I wrote the following article for a KJ friend of mine who is considering going digital. Would like opinions on whether you think I missed anything important.
"Going Digital, is it worth it? A breakdown of the pitfalls and advantages
First of all, I should state right off the bat that everything I have stated in here is my own personal opinion. I am not a lawyer and have no legal background. My opinions are based on my own personal understanding of the current laws, as explained by people who do have a background in law. If you want a definative legal opinion, you should verify everything with a lawyer who has experience with IP law.
The Good Stuff
The most obvious reason for going digital is convience. Let's face it, being a karaoke host is a lot of work. Carrying all those discs into a venue is hard on the back and a laptop is much easier to carry than most players. Running a fair rotation that will keep the majority happy is no small task either.
The good news is that no matter which hosting software you end up choosing, once you learn the ins and outs of that particular software, you will save a considerable amount of time over using discs, as lookup and queing will reduce the workload of rotation, thereby allowing you to spend more time with your regulars and promoting your business.
Some additional benefits are: 1. No Degrading graphics.
Once you have your library ripped, you have a perfect digital copy that will never degrade, allowing you to keep the originals safe and in top condition
2. Keep Discs safe.
Almost every host I have run into has had at least one disc they own go missing from a show
3. Easier to Update music.
Most producers that are still around are producing new music in a MP3+G digital format which makes it harder for disc based hosts to obtain new music.
There is at least one site called Tricerasoft that has actually gone to the trouble of getting a license to sell downloads for KJ use, which would make tracks they sell 100% legal to use on a hard drive. There are other sites that you can buy downloads from, that are legal in that country, and in my opinion, would be legal to use in a show because Socan covers the PERFORMANCE rights of a song.
Its no different than a DJ using one of their personal discs for a show. The personal disc is legal to use because the commercial performance right is covered by fees paid to SOCAN which are not your responsibility.
This means you can obtain tracks that may not even be available on CD+G at all, plus you only need to buy the songs that actually get requested, saving you money because you're not buying a bunch of songs you don't need, just to obtain the one song that you do.
The Bad (but in my opinion managable) Stuff
Karaoke is going thru a lot of change right now. You may have heard about all the Lawsuits from Soundchoice. Chartbuster karaoke, the main source of quality new music has closed its operations. Some people will tell you that doing karaoke on a computer is completely illegal. Here's a breakdown of what I believe to be the truth, based on countless hours of reasearch and people I have talked to on the matter.
1. Ripping your personally owned discs to a digital medium, such as a hard drive is not in of itself illegal. The digital millenium act allows such practices under what is termed as FAIR USE.
The sticky point comes up when you talk about commercial use. In my opinion however, this commercial use is covered by performance rights obtained by the venue by paying its SOCAN fees, which completely covers Karaoke.
the problem is, karaoke tracks do not just contain the music and lyrics, they also have a trademark attached to the track. In order to have a fully 'authorized' digital karaoke track, you must obtain permission from the producer of this track. For a companies like Chartbuster and Soundchoice, this was a painless and relatively inexpensive process. All you had to do was voluntarily submit to an audit of your discs, and pay the coresponding fee. Since chartbuster is no longer operating and has been bought out by a company called digitrax, it is unclear on how future audits may be conducted, or if you will need them at all.
Soundchoice still offers audits, and everyone whom I have talked to said the process was very quick and painless. Currently the audit fee is $150
Companies in the UK have all stated, in writing that they don't care if you rip your discs, as long as you keep the original disc and are not using them in a separate show.. This is what is known as 1:1 corespondance *ie one disc that covers the track you have saved to hardrive* for digital download copies, as long as you have a reciept of that download, that is perfectly ok.
Stellar, who owns the pop hits monthly/sing it now trademark, has also stated that they don't care, as long as you have the disks to back up the digital copies.
For karaoke producers who are no longer in business, or permission is not easily obtainable there is a small risk. But the chances of someone coming after you, in my opinion, are about the same as someone winning the lottery. In other words, practically non existent.
The bottom line, in my opinion, is that the benefits of running a digital show outstrip the risks by such a wide margin that it is pretty much a no brainer. "
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