Karaoke Forums

Here is the new releases for Oct from Pop Hits Monthly. I have to say there are a few songs on these I would like to have


POP
1/10. Can't Get Enough, 98 Degrees
2/11. New Constellation, Toad The Wet Sprocket
3/12. Desire, The Winery Dogs
4/13. Chained To Love, Divine Fits
5/14. This Disorder, The Features
6/15. Time Machine, The Winery Dogs
7/16. In It To Win It, Saliva
8/17. Keep On Swinging, Rival Sons
9/18. I've Got You, Martha Wash

COUNTRY
1/10. Gasoline And Matches, LeAnn Rimes, Rob Thomas & Jeff Beck
2/11. Burn These Memories Down, Lathan Moore
3/12. That’s How I Roll, Taylor Made
4/13. Kiss Me, Kayla Calabrese
5/14. Back In The Day, Downday
6/15. Alabama Kinda Girl, Summerlyn Powers
7/16. Stand Back, Stephanie Quayle
8/17. If I Were A Carpenter, Shannon & Heather Slaughter
9/18. Where I Stood, LeAnn Rimes

URBAN
1/10. Tell Me One More Time, Wanz
2/11. Popular Girl, Nelson
3/12. Love Me Good, Maysa
4/13. Finally, Carolyn Malachi
5/14. FallBack, Abrina (feat. Baby Bash)
6/15. Won't Let It Go, Kenny Wesley
7/16. Love & Pain, JMSN
8/17. Let Me Go, Katlynn Simone
9/18. Greater Is Coming, Jekalyn Carr

well with 19 views and no comments it tells me what people think of PHM..

Well, I don't really know Pop (as I listen to Country and Oldies on the radio), and as for Urban, I was never interested in that particular line. Now, with regard to the Country releases, I only recognized 2 songs out of the 9 as being Mainstream. If I were to buy that PHM Country disc for $20 (for the 2 songs I recognized), I would be paying $10/song. I can get Custom tracks cheaper than that (and a full disc of 15 songs to boot).

It's been over 1 1/2 years since I've bought a PHM disc. That's because they aren't putting out anything worthwhile anymore. I have given up on PHM, and don't even check anymore. I'm sure others here have felt the same as well.

Don’t buy them anymore. Recognized: 2-Pop, 2-Country, 0-Urban. Exactly the reason why I don’t pay much attention to phm.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

I voted them a 1 just now. I only recognize one band and zero songs.

-Chris

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-Chris

I gave them a 1 as well!

Okay . . . we get it. We haven't exactly been putting out the hits lately and I don't blame anyone for not purchasing our products. Unfortunately we're being snubbed by the majors due to ongoing litigation with a major publisher. I wish there were a better solution but at the moment we're plum out of ideas.

We know that your hands are tied so please don't take it as us beating you up.

There are a lot of older PHM tracks I prefer over others. I would love to see more relevant music coming from ALL of the manufacturers, but in particular from the US based manufacturers. I want to support the local economy whenever I can.

-Chris

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-Chris

I don't take any offense whatsoever with comments being made with regard to our products. For most of you on this forum this is first and foremost a business, and you need to spend your money wisely and especially so in this crappy economy. We understand the karaoke market quite well and are acutely aware of the songs that we would like to release but unfortunately can't.

The issue is far more complex than one would gather by reading this forum but to fully explain it would require a document the size of War and Peace so I never really put my two cents in on these topics. I have been planning a blog for sometime now and hope to delve into these matters with a bit more depth, but for now we have to focus our energies in getting better titles.

I will be announcing another product line within the couple of weeks and hope to get the reaction of those on this forum.

You aren't offering downloads yet, are you?? If not, is that in your plans? I have been buying my music exclusively like that. I find discs to be a waste of money, these days. Single song downloads are definitely the way to go.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Just about every license that we've negotiated for the last several years had a download provision, but for reasons I'm not at liberty to discuss we've had to sit on them. We have been constructing a new website which is already 1 year overdue, but it looks like it's about to get wrapped up, and at that time we'll be in a better position to evaluate a download program going forward. Our number 1 priority at this time however is improving our titles and song selection.

I do understand that for some people discs are a major inconvenience and I do wish that I could accommodate your preferred method of purchase, but we'll have to take it one step at a time, at least for now.

With all the complaints I have been told you receive ...Kjs have not..will not or stoping buying you stuff...you think PHM would do something to solve the problem but they don't...my feeling is ..that if they go out of business its their own fault....you got to give customers what they want
I bought PHM for a long time..I don't now..I cant believe the junkie songs they have put out over the past year..OMG.

Ok. I' will keep on the look-out. I look forward to doing business with you, though.

Plenty of your older stuff was pretty good, and useful, so I would be playing catch up on your back catalog, without buying a ton of songs I can't use.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

GeminiMALE40 . . . You're absolutely correct on all counts. If we go out of business as you state, there is no one to blame other than ourselves and me in particular. That is indeed true of any business that fails. However I don't believe that you can ever quote me as calling myself or my company a "victim" of circumstances whether it be piracy, copyright trolls, a bad economy or any number of other difficulties that we've faced as a business. I personally don't believe in the "victim" mentality, there are always choices that can be made. Like anything else however, there's no such thing as a "free lunch" and all choices come at a price.

As far as giving the customer what they want, you're right again. We haven't been able to give the customer what they want. The price to make that choice for my company (and I emphasize my company because unlike many forum participants who apparently seem to know the inner workings of each and every company, I am not privy to such knowledge), is beyond what I'm willing to pay, and I don't mean that strictly in financial terms but in terms of business practices and other things to which I'm willing to subject myself and/or my company.

I do hope that your admonition of PHM has made you fell better. Perhaps you've been able in some odd sort of way to validate your own self worth by diminishing ours, or to use one of my daughter's favorite sayings; to "blow out someone else's candle to make your's appear brighter". Nevertheless while I don't find your tone particularly helpful, I'm also not deeply offended by it either. There will always be people who offer opinions based strictly on what they "think" they know rather than the actual facts and I'm not going to be the one that changes that in any way. In the end none of that really matters anyway. The ultimate blow that any company can endure is the one in which we are currently being dealt, and that is the lack of sales which speaks much louder than any pejorative that you can render.

I'll leave you with my favorite saying, and it's by Mark Twain: It ain't the things that we don't know that get us in trouble, but the things that we know for sure that just ain't so.

I hope things turn around for you Bastiat. As I said, I do look forward to being a customer of yours, especially if you offer downloads, down the road.

I was just on your website. Did you get rid of all your old stuff?? I only seem to be able to go back to 2008. Where's all the older stuff?

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

The "old stuff" can't be purchased from us directly as the licenses on most of those items have expired and there really isn't enough activity on any of those items to warrant advances and fixing fees. You still maybe able to find these products on the open market from other sources such as retailers, etc. where it is perfectly legal for them to be purchased. It's just that we're not allowed to sell them.

Hello Bastiat, good to hear from someone official at PHM. If you have the rights/license/etc create a song by one artist, are you able to create more by the same artist? As I recall you were the first company to bring Mayer Hawthorne to karaoke, would love to see more of his songs.

My suggestion is you may consider custom CDGs. This isn't too much of a problem for me in the UK as I can go CustomBurn* for much of the Pop Hits Monthly catalogue, but a lot of people in the States (including many on this Forum) are unable to access that website, leaving a potential niche market. License wise would it be easier to offer a custom CDG service vs. downloads?

By the way, I wish you every success in your business. Although I may not recognise a lot of the music you put out, I can guarantee it will always be great quality. You obviously take pride in the material you produce, that and you approach to your work makes me want to support your business. I hope you are able to do what it takes to make it worth my while sending my money from overseas more often.


*for those that can access Custom Burn and don't know already, there is a huge number of old PHM songs for sale long since deleted from PHM's website (for reasons Bastiat explained above).

Custom disc would totally be doable for me.

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

So, now anyone who paid for the CAP thing, pretty much wasted their money, at this point, cause you don't own the old stuff any more. Glad I didn't do that. . CAP was good from the beginning, up and through 2007's catalog. WOW.

You know, why don't you work out a deal with Wal*Mart, or Best Buy, so you have an outlet, besides your site, and some distributor to sell your stuff?

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Correct me if I am wrong, but Stellar/PHM can still enforce their rights on what they have distributed. They my not be able to make more of it, but what they did make, they can still take action on.

-Chris

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-Chris

Smoothedge69 . . . you've totally misunderstood the purpose of the CAP program. It was and still is a program in which users of unauthorized Stellar products can enter an agreement with Stellar whereby Stellar will agree to not bring suit against the unauthorized user for the acquisition, use and possession of unauthorized Stellar products. It does not sell, license or otherwise grant any rights in any of the content for which is listed in the CAP exhibits. If you were contemplating a CAP program it could only be for two reasons, either you have unauthorized content that you use or at one time used and acquired (in which case I would strongly encourage you to at least make further inquiry), or a cheap way of purchasing the entire Stellar catalog up to 2007 for reasons in which I have just pointed out, you would have been grossly misinformed.

The CAP program was and still is strictly voluntary. We do not perform audits nor do we put much stock in the audit process, and please do not take this and turn this statement into something which it is not, a slight against other karaoke labels who engage in that process. Quite frankly, I've tried to maintain my distance on this business of karaoke lawsuits, audits, the demonization of SC, as well as the cannonization of SC ad nauseum. I've reviewed hundreds if not thousands of posts on the topic and for the life of me cannot find anything of value or of use to anyone. All I've seen is a heck of a lot of vitriol, discourtesy, accusations, innuendo, etc. The only thing that I see is an issue that has created a division among KJs often accompanied by some very harsh behavior. If I didn't know better I would have thought that this was a "divide and conquer" tactic.

The reason I expanded on this topic is to make clear is that I get the sense that posts of this type may lead to the piracy topic in which I have no intention of getting involved in the piracy forum wars, and want to discourage at the outset any thoughts of my involvement in these debates. If there is one thing in which everyone seems to agree is that piracy is detrimental to the karaoke industry. Where it bogs down is in determining the motivations of those who take action in combating it. More often than not that is dictated by one's point of view rather than what is in a man's heart. Unfortunately that distinction is seldom made. Nevertheless as a company we deal with piracy in our own ways and according to my own conscience, and I would prefer to leave the topic at that and move on to other things that may be of interest to anyone.