Karaoke Forums

I am trying to start cheap because I have very little money to work with, and i am trying to get started as soon as possible so I can start making some money, which in turn will allow me to purchase better products. I am literally starting from nothing, as if it were 20 years ago and karaoke was first getting popular. What I am doing is out of necessity, not choice. As for my area, I have been to many shows, and have run my friend's show for years, and these people don't ask for brands. They just want to sing and have fun. For one reason or another, SC has never gotten popular here, so nobody cares. As for SC Foundation, that would be nice if I had $370 to spend on 30 discs. I got the SGB 68 for $67 on Amazon. YOU may not like it, I don't even like it, but until I get going I have no choice.

CB may sue people, but that isn't what they are in business for, unlike SC. SC SEEMS to relish in it. CB came up with a GREAT tool for upstarts in the HD system. Karaoke on demand is the BEST way to go. Only buying what you need, when you need it is the way to go. When SC goes that route, I will be HAPPY to go back to them. Right now, I own about 30 + SC discs. Do you think I want to spend $125 on that measly collection, for an audit?? Buying 2% over that would be one disc. I would have to get re-processed every time I bought a new disc. No thanks. That's a bit much to ask.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

SC waited years, trying to get people to respect its IP rights through other means, before resorting to suits. We don't like having to sue. It's a necessary evil.



What do you mean by "re-processed"? If you buy a new disc, take a quick photo of it, and forward the photo and receipt to SC by email. If you update your songbook, send it to them electronically. It takes less than 5 minutes.

It is all you people do, now. CB figured other ways to make it easy to be legal, without all the hassle. You could, too. But you choose to keep naming people in lawsuits, even if they are innocent. There has been enough talk on here about mistakes that have been made to make me want to stay away from your product, even after I get started. I don't want to be forced to set up my show in a way that will make it easier for your people to spy on my, nor will I put up signs to give you free advertisement ( and yes, that is what it is). Further, I will not make an (@$%&#!) out of myself by holding up your discs and making ridiculous announcements that only your inspectors care about. Once again, that is free advertising for you!! If that is the case, you can pay ME a fee for the plugging your product.



You think I want to be bothered doing that every time I buy a GD disc?? I don't want that kind of oversight in my life. Don't you people get that? I understand SC has been hurt, but I am NOT going to be beholden to a vendor!! My business is just that, MINE!! Not yours!! So, unless you people come up with a better way to conduct YOUR business, so as to make it more worth my while, I will NOT use your product. CB HAS done that. If you want to compete, I suggest you do the same, and quickly.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I keep seeing comments about putting up signs or holding up discs, making announcements during shows regarding using SC discs... WHAT?

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

I wouldn't worry about it. We're not asking anyone to do that. It was offered as a salve for a certain person's paranoia.

That's just rude.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

You keep seeing the same 2-3 mistakes re-hashed again and again, and it makes it look like we're incompetent. (That's by design, by the way.) Virtually none of the people we sue are completely innocent. If they are, it gets dealt with quickly. Some people are only technical infringers, most often because they failed to get an audit after doing their media shift. Many, many of the people we sue are pirates, some of them extreme pirates (complete SC in their library, without owning a single disc). But if you can't be bothered to respect SC's rights and policies, we would rather that you didn't use the product. Those rights and policies exist for a reason.



The problem is that you're wanting to use our intellectual property to make money and not follow the rules that have been established to allow that. Your purchase grants you a packet of rights, but not absolute dominion and control over the product. If you decide that you don't want to play by our rules, that's fine--there are other manufacturers who don't care as much as we do about preserving their brand image or putting out a high quality product, who will be more than happy to get your business. Likewise, if your patrons decide they'd prefer to go to a show where the music played is top quality, or if your customers decide they want to hire a KJ who has the best quality library, then they are free to look elsewhere.

You've heard the saying, "the customer is always right"? The thing that makes that true is that the customer can always decide to go elsewhere. We understand that. But it does not mean that the customer gets to make all the decisions and the vendor is incapable of saying anything but yes. We have rules; you can follow them and prosper, or you can drop the product and maybe prosper (or maybe not), or you can break the rules and expect us to follow through with consequences.

That's the least of the rudeness I've seen in this forum.

I actually believe that there is paranoia going on here. Nit picking to the point of pain.

All this energy, for what? To try to get Harrington to convince SC that they shouldn't protect their rights. That's not going to happen. Harrington isn't SC... he's an employee. We'd all be better off to use his presence here by asking advice instead of haggling over copy-write law.

We bought discs.. all brands.. and all brands say no reproducing on them. Follow the rules or get in trouble. It's not all that complicated.

In a perfect world there would never be a mistaken lawsuit. Perfect doesn't exist. Get over it already.

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

So now just using YOUR product equals prosperity?? A bit presumptuous, don't you think? I know plenty of KJs who do NOT use SC and are doing just fine. You think a bit too highly of your product. While many of your versions of songs are actually pretty good, some of them are crap, which is another reason for the HD type system. If a person were to have a couple of different HD systems they could compare songs before buying to see which they liked better. This is what makes Tricerasoft so nice. You have 3 or 4 versions of a given song to chose from, and you can compare which you like best. PLUS, you can purchase songs rather than whole CDs. I hate buying whole CDs for 2 songs. Size of a collection means nothing if large sections of it never get used. Part of being a QUALITY company is modernization and innovation. The best your company has done is offer a series of discs that people have to lease rather than own, which, as Chip said, makes us franchisees rather than business owners. If you are counseling SC to stay in the dark ages, you aren't doing right by them. If they are staying in the dark ages on their own, they are going to lose.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

No, he should be counselling them how to make their service better, and less demanding on their customers. Imagine if every product you bought required audits, and e-mailing of pictures when you bought more of the product, and possible financial audits,and inspectors and all this nonsense. iTune audits you, whenever you turn on their program. They know where your music is, how many computers it's on, and if you want to move it to another computer. It's non-intrusive, and it works. If you try to put their music on a sixth computer it stops you, or will de-authorize one of the other computers. SC would do well to come up with a system like that.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I just had to "Drive-by" and agree with you timberlea.

to be fair though, that is not what Mr. Harrington was hired for. he is there for the law suits, not for system development.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Well, than they need a new consultant. Whoever they are using sucks and should be fired.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I'm sure if they hired someone to revamp the system, then that's what they would get. Harrington is doing exactly what he's hired for - suing those with illegal libraries.

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

Two things. First I'd like to take the person who coined "The customer is always right" and shoot them. It is the most asinine saying going.

Second, if you go to Sound Choice, you can listen to audio samples.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I know that you can listen to them. If you buy from them you are beholden to them until you die, which is what I don't like. .

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

And they still want to know....

Will you look at that. Here we have TWO people who have spent a LONG time disagreeing about just about everything on these forums- in COMPLETE agreement in regard to U.S. based download centered shows. Any questions??

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

No, SC is suing any media shifters that they can find- those with LEGAL libraries as well as illegal. Then, AFTER they add these names to lawsuits, where they can be viewed by virtually anyone, they may drop the suit and ignore the shift if the KJ has all of the SC discs to match the tracks in the computer.

Also, a KJ may have other brands shifted without having the discs- in other words, an illegal library- yet may still be dropped from the SC suit. SC can't do anything about, say, shifted DK discs that are not in the KJ's possession.


These are not PIRACY suits, they are Trademark Infringement suits ( IMHO, very weak ).

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Exactly. However that is just to weed out the legal ones that actually have discs from those who don't.

Right, should have said SC specific.



They have to go that will give them the best chances, they tried the copyright ways years ago and it wasn't working.

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