Karaoke Forums

I am on the mailing list for a couple of local entertainers and they send out emails regularly reminding everyone where they will be at in the near future. I just got one this weekend and as part of his email he mentions that he will not be using Sound Choice Karaoke tracks any more. I haven't been to one of his shows in a couple of years. I know he's been hosting Karaoke for a long, long time and has a couple of pretty high profile venues and a decent following.

I remember from a couple of years ago that he had a big song book. From what I've seen, the bigger the book, the more likely they are using pirated tracks. Now before you jump on me, I'm not saying he is using pirated Karaoke music, I have no idea, but the cost of having 100,000 tracks or more is beyond what most people can invest even over many years. So, what may have prompted this is either someone in the business visited him and told him about hosts being sued all over the country and he decided to head them off at the pass, OR, he has just been served papers by Sound Choice. I'm speculating, I don't know what happened..

I know that quite a few people were sued in this area in the beginning when Sound Choice started doing it and quite a few in the State of Florida were sued. Maybe Sound Choice is making a second pass through this area? It seems there are a lot of hosts using pirated Karaoke tracks in this area still, from what I can tell.

If this guy has already gotten caught and has decided to stop using Sound Choice tracks, then it seems like he decided to close the barn door after the horses have already gotten out. I don't know the situation, I'll be talking to people as I go out around town to see if there is any word on the street about this . . .

He may well be a pirate, but keep in mind that we owned all of our music -- and had spent thousands of dollars in Sound Choice discs, and dropped the brand entirely. Not everyone drops the brand because they don't own it. In our case, dropping the brand served two purposes:

1. It kept us and our venue safe from unwarranted litigation; and
2. It made a strong statement that we refuse to support a company that would bite the
very hands that have fed it for the last 15 years.

Plain and simple.

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Birdofsong

He may very well have every disc for every sound choice song on his laptop, I have no idea what happened. I'm curious to find out-don't know if I ever will . . .

I know he has a guy working for him with a second rig at other venues.

You know, I hear things about the industry from people I happen to know....

The whole piracy litigation "well of cash" is fixin' to go dry for Sound Choice & Chartbuster.

Watch.

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

Troyvind27 can you elaborate? I'd like to hear more about what you have to say and what you know. Thanks

I can't give any details other than it's coming!

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

If this is true, it will be a happy day. Not for any other reason than who really wants to be watched when you work. I hate that. I ahve always hated that. That is one of the reasons why I wanted to start this endeavor. I was tired of having a boss looking over my shoulder. I find it even more offensive to have some vendor looking over my shoulder.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Personally, I appreciate any efforts to put an end to piracy. However, what they ended up doing was screwing the hosts that diligently purchased their music by flooding the market with their music at a fraction of what we paid for it, then they enable rival KJs by providing financing for new music to the same daggum pirates that have already been screwing us for years, and then they have the nerve to file lawsuits first and ask questions later. And not only that, I steadfastly disagree with including venues in their lawsuits "off the bat". This has further deteriorated the market for legitimate karaoke hosts.

In other words, the manu's - by virtue of their tactics, have cost me many thousands of dollars - probably much more than pirates have cost me over the last 7 years or so.

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

And now they want to Cloud the business even further. It's all about them, and to hell with the hosts. Typical business model.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Ok, I went back and took a look at the email I received and here is what he said, "I have chosen not to have Sound Choice CDG's in my show collection although I have hundreds of original disks. I will play your original disks with no problem

I don't know what prompted this, but I think he must have been contacted by Sound Choice. Otherwise why would he have put that in his emails to everyone? Or another KJ that he knows got sued and it put a bad taste in his mouth. This didn't come out of nowhere, there is a reason he put that in his most recent email . . .

Lets say an investigator went to his show. He gets contacted by Sound Choice and is told, "we had an investigator at your show and they observed the Sound Choice logo on the big screen TV at the bar. We want to audit you to make sure you have original discs and the cost is $xyz." He says, "I have 300 original Sound Choice discs that I purchased over the years. I spent over $5,000 on those discs and I'm not paying you a dime to be audited, you can kiss my a$$". Sound Choice says, "ok, we will see you in court". Who knows? Maybe instead of telling him they wanted to audit him they just filed a lawsuit?

Hence the fact that people ARE dropping the brand. Why should people put themselves in jeopardy, and why should they be forced to pay extra to get audited? I know some here would say "what's the big deal" or " what are you hiding?", but there are people that do not want SC in their lives and do not want to jump through hoops. As for the post investigative audit being $500, I still say the burden of proof is on SC not the KJ. The KJ should not have to pay $500 for doing his job, regardless of what an inspector thinks he saw.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

In the Florida Middle District Court,
Soundchoice filed suits against these people individually last week:
Norma Dunn
Ken Flietstra
Jack Jeffrey Hall
Jeffrey Levy
Myrtle Masten
Jeanne Newton

They filed against these last month:
JRMZ Enterprises, Inc
The Salad Werk's, Inc.
Il Mio Sogno, LLC
Two Joe's, Inc.

Any of those names look familiar?

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KNOW THYSELF

I believe SC was just recently in the Tampa area and filed new suits. Why this gentleman decided to not use their music remains to be seen. Most hosts in my area that were named years ago have simply ignored SC and have went on business as usual. Surprisingly, I have had a few venues call me recently inquiring about the legalities of karaoke etc. Someone has obviously opened their eyes to the ramifications of using illegal hosts.
The state of Florida, as most know, is slammed full of pirates still to this day. SC has hit the lottery here and is feasting huge. The area is so concentrated with piracy they dont have to cast out to far to reel in another one. Hopefully their continued efforts will make at least a dent in the piracy epidemic down here.

To the OP, I currently live in Naples and I would agree that it is less congested than Tampa/St. Pete area. We are below the frost line so it is indeed warmer here during the winter. I grew up in Tampa/St Pete area and loved it back then(25 years ago)
It has changed drastically since then but still is ideally located and so much more is there than when I was a kid.

I also lived in the North Port/Venice area too for about 5 years. Must have been in the late 80's early nineties. Wasn't much going on then either. Had a great Italian joint right off Hwy 41 called "Little Italy" that had killer pizza and good food. It closed down years ago.

Did I mention I was born in Buffalo, NY. It's a small world isn't it?

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified

So I wonder.....

If I send out an email to a bunch of local KJ's saying I enjoy Sound Choice material and prefer it over other versions and I am dropping all of the discs from vendors that duplicate my Sound Choice selection.....does it counter this guy dropping Sound Choice?


btw....let that guy I will be happy to buy his Sound Choice discs if he isn't going to use them

-Chris

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-Chris

Or he say s - I don't have any of those discs and is trying to pull them after the fact. Until you know more, it's all speculation.

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

Absolutely Lonman, I have no idea at all what happened. Earthling I don't recognize any of those and I even wonder if they may all be from Tampa and the Orlando area which is not in my area at all. I certainly don't know all of the Karaoke hosts even right here in my area, in fact I only know a couple. But thanks for posting that, it makes me 100% convinced that I'm doing things the right way.

Buying all the discs to have a legal library is expensive, but not having to worry about being sued is priceless.

If Sound Choice ever has the $3,000 GEM series deal like they had a few months ago I will be on it like white on rice OR if I can buy a large Sound Choice collection for a reasonable price(cheap), I'll do it. If it means being subjected to an anal probe to get certified I'll do it because I know that all of my library is legal and I own all of the discs.

I don't think they go quite that far.....

It looks like the last SC raid was in the New Port Richey, Fl area, which is close to Tampa. I'm sure kjAthena knows of them.

I sure know about them as Queen says "another one bites the dust...and another one gone.. and another one gone... another one bites the dust ...hey they gonna get you too another one bites the dust"

KjFlorida

*sigh*
wish it would happen in AZ, how much more are you now able to charge for shows there?

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