Karaoke Forums

I think they are informed. I think the matter of a small turn out came down to

1) Pirates aren't going to show up and risk getting a bullseye painted on themselves. They are the largest group of KJ's in the area.
2) Many legal folks simply don't want to be involved and also don't want to cause attention to be drawn to themselves.
3) Some smaller percentage of people that just don't care.

-Chris

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-Chris

If you stop paying for your "license" then they will repossess the goods - likewise - if you stop paying for your "rental" they will prepossess the goods.... what's the difference?

The biggest difference is that if you have a "lease" and you continue to make your payments, you have the right to maintain that until the termination of the period of time of the lease. A license however, can be terminated by the owner (SC) at any time at will.


not true. You will incur a cost – even though it is small – every single year.


I disagree. Didn't you trade in some discs you had purchased for credit? So you handed them something that you no longer had to pay for, in trade for something that you now have to pay for every year.

The difference is, my initial expense was a one time "purchase" that I do not have to ever return.


That may be true on your initial rental, but I can imagine if they ever start actually producing music again, that new music will not be covered by the current agreement and I will bet you the price will go up.



I believe it was also Mr. Harrington that said the Las Vegas attorneys had that matter "well in hand" just a couple of days before sound choice got "the boot."

You are free to believe whatever it is that makes you feel better.

You forgot one:

4) Most legal KJ's aren't interested in hearing more whiny propaganda.

I pick number 2 and 4

I'm not going to have any payments. It's a Peppercorn clause. That's the point.



Your belief that SC can just decide one day to change their mind and demand my discs back is incorrect. Now. If I break the terms by pirating, copying or otherwise stealing the music...that is a different story. I have no plans to do this however.



. OK, I will concede that the worst case scenario is $30. I think I can handle that. 20 minutes work at a single gig.



I was offered retail price for discs I bought on eBay. I actually made a profit, further reducing the overall GEM cost. In fact the profit I made on those discs will cover my potential $30 annual fee for over a decade.



I will never have to return my GEM discs. I could pay $30 a year for thirty more years (LONG after they are obsolete) and still not pay as much as you have for your precious "ownership". I have use of the songs for as long as I like, for half what you paid. "The difference" is that my discs are still making me money while yours are rotting in your basement. And I am the fool?

Too many people romanticize their discs. These are not antiques, real estate or vintage cars. They are not investments that one day you will sell for big profit. They are not heirlooms that will stay in your family for generations. They are simply karaoke songs to use in my business. I can use them for as long as I like, for half the price of "ownership".



Any potential new music SC may or may not produce has ZERO to do with my GEM set and license.



I am free to continue to use the best base set in the business, for as long as I like, for half the cost of purchasing obsolete CD+G's. It's a no-brainer.

Didn't a poll on here say about 50% wouldn't come back to a place that didn't have Sound Choice?....... Chasing away half of your customers doesn't sound like a good business practice.....

not necessarily JR, how many singers come on to this forum?
your average everyday singers do not, those singers that do have their own library of discs anyway and would bring the requested SC disc with them, and if they wont sing because it is not SC, they are not singing for the fun of it, but to come make a one man show of it.

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

I am so tired of seeing this crap that you can't run a gig without SC and CB. I know a few hosts here that have NO SC and only a few CB discs, and use DK, SGB, SPC, Pioneer, MM, All Star, Party Tyme, and other brands, and have perfectly successful shows for YEARS!! SC and CB are not the end all be all of the karaoke world. I don't even think Chartbuster is even that good. Sound Choice isn't perfect, either.

People around here aren't dependent on brands. I have had exactly 1 person ask for Chartbuster. I already told y'all about that. I have to say that CB's version of Gimme Three Steps is terrible.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I don't think anyone stated you couldn't run a successful show without certain brands, however good quality music does in fact attract better quality singers. The lesser brands typically resemble the songs but with no real quality usually which attracts the stereotypical 'karaoke' singer that may be no better than avg.

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

And 5) KJ's are reluctant to provide any additional information because many provided KAPA and simliar "organizations" (<---- ha ha) information faithfully for many months until it became apparent the organization didn't really seem to exist and that any additional efforts on their parts would be another waste of effort.

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

Only a fairly small percentage of singers know the difference between manu's or that the music we play isn't really created by the original artist/s. Trust me, as many years as I have been involved in karaoke, my guess is certainly less than 20% - and that's being generous. Statistically speaking, your 50% statistic - I guarantee that it based on a sample that is not acceptable according to legitimate statistical methods.

What we have learned in this forum is simply that CB, PHM & SC are the most reliable manus - and that's what makes them the "Best". Other manus are just as good (and sometime better) at most of their renditions, it's just that SC/CB/PHM have a better % of their songs that are what we consider to be acceptable.

Using other manu's is perfectly acceptable - as long as you use an acceptable version of the song (and that's the hard part). You just have to have a standard operating procedure for evaluating songs and replacing the ones that aren't good renditions with other versions. There's a lot of songs we all have multiple versions of!

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

Personally, I like the average singers better than the really good ones. The average singers come out to have fun and drink. The really good singers think they special and should be treated that way.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Please do not write such GENERALIZED and INSULTING comments like that!!!

I consider myself to be a really good Singer (not an American Idol contender, but nevertheless, really good). I have NEVER thought or acted like I was special, and I have NEVER asked for special treatment!!! Those that know and have met me here on this forum could vouch for that. The most I have ever asked for was to play from my discs, and considering how many other singers (good or bad) do that as well, it's not what I would consider to be anything special.

That in itself is stereotypical thinking. Good singers come out and spend just as much and party just as much - however the difference is - they are actually nice to listen to the entire night. As opposed to the screamers & the off key singer on the longest songs they can find.
I also have seen some of the worst singers nurse Cokes or get waters/coffee all night & complain about others singning "their" songs. It goes both ways.

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

You've just described me to a tee. I've NEVER had more than a tiny percentage of either label, and have been successful for decades. As a matter of fact, I KNOW that it's the host that creates it's own monster. Those who are brand dependant have TRAINED their singers to be comfortable with just that brand. They stuck themselves, and no longer have enough confidence in their own abilities as hosts to branch out.

If one truly believes losing any particular brand of karaoke will make a serious impact on their show, one might consider re-inspecting their hosting skills, improve where needed, grow a set, and make the show dependent on the HOST, as it is supposed to be. If not, then there is no reason for a venue to hire you over anyone else, or pay you more.

I carry a lot of different mfrs. discs, and the diversity is one of the draws of my show. We have brand dependent KJ's here as well, and the major complaint is that the singers, having tasted diversity, are not thrilled with the 1-2 brand KJs- leaving me with a BIGGER piece of the pie.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

I have seen this Brand vs Host debate many times over. It amazes me how narrow people's view is on this.

It seems to me that many here feel that what applies in their particular 10-20 mile radius around where they live and host is EXACTLY the way the rest of the karaoke universe is like when that could not be further from the truth.

Just like China is different from the US which is different from South America, you will find that karaoke hosts, singers, expectations and tastes will vary widely from geography to geography as well.

Karaoke in the Dallas area is different from SoCal is different from Seattle. There are even big differences in karaoke between Seattle and "The Eastside" which is the area east of Lake Washington.

To say that in ALL areas, that pulling Sound Choice should not have an impact is to ignore that Sound Choice is the predominant manufacturer available in that area.

We all know that a great host can more than make up for a song selection that is lacking, but it also works out that a great song selection can help out an average host. Not to mention, how many "great" karaoke hosts are out there anyway? I only know of a few hosts that I would call great in 20 years of doing karaoke. The vast majority are adequate to pretty good. I consider myself to be nothing more than an adequate host and know that anyone I hire will likely be "better" at hosting than I am. I happen to be perfectly fine with that.

With respect to everyone here, what we do is not rocket science.

For those that run with zero Sound Choice, come do my show, and see how much explaining you have to do. Sure, after a while you can wean the singers off to other brands, but you will shed a lot of singers in the mean time.

For those of you in the southern part of the US, pull all of your Chartbuster tracks and watch the country singers start going elsewhere.

Also, for those of you that have been in business for years and years and have "regulars", try hosting in a downtown metro area where the "regulars" only come in once a month and 90% of the singers you have are brand new people every single week.

There is no one size, fits all model, that works for all hosts in all parts of the US. Otherwise we would all charge the exact same rate, have the exact same songs, and do things the exact same way.

-Chris

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-Chris

The mechanics of running a show might not be rocket science but the intangibles like reading and relating to the crowd and keeping up their spirits and the momentum are things that may come naturally to some but have to be studied and learned by others. A person can land in a well populated bar and just ride the crowd momentum and people will tell you how great or fun you are. But it is when you have those discouraging slow nights or when no one wants to sing or your baby boomer crowd just got replaced over night by 21 year old obscenity spewing pukers who just want the juke box on and please leave that you realize your strengths and weaknesses as far as hosting abilitites.

I actually like the adrenaline of the multi-tasking (we are disc so there is alot of it) but I don't think that the people part is easy at all. More power to the hosts who have that party mentality/high emotional IQ thing going for them. We have gotten used to name calling shows with the great influx of hosts the past few years. The entertaining put on a show host is more of a rarity and the host who can entertain without being obtrusive is even more rare and not something that even rocket science could quantify.

Oops--back to SC. Our show has a certain personality. We do strange things for humor sometimes and we like to foster dancing. Our singers may not be brand conscious but they do notice when things "aren't right"--especially the guitars. When you get a really good track that invokes the feeling of the original then the feet hit the dance floor. Now sometimes we get lucky--our $2 close out Legends Billy Idol gets them going--but in general it's the SCs--both the songs that are available and the execution--that have the right feel for dance floor excitement. The show might not live or die by them but they do enhance what we are tyring to do.

Well, Kurt is in the digital music content business/entertainment business. If I were him and I were in Seattle, I would try and hook up with a rather well-known softare company in Redmon that makes things like Xbox and Kinect. He might be able to collaborate with them on secure streaming and content storage techniques, and might also be able to collaborate on new karaoke hardware ideas.

but we are not talking about song selection, we are talking about "if you don't have this brand, go f@#k yourself i will go elsewhere."

just as an example, have you heard the 3 Doors Down SC stuff? has that engineer ever used a compressor before? The chorus is literally 4dB quiter than the verses.....the part where you are to sing louder the music gets quieter. I use the PHM, it is actually singable.
And do we really need to discuss the CB Skynyrd disc?
SC is not god, CB is not god, no brand is. how many people would rather sing off of Pioneer laser disc with the horribly cheesy videos (that i kinda dig for their cheesiness) instead of an SC version because it is dead on musically?

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