Karaoke Forums

A lot of you have asked--for years--when Sound Choice would get back to making music.

Some of you have said it would never happen.

We now have an answer for that question: We're starting now.

It's been almost six years since we released the last Sound Choice disc. But that's about to change. The new production program is called Sound Choice Advance. There's lots more information on our website, and if you have questions, I'll be happy to answer as many of them as I can.

Hopefully stuff not already available.

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

No, it will be all-new, never-before-recorded-by-SC material.

I think he means (and what we all want) is that the music isn't available through other labels. In other words, don't release "All About That Bass".

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-Chris

Exactly Chris. Songs not already released in the karaoke realm that probably most kj's already have.

I'm not a fan of how it looks like it's supposed to work. You don't KNOW what you are getting? $30 is quite a bit of money for a possible grab bag of songs depeding on what is being voted on and then not knowing if you are getting 8 or 12 songs on the disc? That is $2.50-3.75 per track which is not out of line (paying $3 for Karaoke Version tracks) but it's the NOT knowing what we'd be getting is the part that is pushing me away.
Should have the votes in FIRST, then narrow them down to the top 12 kj requests - THEN put their feelers out - and manipulate the song list from there.

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

Understood. We'll be making an effort to steer away from stuff that's been done to death, and away from gimmick tracks.

The word ‘advance’ in its truest form. I’d like to see SC to be the first in releasing new songs (especially American artists). Not download from the European market first before us here in the u.s.

At any rate, this is great news! Thanks, Mr. H.

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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!

Sort of more to that point, since this will be delivered electronically, we're considering allowing you to defer your credits to later releases. In other words, if you don't like everything in the first album, you could take part of it and defer your choices to the next group of releases.

If we made that change, would that help?

Are you trying to get your prospective customer base to decide which financial format is going to work for you best? Doesn't "advance" really mean "pay in advance?"

Golly Wilbur, I just can't see a whole lot of karaoke host taking a chance on sending you their hard-earned money, so that you can promise them something they might like – for the future.

Remember the old days when karaoke host used to hand in their money and pay for the discs on the spot? You know that still happens today, and the tracks are delivered "electronically" usually within minutes. Without a bunch of filler tracks that nobody needs or wants.

I'm very surprised that with the thousands of dollars in settlements that you claim that you are raking in from pirates, along with the $200 per month Help license fees, you can't produce a single disc?

And it has come to my attention – from more than one source – that apparently you folks are way behind in your certification process. There are KJ's that you have taken money from to perform an audit – months ago – and you have still not completed the process. If you can't perform an audit in any reasonable amount of time, how can anyone actually believe that you're going to produce music in the near future?

And now you expect KJ's to hand you money to produce something on what time schedule?

Well who would have guessed that Chip would have something negative to say? (perhaps it was the years of beating the crap out of Sound Choice that should have tipped us off?)

Here comes the FUD.....

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-Chris

Hey, cut him some slack. He's having a tough summer. First the Sony/EMI litigation was settled, in the process confirming what I said all along about the GEM series (note that it's still available). Then we got publisher participation and endorsement in the HELP licensing program. Now we're headed back to production, proving his predictions wrong again.

It must be tough for him to be so consistently wrong.

Sadly for him, we have other stuff in the pipeline, too.

(Oh, and Mr. Staley, everyone who's paid for their certification application has been at least provisionally certified and has our permission for media-shifting. As for Advance, if you had bothered to move beyond your reactionary "Curses! Foiled Again!" response and read the information provided, you'd see that there is a very specific timetable for delivery, and that if we don't perform on that schedule, our customers get a refund.)

I know that it's popular in this day and age to expect instant gratification, but we're looking to build something lasting and sustainable. We're trying to do this very carefully, in a way that allows us to build a respectable catalog that is substantially less susceptible to piracy. If you want to be a part of that...$30 seems like a small investment to me.

Well that's because Jim is right, Chip is obsessed with SC. For someone who doesn't use it, it sure takes up a lot of his time. In the police world, it would be considered as a type of stalking and harassment. It reminds of of people who can't take rejection from their exes.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

To get things started, i would be willing to risk $30.

However, once things got going if there was some way to be able to recieve credit to use for the next release or -dare i dream it - actually be able to pick the songs we want to recieve electronically, then i would be all over that

I do like lonman's suggestion tho. In fact, you could expand on it. Start with a list of possibilites. Have people who are eligible vote and post the top results. THEN take reservations/money to submit a second vote and the results of that second vote are what will go into production.

You should take the list of possibilities from requests that people have submitted to the PEP site, that you would be able to get licensing for.

Sort of like a triple check system to ensure that the tracks produced are actually music that your customers want.


-James

Just makes more sense to have voting BEFORE pre-ordering so we at least have an idea of what might be going on the discs.

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

For the record, we've been taking requests on our site for about six months now, and we've had suggestions from about 500 individuals, most of whom requested more than one track. We'll whittle that down based on licensing we have/can get, along with other considerations. I wouldn't have a problem publishing that list before the close of reservations, if that helps.

I think that would be a major start, Once you get it whittled down to say 30 or 40 songs, put that list out for everyone to vote on those songs, the top 12 licensable tracks will be what will be released first., then the next disc - same thing with the remaining tracks that were voted on down the line - lather, rinse & repeat.

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

Don't forget some of the great Canadian hits that even made it in the US. A couple of older ones, "I'm A Stranger Here" by The Five Man Electrical Band and "She Ain't Pretty" by The Northern Pikes", and so so many others.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

EDITED BELOW

I have already suggested "I'm a stranger here" by the Five Man Electrical band. that has been something I have been requesting for YEARS to every single karaoke producer in existence!! I hope that isn't one of the tracks they can't license. I would strongly encourage anyone who is thinking of voting/buying to vote for this song. and I will vote for one of yours.. *lol*

I also submitted requests for Trooper. Yes Karaokemker had released a disc, but it is EXTREMELY hard to find. I have come accross KJ's willing to pay up to $200 for that disc.


Unfortunately licensing may be an issue for Trooper because the main barrier to the original producer making more copies was that the copyright holder TRIPLED the price they wanted for the sync rights

A venture with much of the same diversity in requirements as before, but with a drastically reduced customer base, and a process that, from what I can gather, would ADD steps and input sources to a process that, as many have testified on this forum in the past, was already slow in comparison to other manufacturers, and has only quickened in the Internet age...what do you all think of THIS formula?


*** DISCLAIMER:

Before making a "Negative Nancy" observation, consider this:

Everyone loved to experience the "Rah Rah Siss Boom Bah" Steve Jobs moments when new products came along, but the real meat of the growth of a product comes when the public voice the downfalls of an offering...the key is in how these observations are received...