Karaoke Forums

I had a customer come in Wednesday night with a disc he ordered. (Music Maestro)
When the logo came up for Music Maestro on the screen it had his name at the bottom.

It got me thinking, is this a way we can try and make buying music legal. What if we as a business had to have all our music show our company name on it to prove we purchased it. If our name was on the disc itself with the manufacturer's name and on the screen with the manufacturers name would it be enough prove we purchased it ourselves.

I don't know how difficult it would be for a pirate to duplicate CDGs with different people's names on them or screen graphics to put peoples name on every song, but I would think it wouldn't be easy. It would at least slow them down.

Problems I foresee - some of us buy second hand discs because it's cheaper.

Just a thought - what do you all think?

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Hi Babs, do you have any idea what this guy paid for his disk.
Exweed... Where are you.

Cant think how they could mass produce this one.
Could it have been some sort of custom disk...

Most everyone here already owns huge libraries without any identification marks. Companies like Music Maestro and DK and many others are already out of business so they couldn't go back and watermark their discs if there are any of them still out on the open market. Every disc and track would have to made as a custom disc. It would definitely be cost prohibitive. Someone might be able to add their company logo to keep any employees from copying their hard drive without the original owner knowing that it was done. If the employee copied your hard drive and went into business for themselves, you could go to their show and see if your company logo came up on their screen whenever they started a song. At least you would KNOW for sure what they did. Without the markings, the former employee could easily say that he bought his hard drive online from someone else.

What happens if you bought a disc with a "name " on it and then decided to sell it to someone else???

It's really not that difficult to remove the original company logo from a karaoke track and then make a custom logo of your own or get a Music Maestro LOGO and then just add whatever you want to add to the LOGO to create a way of marking your own collection of tracks. It would take some serious time to do it for thousands of tracks but it can be done. If you didn't want to remove the original logo and you just wanted to add the same company logo in front of the original logo, that would take much less time if you didn't want the song title or any other information other than your company name on the logo display. For someone to do it for themselves as they acquire a discs every so often wouldn't be too much of an inconvenience but for a company like Sound Choice to put a separate logo onto each track, based on who was buying it, would just be too costly a procedure.

Babs

Your title says SOLUTION ? That infers there is a problem to be solved.
The problem of people buying/selling copied libraries is one that will never be solved. The mass pirates selling on CL or eb will be targeted and shutdown.
But what problem does a KJ with an Illegal Hard Drive pose to the LEGAL KJ'S.
Unfair Competetion ? ... The days of getting gigs because you had a HUGE library are over. I'm convinced that nobody cares how many songs a KJ has anymore ( assuming you have a decent amount) With digital downloads and custom discs a KJ can have any customer requests next week or some even THAT MINUTE.

We as a group (kjs) need to discuss ways to make KARAOKE ..profitable for KJ's and appealing to owners and managers. We need to also make our shows appealing to the singers and unique compared to the show down the street.

It was a custom disc. It was just an idea that popped into my mind when I saw it.

I realized there were possible limitations to my suggestion. Just wanted to through it out there.

I titled it "A solution. Maybe?" Maybe meaning it probably wouldn't work.

My thought was if we all turned to downloading tracks maybe there was a way that when we did it, it would automactically add our names to the opening screen to prove payment. It would just make life easier for us not to have to keep receipts for every purchase. Just dreaming I guess.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I am growing increasingly resentful of the manufacturers for putting the burden of proof on the end users. We didn't create this problem, and we shouldn't have to live in constant flux wondering where the hammer is going to fall each time the wind blows. I shouldn't have to worry about a lawsuit because I'm using a disc or a 1:1 copy that I've misplaced a receipt for ... ever, ever, ever!!!

We need manufacturers with a new vision!!!!!!

It could make life easier for us, only to a point. If we buy CDs from others, their name would be on it though, and woe be to the KJ playing a disc at their show with someone else's name on it if the "copyright police" are around. We would still have to save all those receipts. And those of us who have a large amount of CDs already wouldn't be helped with those.

Babs, we are all going to dream on for a solution to a problem that is too complicated to solve completely. It is so expensive just to prosecute people when they are breaking the law. It's like we have a system to combat law breakers, and this is true for every area of the law, not just piracy, but that same system works against itself.

I would be interested to know where he got the disc. You said he ordered it. Did he say where from? It's kind of cool to have a disc that has your name on it, I think.

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It's called Karaoke Therapy...

I could have sworn it was a Music Maestro custom disc. Obviously I'm wrong. I'll check it out when he comes in again.

I've ordered custom discs from soundchoice with my name on the disc, but it wasn't on the screen page.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Good point !

I just get tired of keeping receipts for everything.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

It would be so simple if the record compainies produced a karaoke version of all the new songs being released and recorded. Just think again.... The MUSIC is already done as is the background vocals. The record companies just have to create a GRAPHIC file and It's done. THEN THEY CAN SELL THEM like they do every other song via Itunes or other download site. WHAT A WAY FOR RECORD COMPAINES AND ARTISTS to make more money ... To heck with SC and the others

No, that will never work.

Far too obvious.

Too good business sense.

I TOTALLY agree with this concept - a few artists have done it successfully, I believe - Taylor Swift is the one that comes to mind. Time to cut out the middleman who refuses to keep in step with technology. I just don't understand, and never will, why these companies (S/C, etc.) are not working harder to make it easier!

Agree completely. The only one so far that has done so is Taylor Swift. Both her full albums are available in karaoke format direct from the recomd company!

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Now we're getting somewhere!!!

I wonder who could plant it, and how big the bug would have to be, in the ear of the recording companies and the publishers and the producers and the artists ... why not give them the lion's share - all of them are screaming about their sales being down, and tours are being canceled because of poor ticket sales. (Tweeners are still able to afford concerts - Hannah Montana, Taylor Swift, Jonas Bros, interesting. Mom goes without her lattes for a month I guess. )

If that was the "solution" then all 9000 songs I currently have could be viewed as illegal.

Secondly if it becomes the industry standard, I am sure some 14 year old could write a bit of code to insert your name wherever you want it in the startup titles.

The pirates could overcome such a system as fast as it is created.

I have a pile of disks and reciepts for purchased music, including legal downloads.

If some company tries to sue me then they will probably lose as I have made all resonable efforts to stay legal.

That does not mean I am without fear of some over zellous company that can try to catch me in the dragnet, and make me waste my time proving my innocence.

Hmm.. Say Mr Plant, Mr Page, can we get a copy of the original tape reels of Led Zep 1 2 3 & 4 so we can leave out the vocals & make a karaoke dic?

Don't get me wrong, I agree it would be ideal, but money, contracts, egos & karaoke won't exist in harmony in the same market would they? Gotta figure that's why SC, CB, Sunfly et al exit right?

I'd be perfectly happy if the Major Record Companies would just release instrumental versions of the original songs on I-tunes, with or without the background singers on them. It's not that difficult to make a CDG file if it's a song that you really like. It takes a little longer if you're not that familiar with the song. The only problem I can foresee is that the exisiting karaoke companies would just buy these tracks from I-tunes to make their discs without having the overhead of paying musicians to create their own tracks. I don't think that the "Record Labels" want to make it that easy for another karaoke company to compete against them using their own music. The only difference would be the colors or fonts that were used.