Karaoke Forums

I've been trying to build my Sunfly collection up as the Brits love it. I have a lot of tourists from England that come to my show because they are here for the winter sports and in the summer they come for the golfing.

Oh dear, I never thought my collection would like it was pirated more that I shopped around. I'm about

15% Zoom
15% Sunfly
15% Mr entertainer
10% xtreme / Chartbuster / Legends
10% Soundchoice
5 % EKi
5 % PHM /RHM
5 % EK
20 % SPC / Nutech / Dangerous / DK / SGB / Original Footage / SBI / MM / and Misc

There isn't much call for country in the UK, but my partner and I, like a lot of it so I buy it in. I've also trained most of my customers so they no longer assume that a certain manufacturer will always have the best versions because people in my area of the UK tend to lean towards Sunfly.

My show would continue fine without SC but customers would miss the Metallica and songs to make your mama blush SC disc.

Why all of this talk about removing your Sound Choice tracks? Is it just to prevent a Sound Choice investigator from ever seeing a Sound Choice track played at your show?

I have an interesting question....What do you think a Sound Choice investigator would do if they encountered a KJ that was still using one of those old JVC machines that used the six pack trays but the six pack trays were all filled with burned copies of discs? Would they be able to force the KJ to remove all of his discs from their trays just to prove to some investigator that all of the discs were original discs? Do Sound Choice investigators just claim that they received an anonymous tip from a former employee and that is what they base their accusations on? Is that enough to get a warrant from a judge? Why should anyone have to prove to any accuser what they bought and where they bought it. I could be driving around with a dead body in the trunk of my car and the police have no right to pull me over unless I break a law while driving that car. Can they search my car because I have a magnetic sign on the side of my car advertising my karaoke show with 100,000 songs?

I never thought I'd say this, but those are excellent points, Bruce and that's exactly one of the issues I have with SC and their "investigations".

I also agree with BruceFan. Oddly enough

Actually, at this time, SC has acknowledged that they have no interest in investigating disc based operations.

So, it you have a thousand burned SC disc, which would probably represent most of their library, you're safe for now.

Maybe when they start to get board they'll look for the odd-ball multi-rigger that is disc based?

My guess would be that they target PC shows because they have a better chance of actually grabbing a pirate.

There is a better chance that the PC show that has 100,000 tracks will have a large amount of pirated SC music than a disc based show with 12,000 or less ( and you probably won't find too many 100K disc based shows. Lugging 6700 or so discs would be a bit of a pain, even for me.)

1) The amount of money invested in 100K legit tracks would make charging 150-225 per night a losing proposition- so guessing that this may be a pirate isn't a huge risk.

2) From what I've read on the forums, many PC shows are download based. Even if the host payed for every song, there is no way to show 1:1, and downloads, even if they came diresct from SC, are illegal for hosting anyway.

In other words, if you bought SC downloads and there is a record of it, SC can come after you.


3) It's harder to prove piracy or trademark infringement with discs. Back up on the same media are perfectly legal. Also, even the IRS wouldn't need receipts past 7 years. Claim a broken, lost, or stolen disc, and no receipt past 7 years, and there really isn't much SC can do..

_________________
"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

This is an interesting thread. Interesting because i kinda wondered this samething myself. What i have been doing the past few weeks, is trying to go the whole evening without playing a SC disc, as an experiment. I'm on week #4, and so far so good. Now, i must admit that most of my singers are older, and sing country, and light rock and southern rock. But hey, if this works out, i will be selling all of my SC disc as well. We have disc based kj's up here who have stopped using SC already. They have sold their SC disc collections, and purchased new more up todate songs by current artist. Mostly on Chartbuster. I to am ashamed and angry at what the sleps have done to the karaoke industry, and those that have legally supported it. Legal kj's, venue's, and singers are all caught up in the greed of not only the pirates, although they haven't cost me a dime. But also by the sleps and the KIAA. My opinion, one is just as bad as the other.

_________________
Sweet Little Me In Karaokeland........

I have yet to meet any legit kj running discs that has that many cdg's. I do/did know several local kj's that ran up to 1000 (maybe a little more) original cdg's, but was never higher than 2000 legit discs. I can see why SC would go after computers only, out of probably more than half of the originally 'legit' kj's I knew, many have said WTF & bought an illegal drive & are running shows with them now. Some I know have even sold their orignal discs. I knew of a little store that used would get the discs, copy them to their mobile systems, then reshrink wrap the discs & sell them as new, while keeping the copy on their hard drive for their mobile shows. I don't know if they are still doing shows anymore, I heard they moved out of state, but I know it was happening as he flat out told me so.

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

That makes absolutely no sense. If they are disc based, why sell?

_________________
You can be strange but not a stranger

To avoid the hassle if Sound Choice does come around. Remember, there was a KJ that was sued who was disc based. The "investigator" saw a cavs machine on the premises and it went from there.
I am phasing out my use of SC songs for the same reason. I am PC based and I don't need the hassle when they come around and decide to sue without bother to ask. It DOES cost money and time, even if you can prove you're legit. And I'm sure there are some that will settle, even if they're legit, because in the long run, it's cheaper to do so.
It happens everyday in the court system. It's not about who's right anymore. It's about who has the bigger wallet. If you don't believe me just look into soy farmers and Monsanto. Farmers settle everyday because it's cheaper to do so, not because they are in the wrong.

Ha! Someone's seen the documentary Food, Inc.

_________________
C Mc
KJ, FL

So what's going to become of everyones library when the rest of the manus follow suit?

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

Lonnie,

How dare you suggest another manu might want to protect their interests too!

_________________
Kevin

Maybe it will all be juke boxes one day. The juke box at the bar gets its songs over the Internet, the company that owns it pays royalties for the songs, and no one worries about it. They don't even have to pay ASCAP/BMI/SESAC if they got rid of karaoke and bands and went to just using that jukebox for everything.

_________________
Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Jeff, if a bar has a jukebox, they still have to pay the alphabet people.

_________________
You can be strange but not a stranger

You missed the part where he said "The juke box at the bar gets its songs over the Internet, the company that owns it pays royalties for the songs, and no one worries about it. "

They may get it over the internet but it is still a public performance.

_________________
You can be strange but not a stranger

The Jukebox service pays the royalties. It's the same with bars and restaurants that have a commercial XM radio subscription.

_________________
Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ