Karaoke Forums

Your mistake is in thinking that a business that uses the intellectual property of another company in its business, with or without permission, is an "independent business."

SC in particular is constantly accountable to the upstream owners of the intellectual property it uses.

If you make an outright purchase of SC discs and use only those original discs to put on karaoke shows, SC has no interest in monitoring you at all. But when you step out of that, such as by making copies onto a hard drive, that comes with consequences, one of which is some monitoring. I don't think anyone would characterize it as "constant" monitoring.

To answer the OP's question more directly: Auditing is part of the process SC has established in order for a KJ to obtain the permissions necessary to conduct media shifting from original media to non-original media such as a hard drive. It is 100% voluntary between the KJ and SC, except that if you conduct a media shift without permission then you are subject to a lawsuit for trademark infringement. You can't initiate an audit for someone else--it has to be something they do. The process involves, among other things, comparing the tracks stored on a KJ's hard drives to the original media (CDGs) that the KJ owns and possesses, to verify 1:1 correspondence.

If you suspect someone of piracy, there are various mechanisms for reporting it. I suggest visiting soundchoice.com or scsafeharbor.com for more information.

For the OP's ( Twistedangel1981) original question:

There is ONE company- Sound Choice/Slep-tone- that wants to audit KJs. This is a failed karaoke producer that now has a business model based on income from litigation and/or "settlements". The audit is what is known as a "fishing expedition", used in hopes of not only gaining evidence that will bring them income in the manner described above, but- in signing the "Audit Agreement" (read it carefully) - putting the KJ under their thumb.

Be VERY cautious in your future decisions regarding this matter.

The auditor will check your discs against your hard drive to insure you are 1-1 and mark each disc with a stamp.

And... the auditor comes over to your pad to do this???

In my case, the auditor came to the club where I do my show.

-Chris

The above is ONE person's opinion from someone that has never been through an audit.

I have done the Sound Choice audit and it is NOT a fishing expedition. It is simply a means of validating that the person being audited has original Sound Choice media in their possession for everything they have on their hard drive. They do NOT look at other manufacturers.

Audits come in two forms -

Voluntary (what I did) - a pro-active means of showing compliance with Sound Choice 1:1 policy and in the process get certified by Sound Choice.

Involuntary - Possibly required as part of a lawsuit where there is suspicion that the KJ does NOT have discs to match what they have on their hard drive.

The Audit does NOT put you under Sound Choice's thumb. There are repercussions for not complying with post-audit policy, but those repercussions are essentially no different that what you would be subject to if were never audited in the first place.

As noted, I have done the Sound Choice audit. It has been a year and a half and Sound Choice has never asked to see my discs again. They have never asked me for more money. They have never asked me for anything. I feel ZERO pressure from Sound Choice.

If you have questions about the audit process, I suggest you contact some of the people on the list here -

http://www.soundchoicestore.com/certifi ... pg-69.html

I have reached out to some of the people on the list and not a single person has ever expressed to me that they feel any heat from Sound Choice.

-Chris

...A proactive audit offers permission to media shift (from the Manufacturers who are offering audits (which, at this point in time, is only SC)), and offers protection (from lawsuits brought by the karaoke manufactures) for the KJ and the venues where they operate....