Karaoke Forums

...Had no show tonight and I've been ripping several hundred DJ Music Discs in the last week, when I can. As I was sitting here tonight, while I was editing some of those files, I decided to flip over to some music channels on my Direct TV (MTV, CMT, VH1, BET, etc.) and guess what? I get a video from Mike White (CEO of Direct TV) stating that Viacom wants 30% more for access to their channels and that it's a temporary Black-Out. I thought, Really? I didn't see this coming. Nothing on my bill, no emails, nothing scrolling across the bottom of my TV Screen, no warnings about this.
...Then, I started thinking about the Cloud. What if several Karaoke Manufacturers were to join with the Cloud (currently it's Digitrax). Now let's say you're getting ready to do a nightly/weekly gig (or even just a private event), you get there, set up, log in and all of the sudden one or more of the Karaoke Companies decided to pull their tracks....Ooops! I know, from what we hear, you can temporarily download their library, once a month when you pay, log into their library at anytime, anywhere BUT perhaps, at that particular moment, you have just paid your monthly fees but they didn't tell you about one or more of the Karaoke Companies pulling their library.

...I know there's a lot of talk about offering Legal Karaoke Downloads for the U.S., it's kind of like a tug of war at this point but I do have to question the cloud. I used to have Dish and then went with Direct. A couple of my friends still have Dish and I heard they were loosing some channels awhile back, IDK? But regardless, I sure am happy I have my Karaoke Library on CDG, SD Cards, Mp3 Discs and The Chartbuster HD but have to wonder what would happen if this did happen to The Karaoke Cloud? Not a deal breaker but could frustrate some singers if you didn't have access to certain tracks by certain Karaoke Manufacturers....and who knows for how long... as I keep hearing/watching the video (the video is on auto-repeat) of Mike White (CEO of Direct TV) saying "rest assured both sides will come to an agreement so please ignore any of their scare tactics" Really? Viacom is going to scare me? Why?...but it does kind of sound familiar, doesn't it?

Yep, was using the guide on my directv remote about an hour ago and I noticed the same thing. What a crock to get caught in the middle of this, so you do bring up a valid point, minus one point for the Cloud.

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

When we had the house in MI the only way to get TV was either Dish/Direct or Antenna. We chose antenna since we do not like to pay to rent tv, movies or music. Now we are in an RV and living full-time (at least for the time being). There are some spots around the country that you can hardly get any signal and thats even with dish or direct. Needless to say until we get some electrical things figured out we have opted for awhile to go with Direct and about the lowest tier of offerings available since we really do not care for sports or HBO or Cinamax or Showtime. We don't watch TV all that much except for news to see if WW3 has broken out yet or the weather for Thom to ride his bike back and forth to work. But trust me, as soon as we get figured out whats pulling juice from the batteries we will stop with the renting and go back to antenna only and stop renting to stay in RV parks too.

yup, a bit upset that the Nickelodeon channels are Viacom. with a 3 year old, this sucks.

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

Wow where have you guys been? Direct TV put out that news 3 days ago.

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I like everyone when I first meet them. If you don't like me that's not my problem it's YOURS!
A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet

Don't watch TV every day and I don't watch a lot of those channels, just happened to be browsing the guild and kept seeing the same message on a lot of channels.

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

I kinda realize that but this was national news on many channels.

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I like everyone when I first meet them. If you don't like me that's not my problem it's YOURS!
A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet

What are you doing now? Did you rip your DirecTV dish down and publicly boycott them ?

Or did you just choose to watch something else?

No real choice, locked in. Can't get cable where I am. Suppose I could go to Dish Network, but they suck worse.

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

I've had Dish Network for years and love it. If you do the math, it really is a better deal. After seeing what happened with DirectTV, I'm that much more glad I stuck with them.

Agree. I'll add top notch customer service.

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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!

...Just wanted to respond to some questions:

What are you doing now?
...At that particular moment (this past Saturday Night, I simply turned off the TV and did a search to see what the problem was with DirectTV vs. Viacom.
Did you rip your DirecTV dish down and publicly boycott them ?
...Why would I rip off my DirectTV Dish? I mean, it's not my property, I lease it. I have no anger problems/issues. I have no plans to boycott but I wouldn't mind being compensated, wouldn't you? After doing some research, at different sites, it appears that DirectTV has many customers that are somewhat upset by this and are calling DirectTV, providing other subscribers with phone numbers and getting some type of credits and or refunds.
Or did you just choose to watch something else? [/quote]
Didn't care for watching anything else, just turned off the TV and put on some music. It may seem odd in this day and age but I don't loose it mentally and go off the edge like some people do.

...The point behind starting this thread was what if this happened to the Karaoke Cloud. Let's say you're a KJ that has joined the Karaoke Cloud (access to 60,000 tracks provided by several different Karaoke Manufacturers) and you've sold all of your Physical Karaoke Discs, SD Cards, HDs, etc. You've been a Karaoke Cloud Member for several months now, all is going well. You love it, the singers love it, you pay on time, so forth and so on. On a side note, out of all of those accessible Manufacturers, you primarily use one of them more than the others, perhaps 80% of the time for your shows. Your singers are used to these particular tracks and you personal like them and feel those tracks are the better choices than the others offered.
...You have just recently paid your monthly subscription before heading out for one of your weekly gigs. You get there, set up, singers' request are coming in and you start to play your first track by that favorite Karaoke Manufacturer and you get a notice from the Karaoke Cloud's CEO (just like the DirectTV CEO's video message to their subscribers) that unfortunately there's been a Black-Out by this Karaoke Company. At this point, are you happy? are your singers happy?
...Now, the questions you asked me are directed at you in a similar way but with slightly different wording:

What would you do now? Do you slam your laptop down and publicly boycott them?

Or do you just choose to play something else?

...Just remember, you've been "mostly playing" a certain Manufacturer's Tracks for your singers, they're trained/used to those Manufacturer's Tracks. Now, you're gonna have to play a different Manufacturer's Version. Think they can't see, feel and hear the difference? Of course certain ones won't care but some will and the thought of this happening is not a pleasant one, at least to some Kjs. Mainly because they (your singers) could choose a different Venue with a KJ (disc based or laptop based) that also uses many, if not all of those same favorite tracks that you once had ACCESS to. Not saying it will or would happen but could happen. Of course a person should always read the fine print before signing up for any subscription.
...Please understand, I have nothing against the cloud or technology and am also against any pirating. That should show in many of my past postings.
...By the way, I'm still waiting for my old Viacom Channels to pop back up but from what I've read and seen, neither side is willing to budge. So who knows how long DirectTV subscribers will be without Viacon Channels? Although I very rarely watch TV, I would like to have access to the channels that I'm paying for. However, my 2-year contract ends at the end of this month so I do have other Subscription Choices, if I choose that route...Sorry for the long post, just "food for thought."