Karaoke Forums

As a computer KJ myself I have no problems playing other peoples disks.  It's called an external Plextor CDROM and the CDG plugin for winamp.  I've never had a problem and never had to drag that old CDG Player out of the garage.  The CDG plugin is something like 10-20 bucks so why wouldn't you use it.  An External plextor drive, well mine cost me $30 on ebay, so total investment to play cdg disks $50 total unhappy or disappointed customers 0.

Swingcatkurt...you sound like a person id love to hear singing.....i just hate hearing the same ol (@$%&#!)...every night...house of the rising sun....desparado///ect.....

and Knightshow { you are one of the most inspiring people ive ever met (even tho I never met you)...you portray all the morals and ethics I can hope to follow...I would never accept the fact that you are not a truly.. totaly .. honeset and law abiding ...man of character

i believe in Knightshow

Just athought
Michael

Ah well, the only 2 I don't have are Night Shift & Do You Believe In Magic (surprising, I thought I had that one).  Still coming up this week?

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I think its important to be able to play customers discs. As it was previously stated more and more people are buying there own cdg's for home use and they want to sing the same versions when they go out LIVE !  

But the flip side is most people DO NOT KNOW HOW TO TAKE CARE OF THEIR DISCS , They come in all scracthed and dirty etc.   Then when the customers discs SKIP they look at you like its YOUR fault!!   That's when I want to take their discs and fly it like a frisbee across the room !  LOL

when a customer's disc is scratched, I will warn them that I can only play in the condition it's in, and SHOW them the scratches and burrs... many times, they act quite shocked that it's in that bad of condition!

Mr. October---send me your email addy and I can shoot over a couple MP3's! Hey like your pics on the photo gallery! Keep em coming! Mine is
KURJOHN@aol.com


Lon---still in the dark as to what Im doing with DeltaGRoove Port Townsend, Seattle and Winthrop this weekend. So I'm  still playin it by ear--but Im not holding my breath. BUT................................I DO HAVE A CARTON of KS Magazines for you that Peter sent up to me---the issue with Knightshow's story in it. So either way we WILL get the story done and you'll be able TO HOLD AN ACUTAL KARAOKE SCENE MAGAZINE IN YOUR HOT LITTLE HAND!! Just cant be sure on the date yet. But youre there every fri and sat right???

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

As a rule unless I have private shows.

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Sheesh.... here we go again!

I can say that all my tracks are legal - and that includes everything I play at my shows.  EVERY MP3, every CDG, every video.  I don't format shift because of the licensing issues (yet).

Do I have illegal stuff?  Not anymore.  I deleted all my illegal MP3's, MP3+SCDG, and movies when I started my KJ business.  Technically I still have a few illegal tracks, movies, etc - but I don't use them.  I'll outline what I have that I know is illegal - I have a couple movies I bought from a 'source' in the Phillipines that are obviously screeners (a guy with a video camera in a movie theater) and most of the movies I got like that I bought later (Why did I buy them? I was working in Denali National Park and couldn't get to town at all.  I ordered the movies while they were still in the theater).  The ones I didn't buy later I still have as illegal discs and have been throwing them away as a run across them.  Remember these are movies that I will likely never watch again and am wondering how to get back the 2 hours I wasted on them the first time around (think Fast and Furious 2).  Not all I bought from the Phillipines are illegal - some are VERY legal, including the Japanese Samurai series on VCD which I couldn't find here in the states on DVD.  I might still have some VCD's I've burned from downloads but I'm not sure where they are at home and throw them away as I run across them (most I have on DVD anyway).

I also bought a CAVS 203G from a vendor that included nearly 17,000 tracks on SCDG (DK Millenium, Top Hits, and SC) that are obviously illegal but I don't use them at my shows and I still got the player for less than retail (and he was the only person that I could find that actually had one in stock).  I have to admit that SCDG's are convenient.  I could put nearly 30,000 tracks in a Sound Choice Foundation style binder and even carry a backup if I needed to.  The CAVS 203 reads the disc quickly enough but I'd have to either buy SCDG's or deal with format shifting again....   I don't use any of this stuff in my shows though... and I'm sure my minor indiscrections aren't going to break the industry since I actually own over 400 DVD's, 500CD's, 250CDG's, and about 100 pre recorded Minidiscs.  I've been weeding out my illegal stuff but still have a little around - but none at my shows, and as I find it I throw it away.

As much as it pains me though the cost of music in the states is often astronomically high and I sometimes purchase music from other countries because either it's not available in the states or it's much cheaper there.  There are countries that have 'loopholes' in licensing (cough, cough, Russia, cough) that allow for a much lower rate to be paid that I've bought MP3's from for my show.  I've also purchased 'import' CD's that weren't released in the states.  Just like the Backstage Eagles discs available in the UK we sometimes get around limitations imposed in the US to provide a service for our customers.  Are these 'legal'?  Perhaps, perhaps not - but I did pay for them and appropriate licensing was paid by those I purchased them from.

Keep in mind that if you belong to Columbia House, Yourmusic.com, BMG Music or download music from iTunes, Wal-Mart, eMusic, or most other online music sites you are violating your terms of use agreement if you use the CD's/MP3's in your show.  Yep, that's right.  The CD you just BOUGHT AND PAID FOR FROM THE RECORD COMPANY CAN'T LEGALLY BE USED AT YOUR SHOW!!!!!!  The only way you can get around this is if you get written permission from them to use them by your business.  And if you plan on contacting BMG or YourMusic.com you can forget it, I've tried!  Which means you can't play those discs legally even if you pay ASCAP, BMI, AND SESAC.

BTW Tig, I've seen this come up before between you and Matt and it wasn't pretty.  But to clear the air and to tell you EXACTLY where I stand I thought I would provide you a FULL disclosure on what I have that 'might' be illegal (and what I have that I know is illegal).  Can we not go here again?

In regards to the thread though (sorry, got off track there), even when I go computer I'll still haul along a player.  It makes good sense to be able to play a customer's disc.  I cater to the customer to make my show stand out.  I play their discs (pointing out problems if it's in bad condition), get songs I don't already have if asked, insure that the discs I do purchase are high quality (whenever possible), and try to run as good a show as possible.

If you make the customer happy they not only come back but tend to tell others about your show!  I know I can never have everything - we get lots of tourists here and I'll never have the tagalog, Japanese, Korean and other tracks that don't get lots of play.  Even if I did purchase a large collection of tracks I wouldn't be able to keep it up to date.  I've been tempted to purchase some laser discs from a local venue with far eastern songs on them (Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog) and transfer them to VCD's but the price wasn't good enough (yet).  Why go through the trouble?  Because if I have even a couple dozen Japanese/Chinese/Korean/Tagalog songs I set myself apart from the 'other guys' who don't.  I don't play venues that only do a single style of music so it's in my best interests to draw from all demographics when possible.

so the rule of thumb is "whoever uses more pirated material in their show than me is the pirate, not me?" LMAO... and rule 2 is "the pirated material at home doesn't count because I don't use it in my show... " so the piracy that the customers can't see is justified... beautiful... so in answer to my question- you are what, 10-15% pirate???  and anyone 16% pirate or more is illegal??? what threshold is the line you draw then??? what percentage pirate is acceptable??? karaoke, software, mp3's- it all counts...

[font=Comic Sans MS]  Plain and simple.. just like I like it!!!  You just can't argue with numbers!

Lena Maria[/font]

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GIRL POWER!!!!!

Hmmm........ Im seriously thinking about adopting an 18 year old asian girl...ya know so I can bring her up  here in America. And I can show her around a little.. Please forward the price of these laser disc's

KM, you have just confused the living Sh!t out of me. I had to read your post a couple of times and still don't get it.

Point taken

Huh?

You even announce openly what you own as illegal copies.

Well, that makes it all right then

Says the Pope

I wonder how that would go down infront of a jury

So is there a difference between home use and public use for pirates?

Well, that makes it legal then I guess

Of course not. You're a legal pirate, and every on else, doing EXACTLY what you do, will burn in hell!

Well that's nice of you. Why not spend, hmmmmmmmmm tomorrow, go through your illigal stuff, and through it away. Then we can all come clean.

LMFAO!!!!!

This thread isn't really any of my business, but holy crap you guys are TOO funny!!!! !! I'm in stitches!

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Ok, I have a couple hard drives that probably have some illegal stuff but they're not mounted in a machine so I can remove the illegal tracks nor even verify they are actually there.    I have some discs that I have boxed up after a move but they're not marked as to contents but I know there are some discs (movies) in there somewhere.  Does that make sense now?


Yes, I think I have some illegal stuff, but I deleted over 50,000 karaoke tracks, hundreds of thousands of music tracks, probably a hundred movies, and as much as I've been able to find that I have access to.  How much illegal stuff do you still have?  Gotten rid of any lately?  I have....


I would but still have a large amount of stuff boxed up that I can't get to right now.  As I unbox the stuff and find it I throw it away.  I suppose I could pull out everything, unbox it, dig through it all and throw it all away but that would take more than a day.  FAR more than a day, more like a week to dig through all the boxes and other crap I have floating around.  As I find it I toss it... that's the best I can do for now but I guess you're the pirate police now?  The RIAA and KAPA aren't coming after me... but I guess you are?

BTW, I bought an illegal copy of 'The Matrix Reloaded' and later purchased the original DVD.  It's now legal since I'm allowed to format shift as a consumer....  It's a few discs like this that I don't count.  I figure at this point I have 4-5 movies somewhere, that are illegal copies that I don't have originals of.  If I find them I'll send them to you.  If I ever get the time to hook up those 10GB hard drives I'll delete the tracks, if I don't throw them away first...

I guess anyone else who comes clean can expect the same level of welcome?  I made huge steps to reform about 2 years ago and haven't downloaded any illegal tracks since then.  I still have some old stuff floating around (outlined in my previous post) that I pitch as I find it... I figure I'll be 100% clean before the end of the year.  Will you?

Yea, yea, you didn't come clean, blah, blah, blah... but rubbing in one of the few people that are trying to get their act cleaned up won't help others do it either.

Jeez Tig. let loose the dead horse already!

I've ALWAYS maintained a difference between the professional aspect of "knightshow" and "matt searcy". Something you either fail to grasp or just poo-pah in your efforts to point fingers and say that someone is a "percentage of pirate"... whatever the **** that is.

What I do at home is my own business. What I do commercially is totally different. That's for pay, and as such, there are different standards. And I try to run the BUSINESS side as open as I can and honest as I can.

When I go out as a singer, I always sing off the tracks I own. Can you say the same? I at least am a friend to the karaoke manufacturers, where you openly display hostility and a sense of they deserve whatever happens to them. Where I pay for what I play with!

This thread was totally hijacked. It started about supid KJ's that have scratched disc. and I added I do not play customes cd's. Then it blew up into an RIAA discussion. As far ar legal issues with peoples own business if you do not pay for what you are using your time will come, and honestly it's not my business and I don't want to know that your using illegal copies. I have spend a small fortune over the last 9 years buying karaoke, and my end is covered.

From now on can we asume everyone is legit, at least until the next KJ joins the chat board and asks how to download free cd+g's. I view everyone here as a valuable asset for information, and I would hate to see someone get pissed and stop chatting with us. We all are in different areas of the country, and run different operations, there is much more that can be learned from each other, if we put our heads together instead of butting heads.

Actually this whole thread was misinterpeted.  The topic name is "My KJ is an "idot".  This should have been a discussion about dotted i's.

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I read, I learn.

I Still want to adopt and 18 year old Asian Chick