Karaoke Forums

Bwahahhaha!

Yeah, but it also comes with a shiny "certificate" and a promise not to sue you (this year). That oughta teach them a lesson!

Well most people arn't as forgiving and don't forget. According to SC there last CD was a flop and didn't even cover production costs...With them now sueing the big boys in Vegas, it seems cash is on thier mind, rather than justice. Really are these clubs the bad boys? Why not use seized info from links the Feds busted and find out who downloaded their stuff and use that direction...You can't really use phone in tips as they have, hell most of them are bogguss... This whole thing is turning into a bad movie... Find some ex KJ's and hire them, they know what to look for. Hell hire me I'll catch the bad guys, and they will be bad guys...If they had run this crusade right they could have came out of this with thier armor shinning. Is there still time, hum, maybe not.

Jon

BTW this is who SC is going to lock horns with...LMFAO, good luck...Someone running there show is nuts...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesars_En ... orporation

Jon

P.S. I grew up in Vegas, spent most of my life there. If you guys don't think the mob still has there fingers in the industry, it's wake up time...

Sure. It was a CD. It didn't "flop" because of anger, boycots or song quality. It doesn't surprise me they didn't make money on a disc with a dozen songs. Pressing CD's are a gamble. CD's are expensive to produce as you must forcast how many you think you will sell and with pressing plants you have to make a LOT to get good pricing. They could make CD-R's in the back room but they have their own issues. Then you have to make sure you picked the right songs as you and I aren't going to spend $20 on an antique CD with only one song we want.

That's why I am sure that IF (a big IF) they start up production again it wont be CD's but MP3+G's ala carte. Any company stamping up thousands of CD's today is foolish. It's no surprise even Chartbuster has stopped printing discs and gone to MP3+G delivery. CD's are a losing proposition in today's market.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see SC come out of this mess having "cleaned up our town of these varments", and start producing agian... Seems the Mayor either hired the wrong Sheriff, or told him "I dont care what it takes". The town ain't safer and innocent people are being hurt. Burning down parts of the town dosen't seem to be an answer either. After all is said and done, what is our town going to look like?... Time to put out the fires, apoligize to the town, come up with a new plan, and hire a new Sheriff...Going to war with the biggest cattleranch in the territory for a cowhand seems really stupid...

Jon

Strange, we're still getting CB new music on a CD.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

And they are most likely CD-R's made to order. I believe that have ceased on all their box/essential sets.

Lots of new CB music on CD's just got Volume 2 of both Pop and Country for 2011. 100 new songs....not made to order.

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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

I stand corrected. In my opinion any company continuing to press antique CD's (Karaoke or otherwise) is setting themselves up for failure.

AH but CB also delivers their stuff in digital format which is downloaded to the hard drive you buy from them...of course the catch is you need another program to unlock said song thus driving up the cost.

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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

a question on that subject.....
arent there fewer and fewer songs on the drive?
go to update and it adds a few new ones and removes others?

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

I haven't noticed fewer, but I haven't really been counting either. I do know the last update was unusually large as they corrected a bunch of mislabled songs, spelling errors, etc.

I think I saw a post somewhere on that.
Someone had updated the HD and there were songs missing that were there before. Sounds like if you want to keep everything that is ever sent to you, you have to dupe the HD and keep track of what you have vs what is on the new update.

Must be because of licensing when the license runs out they have to pull the songs.

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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

I remember a couple people stating that as well.
What happens if you don't update the drive and want to unlock the songs you still have, but were pulled? Do you still get to unlock them or does some kind of meesage stating this song is no longer available pop up?

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I would be willing to bet the song gets unlocked since it is an offline process. If I can find the time I will do a compare and see what (if any) songs have been pulled. I can verify as my original CB drive is in a virgin state sitting on a shelf as backup and I update my working drive when available. (This backup arrangement is per their suggestion before anyone gets snippy. )

'Snippy' is right!! I come read the forums here sometimes just to get a laugh!!
And you're right, just today Greg at CB told me to store the original drive as if it were a "diamond ring" and that CB "wants you to transfer to your own hard drive, using the original as back up in case of your computers failure, theft or damage."

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

Couldn't have said it better. They had a chance to do the right thing the right way, and decided not to.

Pirates ( people who stole their music) are the ones that cost SC money, NOT media shifters who PAID FOR THEIR PRODUCTS, in other words good customers.

Sure, SC says that if a customer passes an audit, they will drop the suit. Excuse me? Why sue good customers in the first place, and THEN drop it? Why not try something new- say....investigating before suing?

Nope, suing KJs who have done nothing wrong, lying about the details in a suit ( i.e. suing KJs who are disc based for displaying from a computer that's NOT IN USE, claiming a specific KJ is doing so at a specific venue on a specific date- even though said KJ wasn't even working that venue at the time, claiming double shows per night when the KJ only works in the bar OWNED BY HIS WIFE, etc, etc, etc....)

What I don't understand is why:

1) They continue to work in an unethical manner

2) How normally ethical KJs can defend or agree with their actions.

3) How anyone with any business acumen can't see the damage they are doing to the KJs, to the business ( especially if all of their mud stirring awakens the sleeping giants - the music owners- who could actually put a cease and desist on the whole shebang), and their own label!

In regard to their own label damage:

Except for an extremely limited run of ONE disc in 2009, they haven't produced any new tracks since 2007- 5 years.

Each one of those years introduces a new crop of singers turning 21 to the venues. This means that 5 years of new singers have come up without experiencing any current SC tracks.

Add to that the KJs and venues who won't use their products ( pick any reason you like- it doesn't change the fact that there is a growing anti-SC sentiment), further limiting exposure to SC.

With no new tracks out, people are turning to other mfrs.. Do you think all KJs are just going to throw all those tracks that they purchased out if SC decides to produce them in the future? I doubt it. Even less exposure.

I will be the first to say that SC did an absolutely terrific job of marketing when they first came out. However, if they decide to produce again, not only will they have to start from scratch as they have before, but they will also have to overcome all that they are doing now. I don't see that happening.

That's just the damage that they have done THEMSELVES. I believe that they know that they are done, don't care about the business, or KJs, or pirates, or anything else but hit and run litigation for profit. I also believe that time is running out for SC on this particular source of income. Just my opinion- call it gut instict mixed with a lot of business experience...

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Totally Agree. well put

It is sad that legal KJ's are having to pay for the illegal ones... but if nothing is done, we are paying for it anyway by losing gigs to illegal KJ's. I can see that investigating every karaoke show in the country, looking for the illegal ones, would be extremely expensive... very much not cost effective since even when sued, they can't get blood from a turnip.

I don't like the audit thing... and don't like spending the money for a certificate. BUT, I'm tired of losing out to illegal hosts... so I'm gonna do my part by getting certified by SC & CB.. I don't understand the Stellar program (Is it $3200 for their audit???)

I won't be wanting to do this again next year either.. but I'll wait and see how things change in a year.

As for marking my disc's.. we've been in business for 20+ years so I don't see us selling the disc's ever. Unless the illegal KJ's put us out of business. Also, being disc-based did more harm to the disc than a blacklight marker will do.

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

Lisah it's my understanding the cost of the audit covers the cost of the audit/certificate program, for SC. With CB once you pass the audit that amount is given to you in credit for future purchases.

It appears that there isn't any money going toward fighting piracy out of what you spend on your audits/certifications.

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My statements, opinions and conclusions are based on my own personal experiences, observations, research and/or just my own $.02. I'm not a "cheerleader", but that doesn't make me a Pirate.