Karaoke Forums

Chartbusters AND PHM on one drive for immediate song delivery would be AWESOME!!! The very SECOND I could afford that I would own it. That is EXACTLY how I want to run my shows. I want instant access to the songs I need. That is why I am currently using the UK downloads. If I need a song I can just buy it then and there, and no need to buy tons of redundant songs. Just getting what you need when you need it is the ULTIMATE way to go. Please look into joining with Compuhost.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Thanks so much for the explanation. I assumed that this was a proprietary system developed by Chartbuster. I will look deeper into Compuhost.

If you get your stuff involved in KJMPHD, I will be your best friend. .

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Now that's just plain scary.....

!!! Hey, things get too serious around here. Gotta have some fun.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I know I've already said it, but i want to emphatically repeat I would STRONGLY support ANY manufacturer that decided to license to the KJMP concept. Hell if there were enough karaoke producers involved, I'd even switch to compuhost for it.


-James

I am sorry! I started to let it go, but it is too funny to just let it slide: OK, exactly what is a "tolken"??? It is a TOKEN supplied by J. R. R. Tolkein??? LMFAO

If you get your stuff involved in KJMPHD, I will be your best friend. .[/quote]
Yep, i'd buy Compuhost JUST to be able to use the KJMP!

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

Okay so regarding this Compuhost matter there didn't seem to be much on their website with regard to the token system, so I'll have to contact Compuhost and dig a little further. My impression thus far is that placing an entire library on a Compuhost drive would be nearly impossible from a legal standpoint but I'll reserve my final opinion after I research this a little further.

We have content that is no longer under license in an OSL format and the majority of the content that remains in license is not licensed for hard drive storage and we would not be able to embed that content onto a hard drive without re-licensing these songs. To re-license each song would not only be cost-prohibitive, but would be an administrative nightmare. On the other hand, we could offer the content as "audio only" as the mechanical licenses on the sound recordings do not have an expiration date, nor are they volume specific.

In case some of you might be under the impression that a producer/label can place any of its OSL content on a hard drive and only having to license it after it has been purchased, that is simply not the case at all. Distributing unlicensed content is an infringement whether or not there is an exchange of money.

The licensing game is quite complex and while I'm fairly well versed in the process, there is probably a lot more that I don't know than what I already do know. So with that being said, the only way that I can see this working from a legal standpoint is if Compuhost licenses the content as a "work for hire" or something along those lines. However, there is always the possibility that I'm wrong and there may be solutions of which I'm unaware that is capable of addressing these legalities.

Unless I have COMPLETELY misunderstood the entire concept, I think the cost of each track was covering the fee to licence that individual song, plus maybe a fee for the drive. This is PURE speculation on my part, but I wonder otherwise how chartbuster was able to put their entire catalog on a drive.. It must have been well over 10,000 songs. Anyone who bought a drive have actual numbers?

Maybe if you still have contact info for Greg and Debbie you could ask them how it was done

Drive had right at 12000 tracks. I am certain that Compuhost can provide pretty much any detail needed as it is their concept. From a manufacturers standpoint don't really see much difference in providing MP3+Gs on a drive versus on a CD. They are going to be played back from a drive either way. Compuhost solution at least has the files encoded with the user ID so the source is traceable.

The $199 fee for the drive is paid upfront. Each song you decide to unlock (you tell the system what drive/folder to store it once unlocked) cost $1.50. Not bad if you consider you aren't buying a disk with ten or fifteen songs you might not ever use. CB had a couple specials for whatever reason that dropped the price down to $.60 per song. I jumped all over that.

If you lose the drive, you are outta luck! If you store your song credits on your computer and your computer dies or is lost or stolen, you are outta luck. The drive is about the size of a smart pve ohone gir take and has an asset/serial number affixed to it. When the song is unlocked and shows up on the lyrics screen, there is an id number that shows up on the screen.

Folks at Invicion told me many months ago that they tried to get other manus on board with no luck. To me this is the perfect vehicle for getting my music. Even if Stellar and others don't get on my drive, I will get my money's worth out if it,,,IF I don't lose my credits before digi gets done and up and running with it so I can store my credits online again!

Git er done!!!!

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

I really don't want to speculate too much except to say that somebody had to have a license to either put them on the drive or to sell them from the drive. If the latter is the case then in that scenario the only entity that would have been able to do so in my opinion would be Compuhost. If Chartbuster was able to accomplish this feat (and I have no reason to believe otherwise) then I take my hat off to them. I can tell you that we don't have the administrative or financial resources to accomplish such a task.

BTW . . . who's Greg and Debbie?

The biggest difference is that a Karaoke "Sync" license often times refers to a volume number or volume numbers. A hard drive is considered by some publishers to be a device which have a volume number. I think you can see where this would create a number of problems such as songs being added or deleted from the volume, "favored nations" clauses, etc., etc. On the other hand an MP3+G is volume specific and is fixed.

Who is Invicion? We certainly weren't contacted by anyone representing that company. We have been approached by other companies with similar models but none that go by that name. The main reason that we rejected all of these companies because they never got the licenses that they claimed they would or they wanted us to re-license for their drives. We are presently negotiating with a company that has a hard drive based system that is licensing our tracks BEFORE they get embedded to the drive. They have already launched in test markets overseas and hopefully will become available in the USA by fourth quarter. I can't comment on this any further but I will once they give us the okay on this.

Are the tracks that you unlock portable? Can you copy them to other drives?

I think the best part of this concept for the manus is that each song has to be paid for and unlocked by the software playing it in order for it to work. So even if you loaded your entire library on it, it's all locked - can't be used until it is unlocked by a purchased credit.

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

I agree . . . the concept is very desirable although not unique as similar models have floated around the last few years. The problem is not with the concept but whether or not a producer/label can get the proper licensing to get their tracks onto such a drive for sale, and if not then they would have to rely on Compuhost to license the tracks as they are being sold.

FYI Mr. Bastiat
From jclaydon’s post, “Maybe if you still have contact info for Greg and Debbie you could ask them how it was done”

Mr. Bastiat asked: BTW . . . who's Greg and Debbie?
Ans: Greg Taylor – Sales Manager, Chartbuster
DEBI & Norbert Stovall - CEO(s) Chartbuster

Mr. Bastiat asked: “Who is Invicion?
Ans: Invicion is the publisher of Compuhost Software.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

For the record, Greg works for Digitrax now, and his email is gtaylor@digitraxmail.com I don't think this is breaking any rules, because it is public record.


As for Debbie, my apologies I thought everyone in the karaoke industry had contact with everyone else, altho there certainly wouldn't be a reason to.

Regardless, I had always thought the licensing came from Invicion/Compuhost. That is the only way I could see it as being feasible.

However I'm sure they will be able to give you more details than I could.

If you were the one that had to re-license everything, then yes I can understand how that would be totally unfeasible.

As for the other system, it sounds interesting. Whatever you end up deciding to do, I wish you all the best

There are darn few karaoke produces left in North America.. we need to support them in every way we can as hosts, so that we can continue to have a source of new music.

In my opinion, the laws need to be changed to reflect a fairer system, like the one they have in the UK but that takes money and political cloud, which no one in the karaoke industry really has

The "songs" on a virgin KJMP drive weren't songs exactly. They were altered/encrypted files and unplayable. Only after purchasing one was the song unlocked, unencrypted and copied to your working directory as a playable MP3+G. I am guessing that the line they took was that the songs weren't technically even there until unlocked, so they were not licensed until purchased.