Karaoke Forums

So what happens when harddrives become obsolete and replaced with another technology? Then that's replaced, and so on and so on and so on, and you cannot transfer what you have over because the manufacturers decide to make it that way?

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You can be strange but not a stranger

You think YOU have significantly lower start up costs? Mine are way less than yours.

5 years ago when I went on my own, I built multiple libraries as follows:

1) SC Foundation Plus Bricks = $1,400 each
2) CB Essentials 1-6 SCDG = $300 each
3) DK Millenium SCDG = $90 each
4) SGB 70+ Disks = $75 Each
5) THM Hits of 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 5 x 50 Each = $250 each
6) Misc Disk Packages (MM Counrty Clubs, SC Teen Paks, Backstage, etc) = $250 Each

Going in, I was $2,400 into each library, but I was and remain very current on my music. It was the monthly releases ($40 per month for 6+ years) that cost me money.

Now, I don't even buy the monthly releases. I just let everyone know from the mike, in my books and on my facebook, if there is something you don't see, just let me know. I discovered that books help people decide what to sing. They like to peruse. BUT, I would rather have them come to me and say "Hey, can you get this new song by Lady Antebellum" than buy an entire disk "just because someone might want to sing one of the songs". It's vanity - "...my books, or my song collection is THIS BIG". Who cares, if you have the ability to buy any karaoke song on the fly. That's more important. I do download on the fly, and my costs are cheaper than those who buy just TWO monthly disks per month from any manu - and that includes old hits that I don't happen to have.

And let me go on record as saying SBI has THE BEST new music - hands down. If I hadn't gone to downloading on the fly, I never would have discovered them.

I am in no way affiliated with anyone at SBI or any THING at SBI (or any manu). That is my personal and professional opinion.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Note to Troy: A couple of EXCELLENT posts! Thank you!


Now, as for physical media: It may not be discs, but I'm willing to bet that a new hard media will be coming out, and fairly soon.

Digital media is simply too easy to pirate. Almost as soon as a producer uploads it, it's in the pirates' hands, and any revenue from the track is history.

What has been talked about for a long time is a hard media- say a card, for example, that can only be played on a specific device. Any attempt to play it elsewhere would fail, and any attempt to copy it would cause the data to self-delete from the media without the copy being made. This can also be made to happen if an attempt is made to use it on anything but the player designed for it.

Of course, if you want a backup, you would just have to buy 2 of everything, I guess- unless they are sold in pairs.

I brought this up a few years ago, and the technology was being worked on even then.


I foresee a return to hard media(protected) simply because digital represents an income that self-diminishes, and producers won't sell what won't make them money.

Yes, I know that it's cheaper to self a never diminished resource than to manufacture a physical product. However, digital product is like a reverse pyramid scheme. Those at the top pay, but those at the bottom ( the majority) just grab a copy. No money in that.

Of course anything can be hacked- including CB's current HD- but digital delivery is just a plain giveaway.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Storage is storage. As long as you are 1:1 it wouldn't matter. It would be a foolish move to prohibit that transfer. It would just be bad business, just like now.

Don't you think as solid state HDDs get bigger and cheaper people are going to start using them to store their songs?? SD cards are getting bigger all the time, (I think they are up to 32 GBs). You could easily store your music on one of them, and use it anywhere.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Let me start off by noting that I could be entirely wrong about the future. But I don't think so.

I guess your "off-the-grid" mentality removes you from things like iTunes, Zune, Pandora, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and other digital delivery systems that are profitable, and some of which are DRM protected. They aren't perfect, but they are very profitable. Piracy still exists for the content that exists on these services, but they are still profitable.

I am not going to try to convince people to change to my line of thinking. I will leave it as a prediction and let other folks make up their own mind. Suffice it to say that I have not purchased a CD for music, a VHS or DVD for a movie in over 10 years now because there are viable alternatives. I don't own a Blu-Ray player. (btw.....I am not the exception to this. Most of the people in my circle of friends and acquaintances are at or near the same point. I have watched many, many, many people sell off, donate their physical media collections. The local 1/2 Price Book Stores and Goodwills are overflowing with this stuff.)

The majority of NEW TV's being built have ethernet ports on them. They aren't there just to make nerds slobber.

If people want to use rabbit ear antennas with tin foil on them to watch a TV that goes batty every time a hair dryer, vacuum cleaner, or microwave gets turned on, go right ahead. I choose to leverage modern day technologies and believe that there will be for more cost-effective, efficient, and PROTECTABLE delivery systems in the future.

All of that said, I do buy up HUGE quantities of karaoke physical media just to remain compliant. I struggle more and more every day with that knowing that it just gets ripped and goes into a closet. It is antiquated and wasteful. It is the ONE thing that makes me question my decision to want to go into this business. The redeeming factor is that I want to believe that the industry will get it figured out in time for me to make a living at it.

-Chris


-Chris

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-Chris

Well, good luck with this dream. The genie is out of the bottle. People (present company excluded) do not want or need hard media. It is no longer necessary. Be sure to let us know when this new hard media is out. I believe we will be waiting a very long time.



And hard media isnt?! How do you think every karaoke song in existence has been pirated?



Any links, evidence to this mystery media that is already "being worked on"?



Yeah? Ever heard of iTunes? The #1 company on the planet would argue with this logic.

Since we are using our crystal-balls, I foresee hard media going the way of the Dodo as it already is. It is expensive to create, expensive to ship, expensive to store, expensive to dispose of and it takes up needless space. Digital media is proven. It exists now. People like it and they aren't going to go back to the 80's. The steam shovel has replaced your horse.

I should clear up one thing - I do believe that CD's and other "hard media" will be used for a few years to come. Because purchasing "hard media" is the only way to be compliant in some cases, it is a necessary evil we must all contend with....for now.

Since I am in prediction mode, I am going to predict that 5 years from now we will see a lot less physical karaoke media than we see today, and 10 years from now it will be virtually non-existent.

In 5 years it will be more along the lines of SD or other flash type media, hard drives, and perhaps even optical discs with MP3+G files.

In 10 years it will be primarily streamed -or- fixed systems that require a network connection to sync up and unlock tracks similar to the KJMP system. I see opportunites for both of these scenarios and there are pros and cons for each.

The super smart karaoke company will develop an Amazon Whisper-Net like service for karaoke distribution. Or even just team up with Amazon to avoid re-creating the wheel.

While I am on this prediction track.... If you think the barrier to entry for hosts is low now, in 10-15 years it is going to be about as low as it can get.

The barrier to entry is not just the price point but the labor side of it. I predict that in 10-15 years, wireless speakers and wireless video will be the norm. No more speaker wires to deal with, just power. I don't think we will figure out the wireless power part in 10-15 years unless there are some spectacular advances in battery technology, but Tesla's dream will eventually become a reality.

I also believe that there will be some amazing advances in sound reproduction that reduce the size and weight of PA systems to the point that ANYONE will be able to carry and lift "speakers". This I do see happening on the tail end of the 10-15 year spectrum.

Power and Signal without wires....
Quality sound in a small size....
No physical media....

All of it is just a matter of time....

-Chris

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-Chris

Yup. And I believe cutting both those numbers in half is more realistic.

1) No dream of mine- I couldn't care less. I've been through vinyl (DJ work), cassettes, LDs, and CD+Gs. I might even be using WAV or similar in a PC now if it weren't for both the mfr. and other BS associated with it. You've never caught on that the Luddite bit is mostly just a goof. Yes, I prefer being disc based- because I enjoy the tactile part of it. However, I'm running a business, and will always use what's best for that purpose- whatever it is. Thanks to the mismanaged manufacturers, that means discs for now.


2) Yup, and as I stated, I expect any hard media to be hacked as well- but the spread of pirate music would be MUCH slower- like back in the disc burning days.


3) Yes, I've heard of iTunes, Amazon, Napster, etc.... and vitually everything they have has been pirated as well as bought. In my opinion, iTunes looks good on paper because it's only a small part of a much larger company. It's product is probably a bit more than a break even item itself, but sales of the products that it is used on more than make up for it. Still, I believe more of it is pirated than sold

Again, a reverse pyramid scheme, where the product is initially paid for by those at the top, while the broader base is pirated.

Hey, wanna see my Android tablet?

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

This makes me laugh as again you are speaking of life in "Joe's World ™".

iTunes (not Apple as a whole) had revenue of 1.4 BILLION in the 2nd Quarter of 2011 alone. That's 1.4B in three months.

A "break even item" you say?

I keep seeing how nobody is buying hard copy media anymore. I still buy CDs, depending on the band. Most I will download, but some, like Dio, I still but CDs of. I still buy DVDs, too. I don't want to watch movies on my computer. Karaoke, I don't want to carry CDs. I will buy them, but not carry them.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

If you buy a modern TV, you are buying a computer. They are internet connected, and several companies have for years been working the industry to beome the "TV Operating System".

I have a high end Windows 7 PC Connected to my TV as Media Center. It basically run every part of my home media experience. That type of experience is being built into TV's today.

-Chris

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-Chris

My desktop is quite good, but it's only for playing games and chatting on the web. My X-box 360 is hooked up to my 23" monitor, and my TV is separate. It will be a while before I can afford an internet ready TV.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I think the main reason karaoke companies are in trouble vs. music companies is the universe of users. (These numbers are for illustration purposes only, I have no idea what they really might be). For every music track that comes out there may be 10 million potential customers, so if 8 million get sold and 2 million get pirated, the profit is still there.
A karaoke track that is released has 200,000 potential customers, so if 20% are pirated, only 160,000 get sold so the profitability is much less to the karaoke company.

I hate to stick my head in the lions mouth but DK was never released on SCDG since they stopped production well before SCDG was introduced. CAVS, the developer and copyright/trademark owner of the SCDG technology has never offered it. The Millenium sets being offered on SCDG are pirated.

Just FYI.

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Ken Wilson
San Diego DJ & Karaoke

Maybe so, but they aren't out suing KJs like gangbusters like some manus. And I do support anti-piracy efforts - but I bought the DK set in good faith. Also, since DK has not sued a single KJ (to my knowledge), I am pretty sure that I am ok using those tracks at my shows. The license to play the music & synced lyrics are covered under the BMI/ASCAP fees. SC & CB are exploiting the trademark rights - that's all they have to go on. They don't own the music or the lyrics. Once again, they are the property of the record companies/artists/etc and covered under ASCAP/BMI.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

I am looking to get those Millennium discs. Amazon sells them for $68 and $70. I just don't understand how anything pirated could be sold through all the major oulets. The pirated Hard drives are sold through private companies, not major outlets. Besides, who is going to come after you for having them?? DK only operates in Japan, now. Is there a list anywhere of legit CAVS material??

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

How is the sound quality on those?? And can the files be ripped that same way as regular discs??

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

They are ripped at 192 kbps, much better than my CB E1-6 I bought on SCDG (those are 128)

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Oh, and to answer your other question, you need a program to get the songs off. I used a trial of RoxBox to extract the songs - paid nothing.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!