Karaoke Forums

I've seen many people on this forum state that they only buy downloads for requested artists or only buy custom cdgs. This makes good business sense for the kj since you only buy what is needed instead of a CDG full of songs that may not get sung. I think there is a flip side to this coin though. Suppose there is a song which isn't really requested a lot and that if only available as an individual song probably would not make enough money for the manu to make it worthwhile. Throw that song on a regular monthly compilation disc and the cost to make that track can be shared with the other tracks that more people want (and therefore buy the cd for).

I wonder if our cost cutting measures will also result in no-one making the obscure tracks anymore?

Oh and thank-you sunfly for Derringer's Real American and also Tito & Tarantula's After Dark (from 'From Dusk Til Dawn') It took a while but these tracks eventually made in onto their Most Wanted line (downloaded for one rig, waiting on CDG for second rig)

- Jonn

I agree. But the bigger problem is that when the majority of karaoke hosts start stealing their music, even the most requested songs will no longer be made available. It is clear that this is what we are beginning to see.

Classic, your reasoning about legal downloads is incorrect.

The songs that are downloaded MORE, make up for the songs that are downloaded less.

There is not less money in digital downloads, but more. Licensing is only paid for the songs that are downloaded, not discs sold. There is no disc, there is no disc case, or printing, so expenses are less. In addition, your product is instantly available to the people who are looking for it, which means that even the "less popular songs" will probable see more play than if they had been one song available as part of a compilation disc.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Soundchoice and other music publishers have only one entity to blame -- themselves.

The digital music revolution has been obvious for over a decade, and they have DONE NOTHING to move with the times.

If they, RIAA, and the artists had half a collective brain, they would have offered a subscription service whereby their collections were made available for legal use based on a per-month or per-gig fee.

In addition, even after they supposedly started offering downloads the people who paid for the downloads had far less convenience than the downloaders. Plus, they crippled the BPS too, so the quality was lower!

They try to cling to the past where they pressed vinyl. And then blame everyone else.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

If they couldn't get around ancient laws that didn't foresee digital and didn't allow what you want, what would you have them do?

There *are* no laws. The "law" they claim is their own terms and conditions on the copyright contracts they sign. ("Them" being the music industry and artists in general.) If the industry created a common practice and adhered to it, there would be your law. Instead they spend all their money getting lawyers to write tens of thousands of individual contracts.

They have spent their money trying to sweep up the desert, i.e. enforce an unenforceable policy. There is no excuse for failing to address the digital rights issues. The 7-year attempt to sue little people into compliance was stupid and shortsighted. And now they continue that strategy instead of working on changing overall industry policy.

This is a *powerful* lobby that has enabled the RIAA to run roughshod over people with congressmen running interference. If it had worked to change law and policy, things would have gotten done. Instead they used that political capital to do stupid things like browbeat universities into putting in firewalls and force ISPs to cave to information requests. What do they have after spending hundreds of millions on that? Diddly-do-dah.

Can Sound Choice itself get it done? Of course not. But refusing to speak out and condemn the industry itself for its pigheadedness is being part of the problem.

I have nothing against Sound Choice. I have spent a couple thousand dollars on their music, and I like what I have gotten. But it is ridiculous that they want to cripple everything they do. They sell everything but MP3+G, which is exactly what people want. And I know what they are refusing to do -- it is the same thing the industry is refusing to do. They want to sell 8 filler songs for every two hits they sell. Nope, ain't gonna happen. The world will not go back to the 1970s, I don't care how much they wish it would.

Does their current strategy make sense for them? Maybe. It makes sense to try and maximize return on the investment they have already made, since it seems they don't think they can continue to make it. But people here pitching and moaning about pirates is going to do exactly nothing.

And tell me how Chartbuster is continuing to make music willy-nilly? They are releasing 20 times the amount of disks Sound Choice is. Their strategy appears to be different, and I would argue they are becoming the new face of karaoke. Are they musically as good as Sound Choice has been? No, probably not. But they are putting out titles.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I think downloads and custom CDs result in MORE not less "rare" or specialty songs getting made.

The company that relies most on downloads/customs is SBI and they have far more unique tracks than other companies.

One problem with the karaoke industry is that most of the songs out there can be bought from 5-10 different companies. But a lot of songs that singers may know have never been made.

If downloading was more the normal way songs are bought, then a company would know that they could sell more of a song for which they were the sole company that makes it than one made by 5 other companies.

Sure some versions out there are horrible, and another company needs to come out with a second "better" version. But there is not the need in the industry for 120 or so CDs with "Love Shack" according to the song search, from about 30 different companies.

In stead of another remake of a song a few more unique songs would be appreciated by KJs and singers.

Good point about SBI and some of their more unique tracks. I guess I was thinking that it must cost a set $ amount for session musicians to recreate the track and then a bit more to make the graphics file. (Takes me around an hour a song to get the wipes on time and then the lyrics arranged nicely on screen if I'm making my own.) I think there is a certain fixed (ish) production cost per song before the per-unit licensing. Downloads and customs simply highlight the return on investment on an individual song basis rather than a per disc basis.

Of course maybe a good manufacturer will deliberately lose money on making a less popular song to keep someone as a customer.

As for multiple love-shacks, I guess each manufacturer is hoping theirs is the one you'll buy first!

Jonn