Karaoke Forums

Lot of reading here, yeesh.

Working in Hospitality and having years of bar entertainment experience I notice an ironic twist here. While SC and CB are busy going after bar kj's who are lucky to make $150 per night, there are a lot of others who fly under the radar. I've seen plenty of guys doing weddings and private parties for well over $500 per gig with "questionable" libraries. Personally I would think nailing those guys would be more helpful to the established legal players, but it would seem the idea is more about nailing the easy catches. Sadly the current situation is not going to get bar kj rates raised to make it viable for the big boys to participate.

Then again, When I was doing sound, the big boys came "slumming". They would try to undercut me on every gig. When they got one, they always dumped the client as soon as a better paying one came up at the last second. Usually I was already somewhere else when the panic call came, "The band is here but XXX took their PA out this morning".
I hope it doesn't get that bad in karaoke land.

And how would that work?? A SC investigator would have to be invited to the wedding or party. They couldn't just show up, like they can at a bar.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Exactly why I found it ironic.

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Purple Frog Karaoke Cuz we all feel odd and love to "croak"

They don't care about private stuff.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

To the contrary, we very much care about the private stuff. We just don't have the tools to do anything about it in the same way we can deal with the commercial stuff. But we're working on another approach to that--a nonlegal approach.

Sounds like some marks are about to get whacked.

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KNOW THYSELF

Many times more (questionable) libraries on the D.J. side--I know of at least 2 wedding venues that do not let the D.J. doing the music use their Wi-Fi connection anymore. The venue knows something isn't quite right.

What exactly is a non-legal approach going to do for you??

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

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KNOW THYSELF

That pic made me laugh out loud.

To answer the question, first, I said "nonlegal," not "illegal." We're working on an approach to dealing with pirates in the private commercial space (private parties) that doesn't involve litigation. Or approach is equally applicable to the public commercial space. We should have an announcement on it this week.

CB Rules this week, Private gigs this addressed this week...

New Songs?

We're wrapping up the final language on our first new license this week as well. Given where we are on the holidays, I don't think we will have a new song announcement until after the first, but we're very close.

We expect to have several big announcements this week--new CB rules and our renewal program for the GEM series will be formally launched this week, plus we'll have an announcement about a new program for professional KJs, and if we can get the tech side nailed down, we're going to release some CB material for digital download this week as well. We've also hired a Director of New Projects, who will be stewarding a major new initiative that will affect venues and our licensees in a very positive way.

New music is very important to us, so we're going to do it, but we're also very excited about the different ways we're going to support legal operators going forward. More on that in due course.

i thought Digitrax owned the CB content, you only bought the trademark.

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

He had mentioned some kids songs and some other stuff, that they were going to release. My guess would be it is orphaned stuff that DTE didn't want.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

They will be producing stuff that is copyright free and trying to "sell" it. They probably won't sell anything at all. Keep in mind the primary reason for making this is to say they have a new product so they can add CB trademarks to their suits.

I don't know why anyone would be dumb enough to purchase these when you can get them for free here..

http://www.karaoke-version.com/karaoke_ ... raoke.html

My buddy used to buy stuff at the .99 cent store and sell on ebay.

Made a lot of money on shipping..

In the end they (SC/PEP) will kill karaoke. They will continue to buy up old trademarks and sue all those using them without permissions. The costs of said permissions will drive most KJ's out of business.

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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

Even if this were our goal or our method of achieving it--it's not, on either score--what you're effectively saying is that karaoke can't survive without piracy.

Do you really believe that to be true?

Because it's really not. Much to the contrary, it's piracy that's killing karaoke by making it more difficult for legitimate producers to license and produce a quality product. It's piracy that's killing karaoke by causing the market to become oversaturated with supply. When anyone with a secondhand PA and a pirated hard drive can get into the business and play shows for $50 or $75 a night, it devalues the investment of professional karaoke operators, who find it harder to compete profitably.

Either you're a professional KJ or you're not; either you've acquired your music legally, or you haven't. If you're a professional KJ, and you've acquired your music legally, and you attack us for going after your pirate competition, or you lament that we're making it more expensive and driving pirate operators out of business...I don't want to be rude, so I won't finish that sentence. But you know what I'm thinking.

But the frustration comes from "owning" all the music and potentially being sued for the way we choose to use it.

Do you realize how exceptionally rare that is? How easy it is to resolve it if it happens? How easy it is for you to avoid it in the first place?

I refuse to believe that this is a real complaint.