Karaoke Forums

it's ridiculous sometimes how much they charge for CDs. Even more than a recording artist's cd.

there's big spanish karaoke companies and they don't charge much for their Cds. Karaokanta, etc... and then they charge more for them in the states. Like i can go to Tijuana and buy the same cd that would cost $15 in the states for about $7.

It because they don't sell as many as a 'recording artists' cd, so all the money they put into a karaoke disc, they have to recoup their production costs by a higher price since they will not sell as many. Karaoke is a very 'small' market comparitively.

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that makes sense. but some companies go over board. i mean why can one company charge so little for their cds while others charge so much? If they kept their prices reasonable than i think more people would buy from them.

and how much production costs are involved? just curious. because i have friends who are producers and it doesn't "cost" them much to produce instrumental versions of songs.

it's all greed. make it affordable

Because the cheaper companies generally cut corners on production costs (midi instruments & sequencers over real instruments & recording studios - and it is reflected in the final product) and often skip licensing so the music on their wasn't even legal to begin with. So without all the overhead to begin with they can shove out their cheap product at a lower cost. Singers are a lot more savvy these days in being able to a tell a cheap 'midi' fied produced disc over a disc that had real instruments/musicians and recorded well more today. People who are more serious about karaoke will buy the better tracks typically - same with kj's, kj's typically want the best sound they can offer & will get better tracks over something created on someones Casio keyboard.
Production costs include from start to finish, the acquiring of licensing in order to reproduce/distribute the music in question, then more licesning to acquire the sync rights (words on the screen or printed sheet), then paying the musicians, the time involved, the studio costs from pre-production to mastering process, the disc pressings, artwork, distribution. It was Sound Choice at one time that stated they can pay anywhere from $6000-20000 PER song (depending on the publishers & how much work they need to put into one) in order to produce it for karaoke & this was around 10 years ago, I imagine that cost is higher these days.

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Also the chances that the discs you bought in Tijauna are legit are slim to none.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

^ and why would you say that? they're original and are also sold in the US in stores that pull CDs from their shelves if there are issues.

Because if they are selling for $7 each, they cannot possibly be making any money on them as per the costs of production outlined by Lonman.
Although they may LOOK real, they probably aren't. CD pirates are very good these days and oftentimes it's very difficult to tell the difference by looking at them.
Argue it all you want, but I'll put my next paycheck on it that they aren't legal and are really knockoffs.

should i forward my paypal account to you?

trust me they're real. they're not sold at some back alley or whatever. And also some companies who produce spanish music are actually in Latin America. And as you know many things are cheaper in Mexico, etc...

Not so fast!
As you know, many things in Mexico are also knockoffs. I would challenge you on that one. There was recently a situation where a company hired to produce name brand items was caught running off a number of extras that were not authorized by the trademark owner, unauthorized exact duplicates of the originals, which were then sold cheaply.
Were they exactly like the originals?
Yes.
Were they counterfeit goods?
Yes. Without a doubt!
As for being sold in "legitimate" stores, that also means nothing, especially in Mexico as you well know.
Even here in Canada, recently, fake Olympic goods were seized from Liquidation World, a nationally recognized chain of stores. They claim they accepted the goods from a long time supplier and had no clue.
It happens.
The price of an item says a lot.

Diafel,

With all due respect, I will agree with you that there are MANY counterfeit products sold in the border towns.... ALL BORDER TOWNS.... including Canada. I was amazed at all the knock offs sold in Chinatown in Toronto.

However, I grew up in a border town (El Paso, TX) and I can tell you from living there, that Salsero12 is correct; prices are far LESS in Mexico and Latin America for the same "legitimate" goods.

Overhead costs are far less there too. There are plenty of (pardon my spelling) "maquiadoros" or "sister companies" in Mexico that do the "hard work" for American companies. RCA has an assembly plant in Juarez, Mexico where they assemble televisions... and the workers there earn on the average and in U.S. dollars; $8 per day (yes that's EIGHT, not eighty). And there is a 2 year waiting list for employment.

So before anyone immediately discounts Salsero12's assertion that his CD is legit and cheaper by claiming it must be a fake, think twice. It's quite possible that it IS perfectly legitimate. You're making judgements based on a NORTH American standard and not a SOUTH American standard.

Why do you think so much is made in Taiwan? The low production costs make it worthwhile, the licensing does not apply apparently.

If you want to be in the Business buying disc is part of it, I hope doing my part will keep this industry going. You gotta spend some money to make some money

If you want to be in the Business buying disc is part of it, I hope doing my part will keep this industry going. You gotta spend some money to make some money

That would be ok if SC had a plant down there. I wouldn't trust anything in Tijuana, and yes I've been there. Any Chinatown, Russiantown or any other type of town/city have their criminal element producing knock-offs which is why it a multi-billion dollar enterprise.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

So it's OK to suspect any CDG made south of the border or that only costs $7 as being counterfeit ... but it's NOT cool to think a hard-drive KJ with 100,000+ songs might be a pirate?

Sorry for the thread hijack, I'll return you to your previous discussion...

The manufacture of CDs is minimal in cost, the blanc CDs cost pennies. The cost of copying and artwork is also minimal.

The main cost of a Karaoke CD is going to be in liscencing and distribution.

Unlike major artists on music CDs the musicians or record execs are not multi-millionares. The profit they get doing the CDs is probably minimal.

The major part of the cost goes to paying royalties. This brings into play two major costs, the actual costs to pay the origional songwriter to use the music (and that artist can charge whatever they want in the US). The second part is the difficulty in finding the artists and negotiating the contract to make the karaoke. This may involve substantial cost as even a few hours of lawyer time to draw up contracts.

In the UK the rate is set and the paperwork is minimal and it comes to about $6 per CD for the lisencing alone. Much of the karaoke music industry is moving to the UK so the cost of liscencing on average must be far less there than the US.

With a fixed cost of about $6 to For liscencing, $1 for physical manufacture and shipping. 2-3$ pay to the studio musicians and technicians to make the karaoke files. 2-3$ for advertizing, sales profit, overhed, and $2-3 profit to the store that sells the CD it all adds up to the 15-17 cost of a karaoke CD.

The volume is not too huge and I doubt anyone is getting rich.

A copied pirate CD is easy to make for about $1-2, and a CD without paying the copyright can easily be made for about $7.

Karaoke retail shop is Vegas, all product looks like it was printed on an inkjet..

You figure it out..

(Only two karaoke shops in Vegas)

Jerry we were talking about SC and as I said earlier, I do not think they manufacture south of the border. If they were then yup $7.00 would be ok, if they paid Mexican wages for everyone.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I know Tim..

My point was, everyone is doing the same thing..

The shop in Vegas is selling disks from Manila..

I'm sure none of the OEMs are receiving any cut of the profits..

OK, here's something everyone seems to have overlooked.

1. The major players of Spanish Language Karaoke in this country, are Karaoke Box, Multi Karaoke, and Jade (Karaokanta). These companies are [u]NOT[/u] US or Canadian companies but are Mexican, and are located in Mexico, NOT the US.

2. The artists are primarily Mexican NOT US or Canadian. How many Anglos have heard of Ana Gabriel, Enrique Guzman or Los Hooligans, but they are popular Hispanic artists.

3. The discs are produced, recorded, manufactured, royalties paid for and mostly sold in Mexico NOT the US and hence not subject to the outrageous royalty system in this country. Which means costs are a lot less.

4. Because of the difference in the standard of living, that $7.00 (US) Karaokanta disc in TJ is about the same as that $30 Sound Choice disc you paid for at their height. When they IMPORT it to this country, they bump the price because we have more money to spend and it's still less than we are used to paying (I.E. Sound Choice Spanish Language discs) and they are just as good if not better.

Don't make the blanket assumption that just because it was bought cheaper south of the boarder that it must be pirated. That's like saying the $9 box of Franzia wine I buy in LA must be bootleg because the same box of wine in Denver is $15.

Off my soapbox.

THANK YOU!!!

I find it kind of offensive that some people jump to the conclusion that just because it's TJ and low priced that it's counterfit. That's just ridiculous.