Karaoke Forums

But Vinnie wants it

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

Not much you can do there... They are a very good deal at $25.00 for 100 tracks and the tracks are popular ones that get used a lot.

I'm sorry to sound like a nag... I just prefer having a DISK backup from the manufacturer selling digital tracks.

I just came across another SC post from another forum debating over the cost of tracks.

I'm beginning to think that there are still many KJ's out there that have "no clue" so please if anyone else can back me up on this would be greatly appreciated.



I understand that paying $2.00 for a new song... I agree 100% but when it comes to older tracks from 2010 and under... why why why...?/?

Because you still to pay hundreds to thousands for a bunch of junk that will never get used driving up the cost per track on the ones that are actually needed

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

I'll pay $2.00 for a requested track regardless of when it was produced. In 2017 I purchased quite a few tracks that were produced as karaoke years earlier and were originally produced as non-karaoke decades earlier.

By paying $0 per track for the tens of thousands of tracks I don't need I have saved quite a lot of money.

There is generally no correlation between when a song is produced and its value to a karaoke library; if anything, most of the newer songs have less value because they have less proven staying power.
The older songs that are still requested have proven their value.

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KNOW THYSELF

because in order to get the cheaper price per track i have to buy a collection of duplicates.
then my cost per NEEDED track is significantly higher.
buying just the songs i need at $2 each saves hundreds at the least.

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

And also the cost of the GEM today is $7500 for 6000 songs, breaking that price down to $1.25 per track. Say even HALF those tracks will get used, raises it up to $2.50 per track and wasted on the others.
Now go buy full libraries of other manufacturers, sure you might be able to get them for $.50 per track, but with massive duplication of what you already have raising the price per unique track - and say out of the those uniques, only half of those would actually get used. So no the cost per track instead of $.50 is now over $3 per.
No one is impressed with big libraries and having everything just because you can get them cheap - and honestly MOST of those full libraries are out dated as far as having everything available (which they never would come close, even every manufacturers bulk buy combined), sure they still get used, but if you want current or new back catalog stuff, you still have to buy on a per song basis. I will gladly pay $2-3 per track KNOWING it will get used at least once. Myself I only have a little over 21K unique tracks over 25 years of buying. But I still get told all the time I have songs that Joe Blow down the street doesn't even have, and he has over 500,000 tracks.

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

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

Wow! Either that guy is the smartest businessman on the planet for being able to affordably acquire 500,000 legal tracks and still earn a profit from his business, is the dumbest businessman on the planet for investing large sums of cash he'll never see a return on, OR most if not all of his tracks were acquired illegally. Hmmm ... call me crazy, but I'm thinking it's the latter.

I can never or may never see it possible to acquire even 100,000 tracks in my lifetime as a pro kj. but when the SC Gem was offered at year end sale for $3000 (50 cents /track) many should have jumped on it. (6000 tracks and at least 2500 tracks are requested by singers @ 2.00/track that's $5000.00 I save there

eBay still has those CB SD card sets for approx 15 cents/track. Once they are gone... that's it. (4500 tracks at least 400 of those tracks actually get requested by singers @ 2.00/track that's $800 I save there)

there are still DK 2 disk sets available at $25.00 per disk. totaling approx 5 cents per track... Once they gone, they gone.... (1800 tracks approx 400 of those tracks get requested by singers @ 2.00 per track is $800.00 I save there)

There are still Zoom / MRH 100 MP3+G disks listed on ebay for 30 cents per track... one they gone, the price will eventually go up (at least 30 songs from each disk will get requested by singers @ 2.00/track x 20 Disks = $1200 I save there)

In total if I was to individually pay $2.00 per track for each singers request it would cost me $7800.00 in total with no extra songs.

At present I have in my digital library with well over 14000 tracks for just under a $5000 total investment.

Heck the Pop Hits Monthly disks I picked up for $25 per disk totaling over 1200 tracks, I get at least 300 of those tracks requested @ 2.00 = $600 in savings also.

That's a total of $2400 in savings for tracks that singers request averaging approx 4300 tracks and still have over 9,000 tracks available for free.

(Keep in mind at least 8000 of these tracks are dated from 2011 and under) so I still continue to purchase new tracks to accompany new singer requests.

Back office:

* SoundChoice Gem set = 6000 tracks $3000
* Chartbuster 1-10 SD card set = 4500 tracks $700
* DK SCDG 2 Disk set = 1800 tracks $50
* PHM Yearly mp3+G disks = 1350 tracks $75
* Zoom / MRH 100 MP3+G disks = 2000 tracks $500
* Karaoke Party Pack Vol 2 Super CD+G = 1234 tracks $50
* Karaoke Party Pack Vol 3 Super CD+G = 1234 tracks $50
* Karaoke Super CD+G DVD Supercore = 388 Tracks (Multiplex) $25
* Nutech Digital Karaoke Super CD+G Elvis Presley Karaoke = 419 tracks $30
* Magic Tracks Karaoke 2 Disk Super CD+G set = 1200 tracks $40
* CAVS Chartbuster and Top Hits Monthly Karaoke Update CDs = 1609 tracks $150

So far there is a potential 20000 Tracks available from places like eBay to purchase for just under $5000.00 (bringing total average to just under 25 cents per track.

A true calculation based on the Singers requested tracks is approx 35% = 8700 tracks

($5000 Divided by 8700 tracks = $0.65 cents/track)

If karaoke companies would actually work with the Pro KJ by offering some kind of "Pro Device License" for their entire library what would be a fair price to pay for such a license?

(Considering that an average KJ spends approx $2000/yearly on new music for their systems)

* A One Time Payment Per License Per Month or Year ($999 per year)
* Unlimited New Music Offerings included with each device license.
* Online Backup service for the Digital Music Library

Just a concept but hey if it can be done, I can see approx 100,000 KJ's going for something like this.

What do you think?

I will have to say that even the pirates that have 100K illegal hard drives are paying for new music through the download process. The new method is gradually converting pirates, to a small degree, into paying/buying pirates.

Vinnie's approach is a very wise one in my book. Being legal and having a large affordable library is a very wise decision and removes all the drama of being served papers by a manufacturer.

There still are many singers, and bar owners, that gage the hosts by the size of his library. So having ONLY what the people want to sing may not guarantee your success even if you are a great host.

Very correct on this... If you factor in:

1) Cost of Hard drive (Most likely Larger drives)
2) Cost of a Backup hard drive
3) Cost of Internet (Higher data speed, Higher Download Limits)
4) Your "Time"
(Even when I had those 3000+ CDG disks, takes approx 20 minutes to rip a disk to digital format... I thought about it and started ripping them to hard drive... gave up after 900 disks) Just too much work.

Bastiat > I spent some time the other day listening to the Pop Hits Monthly (Stellar Records) tracks and I must say that they are some of the best quality recordings I've ever heard.

1) Is there an offering anywhere to purchase the entire Stellar Records library (7000+ tracks) in Digital MP3+G format?
2) Is there a complete track listing available?
3) Purchasing options including Hard Drive / Disk backup?

Stellar is out of business now. Only way a hard drive full of Stellar would be legal is if they came with the original discs.

But then again. Stellar being out of biz means they won't sue you for trademark infringement, but still copyright infringement so.... let your conscience be your guide.

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DJ Don

I think Steller is just in a "Hiatus" like Sound Choice. They sill around...

I'm quite happy with my small library of songs that people want to and will sing, adding to it as necessary.

If I felt the need to tout a larger library, I can match anyone else just by adding up everything that is available to me as an instant download and proclaim that I have 100,000 tracks available to sing.

It's not the size, it's how you use it.

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KNOW THYSELF

Earthling, but claiming to have all the songs in the world will only attract very unwanted attention from people you don't want visiting your shows. Then you may have to prove you never had or played those songs. A can of worms in my book.

A hard drive full of Stellar/Sing It Now tracks would be illegal even if it were accompanied by the original discs. Only the purchaser of the discs can make archival copies, not the seller.

Stellar would never sue for trademark infringement. Whether or not Stellar was in business has nothing to do with it. Copyright infringement, well that's another story. Stellar did successfully sue for copyright infringement in several cases. Infringing on Stellar content would be unwise and a sure-fire way to find oneself in deep legal hot water. The Stellar catalog is by no means "freeware".

Not all but many of the "sync" licenses for the content in the Stellar/Sing It Now catalog would need to be renewed if they were to be sold to dealers or consumers as many of those licenses have expired. Some of those tracks may not even be licenseable any more in which case these songs would have to either be reassembled onto other compilations or sold as single downloads.

However Pop Hits Monthly/Sing It Now tracks are still available through retailers. I have seen them available on eBay and while I can't vouch for their authenticity, I wouldn't discourage anyone from purchasing them unless they are blatant and obvious bootlegs. As previously mentioned, none of these tracks are authorized for sale on hard disc either with or without the accompanying original CDs.

If ever I discover that I have masochistic tendencies enough to produce music again for karaoke, it would be on a much smaller scale. (BTW I still do produce music, but mostly original stuff for royalty free bumper music for the podcast market and some EDM, but that's another story). I'd probably only do one disc per month of 9 or so of the hottest songs in the pop, rock, country and urban genres, the original Top Hits Monthly formula. I also have thought about releasing some tracks with multiple arrangements. I don't know about you but I get sick of hearing folks singing the same old arrangement of certain songs. I dunno, maybe the karaoke demographic wouldn't warm up to something like that but sometimes I think it's almost worth a try. I'm fairly confident that there are some hosts that would definitely take a crack at it, but the general karaoke public, I'm not nearly as confident that would interest them. There would have to be multiplex versions of course as a lot of folks wouldn't feel comfortable singing an arrangement they'd never heard before. But hell, who wouldn't want to hear a reggae version of I Will Survive?

Good thing eBay/PayPal have buyer protection.