Karaoke Forums

OK, I have one more thing to say. Bazza and Cue have made reference to "renting" to run your business. I'd like to address that. It's about choice!

Cue says if you're doing a construction job, many times you will rent or lease the equipment to get the job done. And that is correct but at least you are given a choice. You can either buy the equipment or you can lease it. The choice is yours.

If you want a new car, you are given a choice to either buy or lease. It's your option.

If you want to see a newly released movie, you are given a choice, you can either rent it or buy the blu-ray. And the list goes on and on.

In the case of the Karaoke Cloud, you are not given a choice. Chartbuster is NOT offering you the option to either purchase discs or subscribe to the Cloud. It's the Cloud only. You have NO choice. It's either our way or no way!

And that's one of the many negative reasons why the Cloud is not an option for me and many others at any price. The choice is yours.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

the new releases could be better with more companies involved. zoom, sunfly, sbi adding trracks will help offset phm not knowing what to do.

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

I am not trying to be evasive on this. I am just saying that without knowing what I will get, I am hesitant to offer an opinion on what I would pay for it.

I have been giving a lot of thought to cloud based karaoke and while I figure it will pretty much all end up there someday, I don't really like the idea of it for Pro KJ's as DigiTrax is suggesting it be implmented. In fact, I am not sure I like the concept of "all you can eat" for the pro KJ at all. I don't see how it can be a money-maker for the Pro-KJ.

Given that I spend on average less than $25/mo (I looked at the last years worth of requests and what I went out to find for customers) then as of right now I would only be willing to pay that much or less.

-Chris

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-Chris

That's about what I used to pay too. And after I payed for them, I owned them. Wow, what a concept!

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Uh... Cue may have made references to "renting", but Cue didn't say....

Cue only made a reference to renting because you (Alan) made the reference first.
Go back and read what Cue DID say.

Cue, in reference to your movie theater example, that is the nature of the business. In this case, you "rent" movies for public showing.

However, karaoke is a little different. We've always purchased and owned the physical media to run our shows. There was no renting. You put together a library consisting of thousands of songs, which you own.

Now, the Cloud wants to change that.

The Cloud, in it's proposed form, is a terrible thing for KJ's. There are too many cons and not many pros. In my opinion, it will only increase piracy. The cloud is NOT the solution we've been waiting for.

Chartbuster's/CompuHost's HD Media Pro is the option that should be re-introduced. It worked! And worked well. That should be the delivery method used. But of course, if it was, the owners of the Cloud wouldn't make all of that money they're anticipating from renting to poor little KJ's.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

I knew you couldn't stand to stay away.



What on earth gives you that idea? Do you really think that EVERY manu on the planet is going to stop selling downloads and discs? I certainly don't.

Why have you refused to comment on Latshaw Systems claim that Digitrax WILL BE OFFERING DOWNLOADS FOR PURCHASE?!

If that isn't a choice, what is?

What an interesting concept...... let's see how that translates to the karaoke biz....



And that is exactly what happens.

I do not disagree.

If by "WE" you mean YOU (Alan), then that's fine and dandy. But as for the "WE" statement, please don't presume to speak for others just because the situation doesn't apply to you. Not EVERY KJ can afford to buy their music to start out. There are MANY KJs that I know of personally, who either RENT a System to use, and/or RENT a Library from a fellow KJ in order to run a show (and have done so for years). And, in MANY other instances, there are KJs who work for other KJs, where they are using the Employer's system and Library (now whether they also set up and break down as well is a different story). So, IN THOSE CASES, the Cloud Service wouldn't change a thing.

Alan, you're arguing with the wrong person here. All I did was bring up a point where you said it DOESN'T HAPPEN IN THIS BUSINESS.... Well, IT DOES. As for my personal desire to use the Cloud Service when it finally comes out, I already stated that it would be highly unlikely I would, because it would NOT be practical in my situation. I am neither For or Against it in the general sense.

One major benefit of the cloud vs the KJMP (I have one). The current KJMP only has CB songs and is only for that.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Right now it's all here-say. I would love for that to happen. Seeing is believing, so I won't get my hopes up until if and when it comes to pass.

Bazza, are you now telling me what I should comment on?

(BTW, good morning Bazza! How are you today? Did you sleep well? Did you feel like you were sleeping on a cloud?

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Ok I posted this on the other cloud poll thread, the more I think about it, the more I think my suggestions is viable and should work for all if not most hosts.


Another possibility is a "rental fee" per song. I rent songs as my singers choose them. That way I don't spend the same as a newbie who hasn't put together a library like mine. To me, that's the fairest way to treat hosts, each of us would have different needs when it comes to song choices. I think 20 cents per song would be a good starting point for debate. This would earn $12 per show if a host had no library what so ever and might only cost me a couple bucks per show. If said newbie had 3 shows per week, it would cost them $156 bucks per month. More shows they have, the more it costs them.



When I said it might only cost me a couple bucks per show, I would change that to maybe a buck on average in my particular case. Again this method tailors to everyone's needs. This should only help curb pirating unless of course someone finds a way to cheat the cloud.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Reading comprehension skills lacking? I didn't tell you to do anything. I asked you why you refuse to comment on something YOU have been screaming for.

Amazon! Amazon! Amazon!

Bazza, you are a funny guy! A little mis-informed, but funny none the less.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

I've stayed away from this discussion because I thought it was premature and there just wasn't enough information available to make decisions regarding whether the cloud service was good or bad or at what price it would be worth subscribing. Based on some information I got, it seems that the price is going to be $99 per month. Now that I have this preliminary information(it could change or it may end up being another price) I can ruminate about what this means to those of us trying to make a living as Karaoke Hosts.

Here's my take. If this $99 per month service is heavily marketed to venues and they adopt it, this would be VERY BAD for Karaoke hosts in general and those who already own large legal libraries. Here's why. The bar says to you "we are only going to pay you $50 per night now since we have access to this large Karaoke library" or whatever nominal amount they come up with since the cost to a bar running Karaoke 5 nights per week would end up being around $5 per night.

They can just hire some random person or college student etc. who just needs a part time job like working at McDonalds. Why pay us $125-$150 per night when they can do it for $55 per night? Bad, bad, bad.

Of course some bars and restaurants will see the benefit of having a talented professional entertainer and will be willing to pay more, but MANY will just see the savings-they won't and don't care that much about quality-they care about how much it costs. Period.

For new hosts just getting into the business who can get themselves 5 nights per week, a $5 per night cost for a Karaoke library is a lot easier than coming up with $5,000, $8,000, $10,000 just to buy music. This means an already crowded field will become even more crowded and this will create downward pressure on hosting fees. It's going to take a few months to a couple of years for this to get fully ramped up so for the immediate future there will still be an opportunity to make a little money before the bottom drops out.

Eventually this will lead to Karaoke jukeboxes and other such devices with no human running the show at all. This could take another 4, 5 or more years, but the trend is to eliminate jobs wherever a machine can perform the same function. Look at how many manufacturing jobs have been replaced by machines. Now, the majority of the jobs are people maintaining the machines and a few loading and feeding the machines. It's just technology marching forward increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

I have one last prediction. I do not believe Sound Choice will be involved initially in the Karaoke cloud service. This is just a hunch.

TouchTunes Internet Jukeboxes already have a karaoke option... and they are now already taking photos as a "photo booth."

http://touchtunes.com/en/bars-home/bars-products/touchtunes-karaoke-bars

There ya go, it might not take 4 or 5 years to replace most of us.

If Sound Choice does participate it will be by using their music company and tracks in the UK. Again, pure speculation and just my thoughts on it.

Some more thoughts. The people who would go out and buy a hard drive for a couple hundo won't likely subscribe for $99 a month and they don't think they'll ever get caught either. I refuse to believe that they don't know that it's illegal, they just don't care. So here's an addition revenue source for the cloud. Litigation of the ones too cheap to subscribe or buy discs.

To say that I am extremely concerned is putting it mildly. I just shelled out thousands to buy discs so I can do this legally and not have to look over my shoulder. I'm sure I can easily recoup my investment and then some over the next year, but I was hoping to build a decent little business that I could do for the next few years and then retire, sigh . . .

Very well thought out. I would agree that the way you have this laid out very well could happen. That's why I like my "rent a song" instead of a day or week or month. The more you lean on it, the more it costs.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]