I posted something similar on another forum in response to a post made there. I thought it would make an interesting topic for a broader audience. I have made some edits to provide more background and allow it to stand alone better.
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There has been and likely will be a lot of debate over what is going on in the karaoke industry and how the manufacturers are dealing with piracy. Now that I have gone through the "certification" process with the "Big 3" U.S. Manufacturers, I thought I would post my experience.
There is a lot of speculation, guessing, and flat out incorrect information out there. I want to attempt to clear some of it up.
I also want to try to help those that are on the fence about what to do, to take a real life experience from someone that has been through it, and use that in making up their mind about what to do.
Finally, I specifically think Sound Choice in particular takes a lot of grief for their aggressive pursuit of rooting out illegal activity. This gets perpetuated by the beating they take from those that really have no true personal experience with the process. In spite of my own personal opinion about HOW they go about doing what the do, I absolutely support WHY they do it.
These ratings are based on the process of getting audited/certified/compliant with each respected manufacturer. 10 = fantastical / 1 = you just received a ziploc full of dog poo from your ex.
Stellar Records/PHM (3 out of 10) - For a company that is producing regular content, doesn't seem to be actively pursuing pirates and stays very much out of the limelight, I expected these folks to be the easiest to work with. In reality, it took 6 months, a complaint to the Better Business Bureau (which I later withdrew), and consultation with a lawyer to get them to send me my certificates/license information. That is 6 months AFTER I paid $3200 in full, up front. Not to mention the particularly un-professional email volleys I received from their company president. Keep in mind, that they don't audit, they don't ask for a Skype call, pictures, or any other information that can't be produced with in a few minutes. All they really had to do was generate some documentation, print it, mail it. It seems to me they had the easiest job of all three. But it was an experience that really set the stage for how I planned to deal with CB and SC. (I need to be clear that I am still a Stellar customer. I still get their monthly updates and I hope they change the way the deal with people that come to them on their own). Tony Walstra is a good guy in my book as are the billing and shipping folks. Their CEO is another matter. He is primary reason they are rated so low.
Chartbuster (7 out of 10) - Amazingly better than what I expected after the previous experience. I do feel I had to keep the ball rolling and if I had not, it would have taken longer. But everyone I dealt with was nice, kind, courteous. It took 2 months from date of full payment, up front, until we wrapped things up. Some of that delay was due to the holidays. Also, no audit since I was auto-certified with the purchase of the 12000+ drive. They had to serialize the drive, ship it, ship out some physical discs, create, print, mails certs and get me up on their web site. Much more work than Stellar. I like Chartbuster. Good people there. Greg Taylor was the sales guy I worked with. I spoke to a few others on phone calls but I don't recall their names.
Sound Choice (8 out of 10) - The only thing holding them from a 9 is that we aren't 100% yet. The score is partly influenced higher because I had very low expectations going in becasue of my Stellar experience and all the FUD that circulates about Sound Choice. I am still waiting to get posted to the Certified KJ site and to receive my certificates and banner. But we just performed the actual audit 5 days ago. We started the paperwork process less than 30 days ago, had to schedule an audit (in-person), and perform the audit. Sound Choice had the most work to do and has been the most prompt and responsive. Kurt Slep, the man framed by some as the scourge of the karaoke industry, has been responsive, and cordial. He even connected me with someone for a project I have been thinking about for a while. I suspect we will have everything buttoned up in 7-10 days max. Interestingly, they forgot to even charge me for my audit beforehand so I called them this morning to make payment. Also good people. Chris Emrie is great, as are a few others that have been in emails threads. I can't leave out Harrington either. My experience in private emails with him just after coming to these forums tipped the scales greatly in favor of Sound Choice. That man deserves much respect for the efforts he puts in here to dispel rumors and false information. He doesn't have to do what he does.
The interesting thing is that the company (Sound Choice) that the most people are up in arms about and so afraid of, is the company that I (and others it seems) have had a very comfortable experience with. I think they have a very, very bad rep that is perpetuated by some very negative people. I have to admit that I was very skittish and skeptical about dealing with Sound Choice. But I have enjoyed - yes...enjoyed - it the most.
There is an interesting story about what happened at my audit that made it intersting, and now, after the fact, a fun time. Separate post when I have time.
-Chris
ps....Maybe I should just officially cave in and get myself some SC pom-poms.....
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I called Chartbuster today and ordered the 12,000 song library. Greg was great on the phone and when I called back with a few questions I had forgotten to ask, he told me that my Certificate and library were in production as we spoke (I had called just an hour prior with the original order). He said I should be receiving all next week! I am so excited!! I will wait a little bit to call Soundchoice since I don't have a whole lot of their stuff. (Foundation and Bricks with a few single disc's). I don't think I'll call Stellar at all.... we were on their monthly ship program awhile back, own about 48 disc's. It's kinda hard to justify paying for an audit for such a small amount of disc's. I do still have the receipts from them for the disc's I purchased so that should be enough if they ever do come look at us. 