Karaoke Forums

A person wants to sell me 100,000 Karaoke songs on a hard drive and a CompuHost license. He says he has all the documentation to support his CompuHost purchase but he has collected the songs over many years and does not have the disks for many of the Karaoke songs.

I like the price but do not want to get into trouble.

Any thoughts on this?

No want trouble? Pass on the sale. Guarantee it's not legal - only way it would be is you were receiveing the discs as well.
Sure he can have documentation that he owns CompuHost, you HAVE to purchase in order to use, but willing to stake 1:1 odds, that the library is mostly if not all illegal. Figure if he purchased all the discs, say 15 songs per disc, this would figure out to be about 6,666 discs. I'll even go on the LOW end and say each disc cost $15, that would equate to $99,990. Even if they were 'legally' downloaded, most sites cost $.99 per download (again, EXTREME low figure), that would equate to $100K. How much is he willing to let this extremely well invested hard drive go for?

NOT LEGAL!!!!!

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Well, I'm bummed now.

We got some nice equipment but the music is soooo expensive.

Not sure how to develop a song library without spending all Bush's money and more!

Music IS expensive, and pirates like this make the music MORE expensive to legit companies & home users alike because the manus don't get the sales of these hard drives. Thus less income to them mean less disc productions which equals less music to the kj's/singers & higher prices because they have to recoup their losses as well somehow.

Best way to start is to get a nice good quality 'core' library, then fill in gaps with what your singers want. Custom discs are very nice way to do this. They may seem quite expensive, however, you have to figure say you want 15 particular songs. If you had to go out & purchase these songs on discs, you could very well end up with 15 separate discs @ $15 per equates to $225 for the 15 songs you originally wanted - the upside to this is you are also going to get 210 other songs as well that will help fill out your book HOWEVER if you HAVE songs people want to sing, then a huge book is not worth the price of paper it's printed on, because those other 210 songs may not be what the singers in your club/area want to sing. Get those same songs on custom discs & you will only be paying $75 max, sometimes less depending on sales. A well run show can be very successful on 1000 well chosen songs provided those are songs people really want to sing. A huge book is just for show off purposes anymore. Also chances are in that 100K set, more than half of the titles are duplicated sometimes several times over.
There are also a couple of good download sites like tricerasoft & selectatrack that you can buy on a pay per download basis.

There is actually a thread kind of talking about this as well.
http://karaoke-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13876

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[font=verdana] I’ll say it again, I wish I had found the KS forum when I first started out a year ago. Johnny and I have over 20K songs but over 6,000 of those are duplicates, sometimes 4 even 5 copies of the same song. We pick the best version of the song and that is what goes in the book. We also have a master song book that list each track and it’s duplicates. You can get some pretty good buys on karaoke music on ebay, but you are likely to build up a lot of duplicates. If I could do it over, I would purchase a good core library then expand that from the download sites or the custom discs to fill in with requested songs
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Dusty Rose
Blue Rose Classic Karaoke
More Sound! More Selections! More Fun!
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Been searching around some more. There seems to be hard drives full of songs nealry everywhere you look - even Ebay.

Wonder why they are being so open about selling?

I called back the guy and he said that many of his song purchases were made online - so there was never a disk involved. He is an older guy that says he has been collecting songs for 20+ years.

My thoughts was to only buy if he had a disk for all - his claim is that will be almost impossible to find even if the seller has paid for every song.

Should legitimate sellers have disks or receipts for every song in their library?

This seems like lots of record keeping. How does a legitmate KJ with a hug electronic database protect themselves?

This stuff is confusing!

Meanwhile I guess I will stick with my SGB set.

If he legally downloaded his songs then he paid a minimum of $2 a song and at best $1 per song. If he has 100K songs you can do the math yourself. By doing the math yourself it should be "plain as day" that what he is offering is illegal.

I'm confident that there are not even 20K individual songs available for legal download online. The selection is still pretty limited.

This guy is lying to you, plain and simple!! He knows he did not pay for those songs and and he is hoping that you will not know any different and shell out the bucks.

If you want the music, you gotta shell out the $$

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

A KJ need not have the receipts if he has all the original CDG's in his possession, By original I mean from the actual MFG disc....No Burns. That is all the proof he or she needs.

If he purchased online and downloaded them legally then he should have the email confirmation of the transactions, or credit card transactions etc.

You said he's been collecting for 20 years, well he's been doing it long enough to know that he needs proof. That's alot of downloading not to have any proof.

Oh by the way karaoke songs have only been available for legal download from the internet for a couple of years now so the guy would have had to dedicate most of his waking hours to downloading them. He bought the drive and is duplicating it and reselling to you for profit, that = Piracy

He's lying to you!

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

If I were to sell off my computerized karaoke system, the discs go with it.

He's a thief, pure and simple!

Save the money on the court costs and fines for piracy by buying legit discs from the start. Get some nice starter packs and build up as you go. You can go low or high end in price for some starter packs. I started with the All Hits Maxx Pack that came with my player...it was a nice starter. Then I got some Chartbuster packs and liked them. Sound Choice is better but more costly. Decide on your needs and go from there.

I do know that there are some Chartbuster Super CDG packs out there that have a butt load of songs on them and I am seeing these on e-bay being sold rather cheap at times. I have inquired here on Karaoke Scene about ripping them and I guess there are a few programs to do that. I haven't done it yet...but most likely will as it will allow me to have the discs and the songs.

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck.
If his prices are too good to be legal, doesn't have the discs as is mandatory to be legal, then it is probably illegal.

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IN HEAVEN THERE IS NO BEER, THAT'S WHY I DRINK IT HERE!

Well of course they aren't going to tell you flat out that he loaded a hard drive illegally. Even if he's been collecting for 20 years - which could be true, once he got ris of the discs made the hard drive illegal. And the ones that he downloaded most likely will not come with any kind of receipt.
Yes you will find these all over ebay - and they try to stop these sales when they can, but as soon as they stop one, 5 more pop up before they get wind of it. They are typically 2-3 day sales as well where they get little attention from ebay as they can't monitor all the sales like these. Even if he's selling this drive for $1000, that is less than 10% he is making on his return - think about it. chances are as soon as he sells this one, he'll have another identical one up for sale within the next day. I know he said he's been downloading for 20 years. "Legal" downloads have only become available (provided he REALLY did pay for them) within the last few years & even the couple of 'legal' download sites don't have anywhere NEAR 100K songs between the both of them.



It is impossible for him because he either never had the original discs to begin with or he originally bought a loaded drive as well.



The music I run on my hard drive I have a corresponding physical disc for each & every song. If I was selling the hard drive, I would also have to give the discs as well. If I were selling just the hard drive & not the discs, this is major piracy - like the gentleman selling his drive.



Look for disc sets on ebay, there are plenty out there. Sound Choice Foundations are great cores. Sound Choice Bricks are great supplement sets. Look for the Dangerous 11 disc set - very good set.
Even the SuperCore set is an ok base set. Look for closeout sales on discs. Top Hits Monthly just shut their doors & many stores are blowing out their inventory at $10 or lower. Have even seen some going for under $5.

Is this for your personal use only or will you be doing shows as well?

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Thanks for the responses.

This is just for fun - but it seems to get bigger by the week.

Everyone seems to have a great time singing. I have been blessed with a voice - what a surprise since I just started singing late last year.

I have done 3 shows for free - just for the fun of it.

I have bought a few extra disks because I know what I want to sing. Others always seem to want to sing something I dont have.

It would be nice to have a bunch of songs - just can't afford them.

Thanks again for the input.

Then start charging for shows......
Just take requests & then search sites for those songs, sometimes you'll get lucky & can get them pretty cheap. A couple of the download sites are good alternatives as well.
tricerasoft & selectatrack both sell downloads. They also have test downloads to make sure your computer will play them before you buy.

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What does one do if asked if they have all the discs for their music on HD?
Do you carry all of them with you all the time?

Has anyone ever been questioned and just who are the Karaoke Police?
And how do they find you?

I've never been asked and really don't want to lug the discs with me thats one reason for the computer.

L.W.

I'm not a KJ, but I am a business owner and I would guess it is pretty much the same on this matter. There are regulatory agencies that are out there to regulate things, whatever that may be. (is ASCAP or something like that for music?) Whatever....The biggest problem I have is a former employee or patient that is pissed off will call these authorities just to get back at you for whatever reason. Once they get a call....everything is free game to go after. I would guess that a KJ in the area that is fighting for business, and that knows you are not following the rules EXACTLY (even if you have the discs at home), would probably be a whistle blower. If the rules say that you must have them with you and you don't, you are free game to go after. If nothing else, it will make your life much more stressful as you fight them. They have gone after the illegal MP3 sites and recently gone after some of the monthly Karaoke companies as well (from what I hear)...so they do exist and they obviously do care if people are stealing music and/or using it illegally. I agree with you that you shouldn't have to have the discs with you physically if you do own the license for the music when you purchased the disc, but for now, I guess that is the law and you are always going to be at risk when you cross the line of covenience.

JUst my humble two cents.....and it may be way off because I am an idiot.

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IN HEAVEN THERE IS NO BEER, THAT'S WHY I DRINK IT HERE!

I am assuming that the situation of being able to produce your disks is probably similar to having to produce proof of insurance if you don't have it on you in the event of an accident - you probably would have a certain amount of time to produce them. I really don't want to carry discs with me and leave them in the car - even in the busiest of locations, it possible for someone to break in and take them. It happened to a company around here not too long ago - right out of their rig. In fact, now that I think about it, it has happened to two other companies I'm familiar with. No point in tempting the devil. I am in an area of many, many pirate companies and none of them has been busted yet so maybe the karaoke police aren't as common as one might be led to believe, or they are busy somewhere else. Either way, I am happy to say that for every song on my computer there is a hard copy of it in my collection...which for now I leave safely locked up at home, and will continue to do so.

k

My discs also remain securely at home. I have WAY too many of them to run the risk of having them stolen, plus it's too much for my bad back to haul around If all my gigs were at the same venue, I could probably arrange to have them secured there, but unfortunately, that's not the case.

Don't buy the pre-loaded hard drive. Karma's a biotch, even if The Man doesn't catch you.

Now what makes you think your discs are safer at home than with you in the bar? At the bar, in my possession, my discs are a hell of lot less likely to be stolen. At home, especially when you're gone for five hours, gives a thief ample time to break in and steal your discs and other valuables.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

The price of admission to Karaoke is the discs. Look at the purchase in a positive way. By purchasing the discs you are removing yourself from competing with the DJ for 50 bucks crowd and can charge enough to actually make some money.

I really like the chartbuster 450 essential sets. Especially the first one which has great songs. I started with that set and some cherry picked discs and ran a successful show for several years.

The 30 disc set sell used on ebay for around $100. That about 25 cents a song. Be careful not to confuse them with the super cdg sets which require a special player. You should also look at the old DK set. Great music but they do have a melody line.

I started with about a thousand songs. With the right mix you can run a successful show with that. Years later I'm up to a little over 5000 songs which is a very good set. While having tens of thousands of songs is nice, especially when competing for jobs it's not necessary. In fact it can be a handicap. That many songs require a huge song book which is hard for your singers to handle. By reducing my typeset I'm still able to use a 1" thick song book which includes both artist and title order.

Do a lot of shopping and carefully add to your set. Be thrifty here, make those pennies squeal. You will have to spend some big bucks to get certain songs but do so after thinking about it. By the way soundchoice does put out greaat music but they cost more. Those are the ones that I would think about before buying. Final thougt... consider the cost of shipping in your purchase decisions. Many karaoke stores will ship for free on large orders.

Rick

Around here it's quite the opposite. The 'legit' kj's are being driven out clubs due to pirated hard drives & are LUCKY to make anything over $100 per night. The pirates use the 50-100K numbers as something that is sellable - well guess in some cases it still works as many bars went with these guys with crappy systems & pirated music charging $50-100 per night. While the legit kj's that purchased their music could have anywhere from 5-20 songs & charging double the pirates price. Bar owners don't know the difference & go with the less $$ for more music.



I started out with a similar amount of around 1500 songs. Back then these numbers were important, now days not so much as many 'large' book companies will count all their dup's in the final figure so they literally can have 5-10 versions of the same song listed several times over.



Get to know your book as well - check a disc against what you already have so not to buy a bunch of duplicate songs you already have - unless you need to replace a version due to being bad, that is just a waste of money. This is where custom discs come in very handy, don't buy a disc for 1 song that you need. If it's only on a disc that has 15 songs & 14 of them you already have - again unless you really need to replace bad versions - just go custom & get the songs you truly need.

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