Karaoke Forums

Well, storage is cheap, to be sure. But time and bandwidth are not necessarily so cheap. If you don't mind taking extra time to back up the larger files, or mind running with the risk of no digital backup (and therefore a re-rip), that may not be an issue. But there are carrying costs to any large item.

For me the sweet spot is 192Kbits. The difference in quality between it and 320 is miniscule, and when playing in a live environment essentially non-existent. Yet the file size is more managable.

I only have about 120G of music files, but that's plenty to have to back up and carry around as far as I am concerned.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

This is partially incorrect. They are targeting
each and every media shifter who is basing their karaoke show on the shifted media- any that they can find. They will happily name them ALL in suits. THEN, AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN SUED, ( and their names listed inplaces of easy access as linked to said suits) SC may drop the suit against them if they have all of the SC discs to match the SC tracks in their PC.

As a matter of fact, SC's OWN statements claim that they are suing for Copyright Infringement,
NOT:
"only targetting those who have not paid for their tracks".

However, you are correct that they probably aren't purposely suing disc based hosts. I believe that happens simply because of a lack of professional investigation before-hand.

BTW, this works backwards as well. A KJ may be be in complete compliance with SC's music, and have to be dropped- despite having a bunch of other music stolen from other brands- because SC has no rights to the other trademarks.

BTW, Part Deaux: HL mentions that SC still owns the copyright to music produced since 2007, after the sale to Stingray of their library.

1) As far a said product, I believe it was one extremely limited edition of ONE disc made in 2009.

2) The selling of the library to Stingray represents - in my opinion- merely a corporate shift of ownership to a non-U.S. location for protection. I believe Kurt's brother is at least a part owner.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Most of my DJ stuff from up until 4 or 5 years ago was all ripped at 192 primarily. I now rip at 320 when I get new discs (yes I still get new discs ), but only because the storage today compared to then is so much cheaper - however I am not going to go re-rip any of the discs from 192 to 320 simply because it ISN'T that huge of a difference. My last 2 TB external ran me $100 compared to the 1TB I bought 3 years ago for $150 - same company & series drives. I do need to upgrade my karaoke drives, they are 250gb and almost full primarily because of the video files I created from my Pioneer discs. The avg size for a 3 min song is 100 mb. Over 2000 videos @ 100mb avg = 200gb by them selves.

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

No, it's around 100 tracks total.


[/quote]

This is not accurate. Derek did do some consulting work for Stingray for a period of time after the sale of the catalog, but he's not an owner. Stingray lists their corporate governance and management teams on their website.

Though I have heard this rumor, I have yet to have it verified. CB hasn't done so, anyway. If you have a link to any verification, or a copy of some sort of documentation that can be posted, many folks have been asking for it.

PyleDriver, Please understand that I do not doubt YOU, but have reason to doubt CB after their reaction to a list of songs for which there was a permanent injunction against them to produce. They were less than straightforward.

In other words, I'm not attacking you, but would require some documentation from CB.

I believe that their company is in the midst of some big changes, and that there is a lot of confusion within this manufacturer. I also believe this is why their release are sporadic at best, and why communication with them is such a problem.

Please keep in mind that I have no real issues with CB, because I have no knowledge of them doing the damage that SC does. What I have posted is only observational, and without any icky motivation.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Right but the media shifter don't have that right without permission. So even if they have the discs and don't volunteer an audit, they are technically not legal. But again, they primarily want those who have never bought a disc or paid for anything. The ones that have discs to back up their library are dropped from any resulting suit. So maybe they should just bite the bullet in the cost of doing business & go for the audit. I held out for quite a while and am doing just that myself.

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

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Give the man a cee-gar! My point exactly.

And if he don't like 'em.... then give him something he does!

Um, I also have about 120g of karaoke plus another 200 gigs of Dj music on the 2T internal drive of the desktop rig. I keep it backed up on an external drive that I keep at home. I don't carry it around. If I were to get a fatal failure while at a gig, I would play disc's until my laptop could be delivered. It hasn't happened in the 2 years I've been digital *knock on wood*. I know that computer problems can happen with no warning, but it helps to take care of that computer with updates, virus protection/firewall and overall disc maintenance, etc.... so hopefully I'll stay safe I'd rather carry around a digital backup than the disc's... but even though I haven't used them in 2 years, they are still in the van with the rest of the rig (along with a book that has the disc numbers).

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

BTW, once the initial ripping is done, backing up & updating is easy... drag & drop/copy & paste, done. I do it once a month when I get the new discs.

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

BUMP: And will keep bumping. Please explain SC's reqirements of GEM buyers in regard to wnting their financial records. This has been brought up several times in several threads with no acknowledgement or reply.

WHY does SC think they have the right to request financial records from hosts?

Actually, that's the wrong question, as any host who capitulates ( read: rolls over) to SC gives them that right.

Allow me to re-phrase: What is SC's purpose in requesting financial records from Karaoke Hosts?

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Um, no. Chris, you stated in another thread that although you are "certified" by Stellar, SC, and CB- and having paid to do so- you have no guarantee of not being sued. This was a reply to Smoothedge.

Therefore, you KNOW you could still be sued. Why answer Chip in that manner?

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Lisah, I'm sorry you feel that way. Undercutters ( legal or otherwise) will always be there. It is YOUR JOB, as part of your profession, to to be able to convince the bar owner to think in the long term.

Don't you think undercutters are everywhere? Don't you think they have been here since the beginning?

A KJ is a business person. It's not just about running the show, it's about running a business.

I apologize in advance for sounding gruff, but it's late and whining doesn't appeal to me right now. If one wants to be in the highly competitive business of hosting karaoke, one must learn to sell oneself- whether at a higher price, or with a smaller (and legal) library, or at any other disadvantage to those they compete against.

Haven't learned to do it? Learn how or give it up and sell tupperware...

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Come on BAZZA! You'll certainly argue with ME all day about this. Where are you when SC takes this same position???!!!!! Do they get a pass because they are SC? Hmmmm? Go ahead- let 'em have it!!!

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

This is not accurate. Derek did do some consulting work for Stingray for a period of time after the sale of the catalog, but he's not an owner. Stingray lists their corporate governance and management teams on their website.[/quote]


1) I know of ONE disc ( with, I believe, a total printing of 750 ) that was made after 2007. If there were other discs, please share the numbers for look-up.

2) I will accept the correction, as Derek is not LISTED as an owner. However, I believe him to be more than a consultant. However, this point is unimportant until or unless the library is put to use again- say, for an offshore download site...

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

1) First of all, NO ONE has stated that they are not LEGAL but the extremely uninformed- not even SC. If anything, they are not in COMPLIANCE, which is explained a post above. I truly wish folks would stop using "legal" for "compliant". Legal has nothing to do with the issue.

Second of all, the "permission" that SC now demands is after the fact- in other words, this "requirement" was added YEARS after they started selling discs.

Third, they PRIMARILY want to collect funds from anyone they can- though they DO drop suits if they can find no way to excise money from a host.


2) In other words, they should roll over to anyone who wants money, whether there are grounds or not. Keep in mind that SC's ( IMNSHO) extremely weak case has never been proven in a court of law. So what you are recommending is that KJs pay money for something that has never been PROVEN needed. Let themselves be intimidated into it.

I'm sorry, but that makes just about the worst business sense that I can imagine.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

You are cranky.. as I was last night when I posted that... but I wasn't whining!! I was angry! I can compete with the best of them.. but I won't do it for $100. We've been in business since 1985, I think we've figured it out. "Learn how or give it up and sell tupperware"??? WOW.... what'd I do to you? jerk

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

LisaH, you are correct. I am a cranky jerk. Please accept my apologies. Both the "whining" and "Tupperware" comments were out of line. I'm sorry. Broke a finger on someone's face tonight and it hurts.

I stand by my comments regarding being able to compete, or learning how. My other comments were out of grumpiness. Again, I'm sorry..

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Sorry about your finger.
Still your comments about learning how to run my business are totally out of line. You don't know me or my business. So don't assume to tell me to "learn how". You don't know what I know and don't know. I doubled the income of the business within the first 2 years after taking over...oh forget it, I don't need to justify myself to you. Good night I hope tomorrow is a better day for you.

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

Joe, you are comparing apples and oranges. What I have said over and over is that YOU cannot hear the difference between a CD and 320 MP3, over a PA, in a Karaoke bar as you claim you can.

I stand by that statement.

I think the key words are "after 2007." The Stingray purchase was completed in May 2007, but production continued through that year.