Karaoke Forums

i just got off the phone with Chris from Sound Choice and he said. They will be coming out with a new disc in March or early April. He inform me that the reason for taking so long is the permission to do the songs as to in the past they would do the song then worry about permission. oh well SC has really fallen by the waste side I really dont think they will ever bounce back...if we as KJ really want to keep our singers up to date with new stuff I guess we will have to go elsewhere

Yep it really makes you wonder if they really want to be in the Karaoke business anymore. Just why does it take them forever when Chartbuster can turn out two or more discs a month.

L.W.

I dunno, but I've seen Chartbuster have more news about litigation against them for improper licensing than I have SC...

I thought that was one reason for going to the Australia publishing, as they don't have to get all the licensing they used to???

Didn't Chartbuster have a huge issue with licensing when they were in their infancy and nearly cause them to close their doors? I wasn't much into Karaoke back then but I remember a few of my friends talking about it. They're strong now but it only take a couple of legitimate lawsuits to pout them out.

Bonus side is the RIAA loosening the strangle hold on digital reproductions and use. Perhaps there is less risk now and CB, realizing this, is forging ahead with that knowledge while SC is stuck in the old days <shrug>.

<edit for spelling, I hate when I typo! >

It's just an opinion but I think that Sound Choice feels that they already have the majority of songs that most karaoke singers want to sing and since they can't compete speed wise, as far as getting the discs out in a timely fashion, against the companies like POP HITS or CHARTBUSTERS on the monthly releases they just don't bother to compete in that particular market.

They are also evidently having trouble since they farmed out to Australia. They supposedly shipped all their equipment overseas so when you don't get your custom disc or it arrives damaged, they can't make good, stateside. You go through the entire 3 week wait again instead. We finally got our custom ordered in Oct a few weeks ago and it arrived scratched and wouldn't play. Finally got the replacement last week and there were still scrathes and one song won't play. We are giving up this time. In all fairness, we got a subesequent order in fine shape and in a timely matter and Martha has done her best to help us but there isn't much they can do if Australia doesn't cooperate.

I guess I'm not the only one having issues. I ordered my custom disc from Sound Choice Australia Dec. 19 2008 and it has not arrived yet. I e-mailed them to check on the disc 3 or 4 days ago and have not gotten an answer yet. Hopefully when it arrives it will not be damaged. I am curious, did you have to mail the damaged disc back? I hope they become more reliable as they have good selection of songs. Rudy.

They did not ask for a return of the bad disc.

Sound Choice has always given excellent service in the past so the fact that we weren't getting answers to our emails either was very worrisome. We were doing a combination of calling and emailing. I think there have been so many people with problems that it takes a while for them to get back to you. They are doing every thing they can to help stateside but they haven't been able to make Australia tow the line.

I, too, have a list of songs that I would prefer to have on Sound Choice. Other sites that offer Sound Choice customs don't have all those songs. So I am trying to get up the nerve to order again. We had ordered a different custom from them after the October one and it came within 3 weeks and was undamaged.

dont hold your breath

It may not be just Sound Choice having the problem; Since the economy began its downward spiral, I noticed that overall fewer new discs have been released and ESPECIALLY the newer songs from veteran artists such as Lindsay Buckingham, Springsteen, John Mellankamp and Pretenders.. actually there was a disc of newer Springsteen material but it was devoid of graphics

Im not sure i agree due to the fact both Chartbusters & Pop Monthly seem to have no trouble putting stuff out every month

Thanks for the reply, and I feel exactly the same way about their site, they've got songs by SC that other sites don't have ( All Apologies ) and it would be nice if they were more reliable. Thanks again, Rudy.

Which is why they are always in litigation for producing songs without licensing.

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Lonman no offense but you dont work for pop hit or chartbusters. sunfly or zoom for that matter...so you cannot speak for them....maybe they just work really hard at trying to get stuff out unlike soundchoice just sitting around doing nothing and making excuses

The litigation Lonnie is referring to is a matter of public history.

The 2 customs I've had from SC arrived within 3 weeks. The key to them improving their customer service would be order tracking, through the factory and then again when shipped.

Order received
Order Approved
CDG created
Package Mailed (tracking # for both AUSPS and USPS)

I've had Sunfly discs direct from the UK for 3 years and about 1 a year takes 6 weeks in the mail. It normally takes about 2-3 weeks to Austin, TX whereas in bay area, California they used to arrived within a week.

$0.02

Jonn

No but I can view public records of the past. Not uncommon knowledge! Do a simple search for yourself before speaking.
Here are just a couple of cases that they had within the last few years.

Chartbuster
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/cir ... 46061.html

Pop Hits Monthly (aka Stellar Records)
http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/1060040
http://www.nashvillepost.com/documents/ ... ct2006.pdf

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Lots of publicity about going to court nothing on the results. Like RIAA it was scare tactics. While I do not believe in piracy if all the singers would have been informed public outcry would have made the market more fair and viable. Australia is one of the feww trying to amend and resolve the issue.


Do you know that RIAA only got one P2P case in court, won it then it was overturned so they didnt win one case. link

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It is a different business model. A company that specializes in current top hits has a relatively easy time of contacting representitives of popular current artists, they are visible.

On the other hand if SC decides that they want to get liscencing of a one hit wonder or obscure band from the 60s or 70s just finding the person who has the rights is quite often going to be difficult, and that artist is highly unlikely to have a current legal advisor on retainer making it that much more difficult.

SC knows that half or more of the current "top" songs are pretty much forgotten in a few months, only a small subset stand the test of time. They want to produce CDs of songs that they can keep selling in their catalog for full price 10 years from now. On the other hand a company like Pop Hits Montly makes their disks with full expectation that they will be in the $5 discount bin in 2 years time.

Zoom, Sunfly and SBI have an easier time with approval due to English laws. The legal reasons are also probably why SC makes their custom disks in Australia. Certainly labor prices are not that different, and shipping is going to be more costly, the only explanation that could be is legal issues. For their regular disks they pay for liscencing of a set number of copies, and they can make them here in the USA (or did in the past).

You're sooo right on everything you said The no.1 Canadian distributor gave me the same explanation you just gave SC is in Australia so they can continue to offer disk that they no longer can't in north America, like Supertramp for example.

Zoom is well aware of this and they are taking advantage of some opportunity like The Eagles & Supertramp disk:wink: