Karaoke Forums

And from a quick no fly check it appears the French (Karaoke Version) has not honored the no fly list as of this minute.

I can not hit Sunfly's site at the moment. Can anyone from the UK hit it?

I can get on the sunfly site.

Joe at Zoom is pretty good - if he can't find out the facts no one can.

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'A genius is one who can do anything except make a living'. Joey Adams.

I can hit Sunfly now as well. Must have been a short outage.

My next question is: Is this an individual artist thing, a Universal thing, or both. So I went to http://www.universalmusic.com/artists and checked the list. First I noticed that several of the no fly Artists are missing from the list. No Eagles, No Adele, No ABBA, Looking by Author, No Don Henley, No Glen Fry. I am spot checking until I get enough to answer a part of the equation, then I am moving along.

So I go the Tricerasoft and start looking for Universal Artists. I see B.B. King is with Universal and I find several songs for him, all available for download.

Barry White is with Universal and he is on the no fly list. But with as many artists as we have, there are bound to be some that are with Universal without this necessarily being a Universal thing.
So this seems to be an individual Artist thing and not a cross the board Universal thing.

This is open for discussion and further interpretation!

Hello to all,

My name is Pete and I am the Managing Director of KSF Entertainment UK which owns Customburn.com. This is my first post on the forum and it is my hope to provide some extra insight and an educated opinion with regard to some the issues that seem to be dominating discussions here as of late. I have been in the industry for over 25 years, having been a key developer and software engineer of all three of the custom karaoke sites in the UK (ProBurn, Customburn and Selectatrack).

Although my experience in karaoke licensing is based in the UK, I have conducted extensive research into the US system for other projects that we are involved with. My hope is that I can dispel some of the misinformation I have read and share some of my experiences in the hope it clarifies things.

1. When we took over the management of Customburn in Feb. 2013, I redesigned the site to include downloads as well as other aesthetic improvements. I also incorporated Geo-Blocking to insure that the site was within the guidelines of the PRS license. After doing so, we were approached by several manufacturers including Karaoke Channel, Stellar and Priddis to offer their content. It was our adherence to the PRS rules that attracted these companies. They have all either had their share of litigation with US publishers or were determined to keep their reputation with them in good standing.

2. The "no fly" list which has been the source of much discussion was no surprise to us. It was enacted almost 18 months ago in the USA. These writers do not want their work used in karaoke for whatever reasons. It's their IP and they can do what they want. What is confusing for us is that PRS has issued the demand that the content be removed from only digital services ie. streaming, downloads. They have said it's OK to continue to make custom discs or to press discs using these same artists. This begs the question - if the artist has dictated that they do not want their content used for karaoke and that is the basis for the action, how is it OK to make discs?? This is hopefully the answer that PRS will address before the July 1 deadline. I am making inquiries and I have read that Joe at Zoom is doing the same.

3. The "no fly" list is strictly about the writers and has nothing to do with any one publisher.

4. Tricerasoft seems to be the focus here as they are the ones who appear to be the most active in the US for custom discs and downloads. I suppose they could avoid much of the adversity by simply stating clearly how and with whom they licence their content. I say this because when a major publisher like Universal is making statements like the one below - you have a problem. And not being transparent makes it worse...

"Tricerasoft has not obtained licenses to exploit Universal Publishing content in the US. In fact they have advised that they are not selling any content in/to US at all, and that they have geo-gated their site to sell only to consumers in Canada."

You are right to be cautious.

Best regards,

J. Grannis
Director, Digital Rights
Universal Music Publishing

5. This situation did not suddenly appear for any particular reason. It has been brewing for almost 2 years at the least. I don't believe the publishers are interested in going after hosts. But I do think that there will be an evolutionary change in the USA where a manufacturer will go through the lengthy process of obtaining proper licensing (on paper - not an email), provide detailed reports to the publishers and provide the services that the US users want (custom discs, downloads and streaming) along with a detailed receipt of their purchases. The publishers will want their cut of the action for everything. Because that's what they do. I would envision a scenario whereby a host will submit a usage report at then end of a show that will tie in with the ABC license that the venue pays. Is it the host's problem if the venue isn't paying performance licences? No. But if a proper reporting system is put in place and the publishers are getting paid, the tide can and will change. They want the revenue stream. They don't want to do any extra work.

If artists start to see meaningful revenue streams from karaoke, the "no fly" list will shrink - not grow. Companies that are looking to exploit ways around any such system will just prolong the inevitable. Just my opinion here. Hope it can be of help.

Cheers
Pete

Except if that is the case, the Tricerasoft has already pulled many of those songs even though they offer custom cdg's - so unless they plan on creating a new site strictly for custom disc for themselves & selectkaraoke, it is going to affect what we can buy. I guess we'll have to buy customs direct from the manu instead of selectkaraoke.

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Thank you Pete! Great info and I very much appreciate it!

Thank you Pete for posting some clarifications