repetition: In my opinion, whatever happened, you did it to yourself.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

My personal experience: I was offered a fully-loaded HD, including every SC song, in 2007. Within three months, I knew of at least 12 KJ's using loaded HD's in my immediate area. They popped up like kudzu.
So I disagree with your timeframe on when the piracy started hurting SC.

only every SC song was on that drive?
no....Every SC, CB, DK, PHM, THM, SGB, MM, SF, ZM, PI, PR, and every other manu was on that drive.

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

If this is the same Kurt Slep, it may have more to do with this than anything.

http://www.1011now.com/home/headlines/8 ... Z88stj_FxA

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

That article was written in 2004, but I think it is the same person.

Joe mentioned that SC slowed production around 2006. He pondered the reason for this, doubting that it was due to piracy.

Maybe there was a cash crunch. Maybe that's why the SC catalog was sold. Maybe there was a non-compete agreement as part of the sale.

I'd wager there was a HUGE cash crunch. The SC catalog is/was the Crown Jewel of the Slep Empire. You don't sell your most prized possession unless there is a dire need.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

A big "agree" on that one!

The iRC channels and hard drive sellers were active in the early 2000's. When I moved to California in 2002 and started looking for karaoke places, they were all PC hosts (except one). I used to carry discs around back then and several places ripped my discs into their systems without my permission. One had an active iRC connection at all times for grabbing music on the fly.

The original KaraokeRealm iRC channels used to have 400+ folks active at all times during their peak. One service actually sold a $60 guide on how to get all of the apps and setup the service. This was in the 2003-2006 time frame.

My point - MP3+G karaoke music was much easier to obtain than Joe is accounting for. It was just more underground at the time than it is now.

-Chris

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-Chris

I knew guys that were copying discs to cdr in the 90's. All they had was a stand alone high speed duplicator - 1 disc could be copied 5 times in less than 15 minutes. I also knew of a few kj's that had 1:1 duplicators AT their show and would copy any and every disc that a customer might have brought - then that disc would magically appear in their library the next night. No special software required. So yes piracy was a big issue even back in the 90's. Once computers came on the scene, it just went out of control.

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

Meanwhile, when you sell your stuff for $25 disc, while everyone else sells theirs for $17, that, too, can cause a problem.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Quality cost money.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

If you're selling (original) SC discs at $25 each while everyone else is only asking $17, and people are willing to pay you for it, I don't see what kind of problem you would be causing. Either people are going to be willing to buy discs from you at that higher price, or you're going to lower your price in order to sell them. It's basic Marketing 101: SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

Yeah, but he seems to be against capitalism. For that matter a car is a car so why buy a Caddy or Corvette when you can get a Cruze for so much cheaper? Quality, accessories, speed, etc. I suppose he would prefer the old Soviet Union where all you could get was a Lada, if you could afford it.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

You are right. I AM against rampant Capitalism. It's not a fair system. When you have CEOs making Millions, sometimes even BILLIONS while the people who actually work for a living are making peanuts, Capitalism has failed. When you have a guy, namely Kurt Slep, who makes his money by suing people, and making them pay audit fees, instead of creating and selling a product, then there again is a system who's time has come and gone. It is time to weed out these kind of people and take everything they have and distribute it throughout society.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

And by selling products.



SC covers more of the cost of audits than do KJs who get audited.



Except that SC did create, and does sell, products.



Apple made a billion dollars suing Samsung, after Samsung ripped off something Apple created. I suppose you have a problem with that, too?

I hear Putin is recreating the Soviet Union, maybe Smooth will be happy there or maybe N Korea or Cuba. No one is making money there. Well in Cuba they make the same whether a doctor or a janitor.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Joe I agree on some points, but not all of them.

What killed it for SC was not adapting to digital distribution. MP3's really began circulating on BBS's back in the mid 90's.

A while back I did an article here, using some microsoft research tool that created stats on newsgroups. I compared the rise of one popular newsgroup number of posts (these are binary posts, mp3+g attatchments) Using the avaliable bandwidth I had back then (some crappy DSL) I figured out that within a week, someone could easily download a collection of 25,000 mp3+g's. I also compared that to the NAMM global music report historical earnings for karaoke.

That's really all I have to say.