Karaoke Forums

Bad argument since every vendor displays their logo. It's not like SC is the only vendor out there that wants name recognition.

-Chris

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-Chris

Lone - you seriously need to go visit the rest of the world. I have traveled all over the US for the last 15 years and I go to karaoke whenever I can. I have never been to a show anywhere that had ZERO Sound Choice tracks. Some have more or less than others, but I can usually find many of my favorites on Sound Choice at any karaoke show in any major metropolitan area and many smaller towns as well.

Your view of SC pissing off the world and people pulling it from libraries is very narrow and completely inaccurate. What you WANT to happen is simply not reality out in the real world.

Also, the venues or DJ's that are pulling the SC product are those that pirated it in the first place and can't afford to go and repurchase the massive libraries they once had. They aren't pulling it in protest or out of any moral stance. They remove SC and fill in with brands that aren't pursuing legal action.

I have watched a few venues drop karaoke and a handful of hosts go under after pulling SC from their libraries. Their shows suffered and people stopped coming out. Poof....no more karaoke.

-Chris

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-Chris

Chris when I was younger I was in the military, and have been stationed in quite a few places both in the U.S. and abroad. During my vacation I travel also. You are right because of advancing age and health problems I don't travel as much as I once did. Evidently the hosts that went under after pulling SC weren't that good in the first place. I haven't used them in years and I do just fine, working six days a week, most of the 10 months I do my thing. I'm starting to get work from venues that want no SC used, what does that tell you about the type of PR SC is creating? In a way I should tell them to keep doing what their doing, it is making me a mint. I do want however the industry to survive, and not be destroyed by one manu no matter how important, you seem to think they are. The answer is for SC to take a sensible, sustainable, approach to the piracy problem. If SC implodes and karaoke anarchy results, it will be every host for themselves, except for the ones who have networked and help each other. Have a nice day.

With all due respect, you have indicated you are in the area of 70 years old. So saying "when I was younger I was in the military" I can extrapolate that may be before *before* karaoke even existed in CD form.

I am relying on my current active experience of going to karaoke shows consistently over the past 15 years in many, many different areas of the US. In just the past 6 months I have been to karaoke shows in Seattle, Portland, Boise, Saly Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, Mountain View, Los Angeles, San Diego (and several in the area surrounding LA and SD), Dallas, Austin, and probably a few others that slip my mind.

I go to these shows because I love to do karaoke and I want to see what other successful karaoke hosts and venues are doing. I want to keep my finger on the pulse of the industry I am investing so heavily in and watch the trends of the singers. In my experience Sound Choice is alive and well (even if it is in the form of pirated content) at every venue I go to.

Sound Choice may be getting pulled in your area, but that is an anomaly, not the norm.

-Chris

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-Chris

Only time will tell who is right Chris. Until It happened everyone thought CB would be with us today, what a difference a year makes. This time next year we could be looking at the corporate corpse of SC. The people who participated in the Cloud Summit earlier this year said if Cloud failed the still viable manus could be looking at complete implosion in 2013. Your putting your money on SC and I'm not, just like the crap table pass line, and don't pass. After the first roll the don't pass is playing with the house, you can't get better odds than that. Unless you can count cards at the blackjack table. Then of course if you are too good, and if they are nice they will ask you to leave, if they are not nice, they will take you out back and break your fingers. Have a nice day.

To an intelligent person, it seems that enough time has already passed to see who is right.

SC is already a corpse and this zombie just wants to keep on ticking but the truth is that they haven't put out anything new in years.

They only thing they have left to sell is left over stock from years ago that probably ever KJ has or the Gem series which is just a mp3 rehash and most established KJ's have the songs already and new KJ's just cant afford the thousands to lay out for them.

You can probably find more SC discs on EBAY than you can on the SC site and for much better prices.

The lawsuits are about the only thing that are keeping them going and I don't know how they are even doing it with that as I'm sure that Jim's fee's dig way into that.

I'm kinda wondering just how they keep him on retainer unless he works on the basis that he only gets paid if SC wins a suit, which hasn't been many, so it looks like he is loosing money too.

Even CB was smart and sold out and DT jumped on board and upgraded the Karaoke market to the 21'st century with D/L's and producing new music.

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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

What you fail to see is that I actually have the safer bet. I use SC today with no fear of a lawsuit. if they indeed go under as you seem to think they will, then I still get to use their music without fear of lawsuit. I am safe either way.

-Chris

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-Chris

You would not only have to be intelligent you would have to be able to read a crystal ball. No one saw the collapse of CB coming before it went into foreclosure. 2013 could be the last gasp of SC, if it does implode then what? With still about 95% of their product in enemy hands it doesn't appear to me the numbers are on their side. Of course they could be like the Japanese Navy during WWII and go down with battle flags waving. Very inspiring, but quite futile. Have a nice day.

So you are playing the pass and don't pass line and getting your drinks for free. That works only as long as the casino doesn't catch on to what you are doing.

I don't play craps so your comparison is lost on me. But it seems to me you are implying that I am doing something that the "casino" doesn't like and that could result in me getting the boot.

There is nothing to catch me on because I am following all the rules. As such, I am free from any negative consequences. I am not getting anything for free either. My investment (time and money) is significant.

-Chris

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-Chris

Not a bad argument at all. ALL companies want free advertising, and what better advertising than their logo plastered on a screen. If you want ME to show your name on MY screen you have to do things MY way. Simple. I have to approve of you as a company to show your logo.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

You also seem to have no real core interest whether SC wins or loses, you have set yourself to win no matter what happens. Like the large corporations after the Civil War selling war material to the Army, and trading repeating rifles to the Indians. You might be right as far a business, but what about morally? Have a nice day.

Oh c'mon, not THIS tired backwards logic again. I suppose you think SC should PAY everyone to use their discs for all that "free advertising"? Coors should pay bars for "advertising" their beer? Please.


(Awaits the name calling and/or character assassination. That seems to be your default response these days.)

No, they shouldn't pay us, just get off our backs. Simple. Back off, and let us shift our CDs. Stop suing innocent KJs who just want to run their shows in peace. Stop charging for this pointless audit, and change the damn business model.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I'll ask you the same question I asked of Joe lo, these many months ago.

If we just issue a blanket authorization for a media shift, and not sue anyone who has 1:1 correspondence on their discs, how exactly are we supposed to identify the people who don't have 1:1 correspondence?

I mean, it's one thing to say, "get off my back and let me shift my CDs"--and in fact, we do give you that option as long as we can verify 1:1 correspondence--but how are we supposed to get paid by the people who just outright steal the music?

I can come up to you at your show and say, "Do you have all your CDs?" But (a) you'd probably think of that as harassment, and (b) you don't have to talk to me at all.

Or are we supposed to let them have a free pass to use pirated material, in your view?

My point is that it's easy to complain about tactics, but when the solution you offer is just FOAD--which is pretty much what you've said--that's not really an option for us, and if that's your only serious suggestion, I'm pretty strongly disinclined to listen to you at all.

The reality, Bobby, is that I do this because it's the right thing. I have lots of other skills I can use to make money. There is nothing particularly lucrative about this work, but I view it as important because I view what's happened as a grave injustice. The way we do things does impose a minor inconvenience on people who aren't our real targets, but it's a pretty minor inconvenience when you consider the gravity of the situation. My solution is fully legal, effective, and minimally intrusive upon people who are themselves doing the right thing by not stealing music. Can you say the same?

If it is so doggone effective why haven't you made any meaningful dent in the problem? You have had plenty of time and yet you have only less than a percentage of 1% of the problem fixed? You have only a little over 300 hosts certified, out of a possible 48,000 plus hosts in the good old USA. If you know what you are doing why do so many of these started suits in up dismissed? If your goal is protecting your product, why are you killing your brand? You could stop this right now with a simple license to allow shifting without and audit. You print a piece of paper and the host pays the money for it. You would get more revenue this way than you ever will using your present process. With the money you make on the licensing, you could get back to your core business manufacturing. It isn't that hard James. Have a nice day.

I'd say they have definitely "made a dent". There is no metric for the number of pirates that ditched SC out of fear or quit the business altogether, so using the number of certified hosts as the sole evidence of failure is faulty.

Don't post much so I am not sure if I copied the quote correctly but ... actually beer companies do pay bars to advertise their product. All that pretty neon and those wonderful T-shirts & trinkets that are given out are all free. They are given to the bar to giveaway and to use as advertising. The bigger items such as tickets to upcoming concerts usually don't make it in the giveaway kitty but they are also given to the owner as compensation for advertising and selling their product. Monster Energy drink is great at this. We recently gave away a brand new Monster cooler just like the bar uses during a promotion. It's not major $$$ but the beer & liquor companies have been doing this forever. It's very similar to music labels and radio stations. Just my .02. Thanks.

That is the whole point there is no number that can be attached, to the number of pirates in or out of the karaoke industry, it is not something you can keep a record of. Also the total number of hosts nationally is just as much of an unknown, just an estimate. We do know roughly how many certified hosts there are because they are very proud of telling how many of them have paid for their audit. It is the only real number we have, besides the number of suits filed and maybe the number of suits under investigation. Also the number of suits dismissed for various reasons. I think it is safe to say the effect at best of this dog and pony show has been minimal. I don't see it where I live, that is what matters to me. Oh by the way I really like your angry little stick man shouting waving a bottle, he is so cute. Have a nice day.

P.S. James himself said that 95% of the SC product out here is stolen goods, does that sound like they are winning? Maybe to Charlie Sheen, not to me.