Karaoke Forums

I am not a snitch, I do "investigate" on my own but the difference with me is, if someone is not legal, I help them to understand that being legal is easy and cheaper than they think, I am not a RAT. I never stand on a soap box and act holier than thou even though I have more discs than I need. I despise the vetted who think they are prim and proper when most, if not all were pirates in some way, shape or form, before all the brew ha ha spread. Everyone has a bone or two in the closet my dad says, even KURT, DEREK and HarringBONE. Those bones are falling out almost every day now. Yo EMI, I love you man, I need a job, really!

In the last year or so becoming a legal KJ has become cheaper than ever in the history of karaoke! Staying up to date on new music is cheaper too. That is a fact. It just doesn't make sense to be a pirate. Years ago it was $5,000 just to get a basic collection(that's how much I started with), now you need a credit card and be billed monthly $20 for 25,000 songs. It really is a no brain'r. The lawsuits will dwindle and the manus who's business model is to sue/threaten their way into dollar signs will be a thing of the past. People will not own discs, they will have subscriptions. I would bet my last dollar that once the norm is to have a subscription the price will go up, until then it will be $20+ and there will be a new KJ in your town every week making the old guys (like me with $10k or more in discs) pay for their insolence in days gone by. Present company excepted of course. I would also speculate that in time there will be only one/two legal karaoke manus (probably not USA based or at least licensed) and several illegal ones. Of course the illegal ones will have the songs you need so you WILL buy them, reluctantly anyway.

These times they are a changing, adapt or die. Have you seen a public telephone, have you called directory assistance, printed photos at the pharmacy, do you have a VCR (whatever, your old man get with the times), Do you use, not just own a portable cassette/CD player, buy the TV Guide(we had that every week for my whole time as a kid), Do you run a karaoke show from the CDG's, (you're lame, just sayin' nothing personal, I played one from the disc last night from the Radio Starz Pearl Jam "Hunger Strike" disc because I hadn't ripped it yet) etc. I could go on forever, tech is changing rapidly.

SC is going down, one way or another. They have an awesome selection of classic rock/metal/oldies, their country is barely passable and everything is DATED. They are done. The oldies singers are getting older or being buried (there is always some young person singin' Patsy Cline)every day, they don't pay the bills for bars, young people who party do. If a place caters mainly to old people outside of FL/retirement village they are as done as SC.

So do you like to Snitch/Rat/Tattletale? Or do you like to educate? Are you so afraid of competition that you would rather they were eliminated no matter what the cost/effort? Do you love a scandal? Or do you like happy endings and free will? Were you the first person to submit a Rat request for Piracy Recovery? Or are you the exception to the rule?

I say instead of being a mean old man/woman RAT, help the people you know may be using sketchy material to be legal, it will pay you back in dividends I bet! Karma sucks if you're a Rat.

Would you hire an embezzler? Would you hire a counterfeiter to work in your bank? Yet people seem to think of people who have stolen tens of thousands of dollars worth of music as just uneducated or "so what, everyone does it." There may be a few who didn't know better but I have met too many that brag about it or see nothing wrong with it and too many people who think stealing is a good business practice and people who don't are suckers or pious goody goodies.

There isn't a business on earth that wouldn't be "afraid of competition" from someone operating illegally with a different set of rules. If there was a machine to copy beer and someone opened up across the street from a bar selling 25 cent beers you can bet that bar would be trying to figure out a way to shut them down.

As far as turning in, I don't get around to other shows enough to know for sure who is a pirate but there have been some I've met who were very open about it and extremely arrogant. They also did not limit their activities to competing by undercutting but indulged in smear campaigns, disrupting shows, being drunk, drugged and even violent at their own shows and giving karaoke a horrible name in the area. If they hadn't disappeared when the suits got going I would have turned them in in a second. As for the rest, if I don't know for sure then I would not feel right about naming them as suspects.

Riiight because it's so much better for illegal activities and criminals (not just talking about karaoke here) to continue to steal, kill, feed our kids drugs, than to report it because you don't want to be known as a "snitch" or "rat" or whatever. This is why criminals get away with their crap. If people in their neighbourhoods got together and said enough is enough, report them, harass them so they can't do business, testify so these creeps (can't use the word I want to here) are put away, life would be much better for them. There may be a short term pain for a long term gain.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

If turning in karaoke pirates is such a good thing for business, why do the two manus involved in the legal process, turn a blind eye to crime as long as they have been paid off? When they get their product licensed or subscribed to they could care less about any illegal activity, it ends right there when they get their piece of the action. Using your example they are taking a short term payoff in exchange for long term pain and gain. So why are they any better than a host that doesn't turn in illegal operators?

I would rather they put the pirates out of business, too, because they continue to trade on the contacts they made and the followings they gained from their illegal activities. But I don't consider asking to be compensated for what was stolen being "paid off."

Can I get an AMEN!

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-- Mark

Come on L&L isn't it a bribe to look the other way and not report illegal activity they know is occurring? If you know a crime has been or is being committed and you don't report it aren't you guilty of promoting that crime by your silence. A silence that has been bought for a $99.00 a month subscription.

First of all, I don't like the way you characterize someone who reports a pirate as a rat or a snitch. This isn't the mob. We aren't a bunch of karaoke families trying to corner the sing-a-long market.

It is the legitimate hosts vs. the pirates.
It is those that support the industry vs. those that are undermining it.
It is the people who pay for their music vs thieves.

I have done my fair share of education by speaking directly to a few pirates (all of which essentially laughed at me), writing articles for the local karaoke magazine, and through my blog. The local karaoke community knows who I am and what my position is. I will still write the occasional article or blog entry about piracy/theft, but I don't waste my time with 1-1 education. I have more than enough on my plate already without leading a largely futile effort to make individual pirates see the light.

I will help those who want to help themselves though. If someone comes to me and asks for information or help getting their affairs in order, then I am happy to help. I believe in second chances for people that make up their own minds to reform. Those that wait for the heat to come down can deal with the heat.

I have no problem reporting pirates as a process. I used to report pretty regularly. I generally don't anymore because I don't see any results. If the SC lawsuits aren't enough to scatter and keep the cockroaches away, then me reporting them isn't going to make a difference either. I also don't agree with settling with a pirate and giving them a great set of music as part of their punishment. Why would I report a pirate knowing that if Sound Choice ever gets around to contacting them that they will end up with a GEM set? Why would I wanted stronger competition? I imagine Piracy Recovery, LLC will take the same route - settle for the cost of a Karaoke Cloud Subscription. It is a slap in the face of legitimate hosts. I can hold my own against the pirates without the assistance of the manufacturers.

I would rather run the thieves out of town, put them out of business, then have the karaoke companies subsidize them and allow them to compete more effectively against me.

-Chris

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-Chris

Kill'em all and I'll get all the jobs!

That mentality is why you will rot in hell like Rob Halford. I have never seen anyone arrogant about stealing music. I don't know what ghetto you live in but in the ghetto anything goes. As far as being drunk or drugged and violent, that's reason to dismiss anyway. I don't know unreasonable people, I do know of a few new guys that started recently that I could've turned in but I gave them a good scare and showed them how to get legal easy and they did.

There is always one bad apple and there is always one bully! What goes around comes around.

I do like to hear everyone's opinion, obviously there are two sides to the coin. I chose to turn the other cheek. I don't go to church and sneer at the unfortunate that can't donate as much as I do, or at all, but I see the sneering and whispering every time I go and it makes me sick!

The way you paint things Chris it is black and white. The trouble is in the real karaoke world there as shades of gray and the manus themselves have contributed to this blurring of the lines. Manus have sent the message that as long as you are willing to pay up, they will accept back any hosts with open arms. There is even no need for an audit, only the hosts that tried to do the right thing in the first place have to go through and pay for an audit. I think it is kind of a slap in the face to all hosts that tried to do the right thing in the first place. The problem is with only 5% of the hosts legal, it is more practical to offend this group, and concentrate on the sales to pirates that are 95% of the market. It is not the Mob, but the way things are done they use the excuse "It's nothing personal just business".

I would really enjoy hearing why you think Rob Halford is going to rot in hell. But please try to explain without offending people.



Every pirate that runs a show knowing they didn't pay for much if any of their music is demonstrating some level of arrogance.



Those who go to church but have little to no money to tithe are still demonstrating their time and dedication to their faith. They aren't stealing money from the plate as it is passed around.

I don't make a point of talking about known pirates simply because they aren't worth talking about. I do my best to not mention or promote them at all. But when I do have something to say, I don't pull punches with them. I call them what they are - thieves. They deserve to be sneered at and separated into their own class of low-lifes.

-Chris

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-Chris

the other part to remember is that most of us HAVE reported pirates but i don't think a single one of those reported have been named.

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

That's my favorite part of this entire thread.
And if you think it can be explained without offending people, well; "You've Got Another Thing Comin'."

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KNOW THYSELF

I wouldn't rat anyone out, either. Not worth my time. And who needs the hassle? If the offended party were to find out, all I will have done is caused trouble for myself. No thanks. Protecting Karaoke mfrs is not my business. They should have protected themselves from the get go.

But I would be VERY interested in why one of the best and most respected Metal Singers is going to Hell.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBdbzT9buTY

In 1990 Judas Priest were sued by the family of James Vance, who had shot himself in a suicide pact with a friend after reportedly drinking, smoking pot and listening to Priest all day.

My reference was to be humorous since Beavis and Butthead assumed he was GUILTY, hence "I'll see you in hell Rob Halford". My analogy of assuming "I am OK, You're not OK" The dysfunctional emotional reactions towards the people around you. It comes from a book that was required reading my first year in college. "I'm OK, You're OK" is the name of the book but it covers the mental states of people who mix these terms up ie. I'm not OK, You're OK - I'm not OK you're not OK. I put the I'm OK, You're not OK as reference to how I, IMHO (In My Honest Opinion)see the accusers. The only way I know for sure someone is a pirate is that they have a computer, . Everyone has one and everyone else's stinks, (opinions, butts, or karaoke shows) you decide.

Please laugh at this, not intended to be directed at anyone. Kinda like the Bible, ten different people read the same passage, but come up with ten different interpretations.

One of the major points I was trying to make was that it is so cheap to run a legal karaoke show, WHY steal?

If you have the SBI, Sunfly, CB for 20 bucks total, you only need about 50-100 (just a guess) SC songs to have the missing songs people want to sing, a few I can think of right now are, Gin and Juice, Tyrone, Mother, some Seger, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Def Leppard. I would've added Bon Jovi but the Top Tunes disc covers that just fine. Another way to get a large library cheap is to buy the SCDG set on eBay, I remember seeing them all together for $259 for the DK 1&2 Nutech 1,2,3 CB 1-6 Magic tracks 10,000 songs.

I haven't been here long but if someone has a list of essential SC songs (you can't find on other manu, or the other manu failed miserably) I would love that list! I'll order them from AU on a custom disc, if they still do that?

Too late for that.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

That sucks.

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If you don't have anything nice to say, say it sarcastically!
The Truth often gets in the way of a good story.
Record companies should make every song in a karaoke version and kill the dispute!

I pretty much concentrate on my own show- and it works for me....

I lot my competition charge much less than I do- but I don't lower my prices.

One host charges more- but I don't raise my prices.

Most of my competion have gone to PC- I won't.

I carry maybe 12-18,000 songs, and many of my competitors carry a lot more- but I buy for usage and popularity, not just for bulk.

Other hosts may steal their music- I don't.
Others use MP3s- I still use discs..

Not knocking how anyone else does things- and don't care. I just keep doing what works for MY show.

....And on and on and on..... Concentrating on the constant improvement of one's own show will always better your chances for success- and it's worked for me for decades.

I simply don't care- other than being in touch with up-to-date trends, what the other guy does. I care about what I do.

We all work in public venues. Unfortunately, people like drug dealers, or pimps, or bookies, or whatever will be found in some of them if you've been hosting long enough, and are observant. Simply put, as long as my patrons and the show are not disturbed, they aren't my problem.

When someone DOES become my problem- no matter what they do for a living- I solve the problem.

Cops, whose JOB it is to fight crime can't put an end to all of it- and they do it full time.

I simply don't have the time to devote to playing karaoke cop, even if I wanted to- Nor do I know of anyone I COULD report pirates to that would do anything worthwhile about it.

That leaves the only viable action: Simply concentrate on doing what you do, and working to be better than the competition at it.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

I know several kj's that have bragged to me about stealing their music or downloading it for free - many think i'm stupid because I still pay for mine. Some have even stated so on this forum throughout the years - not talking currently active members.

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