Karaoke Forums

My two GEMS have helped me get and keep gigs.

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-Chris

Let's face it Chris you hustle and are an exceptional salesman, you ought to give yourself more credit.

I refuse to settle for less than I am worth. And I will be moving in the near future so I am only taking private gigs for now. And I am getting my asking price. Most of my leads are coming off of my website.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

still waiting for a response Any comment Jim?

+1. Same for me. The undisputed Mercedes of base sets.



Well, I did a party last night that paid $750 and the owner of the establishment gave me a $200 cash tip as I was leaving.. This was the 5th year I have driven 2-1/2 hours out to coastal CT for this mans private employee appreciation party. You know why he hires me? Because he says I have the best music & system (and throw a good party!).

He doesnt know Sound Choice from Adam but he knows he likes what he hears. So do I.

You have a fundamental misunderstanding of why people get the GEM set. I didn't do it to "get more gigs", just as a Chef doesnt buy the best knives to win more culinary awards. Just like that Chef, I simply wanted the BEST tools for my trade. An investment that has more than paid for itself.

Welllll... I don't know about undisputed.... There have been several people in this Forum who have said there are other brands of equal (some have even said superior) quality to SC.

"Base Set" - can anyone point to a 6,000 unduplicated song package that is better (and still available)?

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Never the same show twice!

I'm sorry. I meant to respond to this earlier.

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for you. I know that for the GEM series, we had to submit lists of songs for approval. MCPS gives you one of three answers per song--they either give the straight-up OK based on a prior agreement with the rights holder, or give a "not OK" based on reserved rights, or if it is a rights holder that has not registered a formal opinion, they give a conditional OK based on their default rules (they have a statutory right to represent all rights holders unless a rights holder opts out), which could be withdrawn (for future sales, not existing product) at a future date.

To my knowledge, the "no fly list" is simply a list of rights holders that have elected not to allow MCPS to license their works for karaoke--the "opt out" list. I don't know whether they subdivide that list by format.

I will say, also, that the typical U.S. karaoke license agreement is a "blanket" agreement for all works in a given publisher's repertoire. Almost every such license contains a list of a handful of works that are (or songwriters whose works are) automatically excluded (which would be a "no fly" list in effect), as well as a list of works that are pre-approved without any other approval needed. Everything else, more or less, has to be run past licensing at some point.

Thank you for the response, some people seem to forget that "i don't know" is a perfectly valid answer.

At this point, it is all speculation because even the websites I have talked to, don't really understand what is going on. All that is for certain at this point is that the affected songs have been removed. So I guess you'll just have to deal with it if and when the situation comes up.

However, i was interested in your opinion more as a hypothetical. In other words IF it was determined that disc sales are still ok, in your OPINION do you think you would be able to re-license the GEM series as it stands?

thanks for your time

_james

But they are all wrong.

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-Chris

I don't know. If I had to guess, I'd say there would probably be some changes, probably not a lot, but some at least. It's just the nature of the beast. Even the venerable Foundations and Bricks sets have changed over time.

So basically prs is a big yes on licensing unless artists specifically opt out of any part. unless they say no specifically, prs just collects the money?

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

I'm not the one touting the SC label Bazza, in 19 years of hosting I never relied on SC to run my business. It is a matter of opinion whether SC is the best label, there is other product out here and there are gems in every label library. As I recall SC's Elvis selection falls short of other brands. As far as getting more gigs you know and I know it is the total package that gets the work and a successful host must be as well rounded as possible, as far as his hosting skills go. There is no magic wand that you can wave and puff you are the best host on the planet.

It seems to me I remember that not that long ago, some hosts felt if they got certified and used SC it could be used as a selling point to get work away from non certified hosts. Then the negative backlash of SC's legal process started to be felt and they were the ones that were finding it hard to find work. That is until they dropped their certification and SC library as a selling point. Just saying.

Excuse me Danny doesn't the market determine what a person is worth? It is good you are taking private gigs since that is where the real money is parties, weddings etc.etc.etc. That is where Bazza has got the right idea. I don't know anything about using a website to generate leads. When I hosted it was all word of mouth by satisfied customers. Nothing beats having steady gigs that expose your skills to the public. That is where all my leads came from, I worked six days a week and rarely had to go looking for work. People always called me.

Lone, kinda like you relied on DK for your job. for your clientelle you were required to have the DK set otherwise you were screwed.

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

Way back when DK was just about all there was, except for Pioneer, JVC and a few others. Just about every host though they tend to rag on DK have a set, don't they? Fortunately Paradigm DK never got on the suits drives sales craze. Otherwise they would have had the same negative backlash that SC now has. I carried many brands of discs, none but SC, however, decided to do the legal dance. I don't count CB/PR since they have been so low profile, and really not pushed their legal process.

No Lone,

DK never got on board with US licensing.

DK just pulled out of the market.

They offered two sets of discs, the original 1-99 and the Millenium set. (I have both) 3,485 total 2,076 unique. 1409 dupes.

They abandoned their product and have not defended it against piracy.

Back in the day those sets commanded a high price but where arguably inferior to Pioneer's product.

Now you can by them as unauthorized SCDG's for a fraction of the price.

The most used DK track at my shows is "Birthday" by The Beatles (I refuse to let people sing "Happy Birthday To You"). I like the Millenium version because the graphics show a guy who reminds me of David Lee Roth celebrating. I tell people that he celebrated his birthday every day for 8 years after leaving Van Halen.

I believe the previous commenter was correct... If YOU hadn't had DK then you'd have been at a severe disadvantage.

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Never the same show twice!

Never had nor needed the DK set - Pioneer was the original staple up here & I don't even have a complete set of those as that is about the time SC, MM, among other brands really started taking over. I do have 21 DK discs (19 from original 99) for probably a song or two on each disc that I happened to need (or that I got in bulk buys).

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

Just about every host Lonman, NOT EVERY HOST!!!!

Sure if you had no discs no matter how good a host you are you couldn't have done the job. As long as I had some kind of product I never considered myself at a severe disadvantage. Usually the average singer asks you if you have a song period, what label it's on is of secondary importance. It is only the ones who have practiced on a particular label that ask for that label. If they really are that into their music they carry their own discs. If every label would have gone the legal process route like SC how many hosts would have got into the business? Without a central authority to check and pay, you would be doing audits for every brand of disc you carry, and would have to pay fees for all, what a time consuming and expensive process that would be.

If someone buys their music it's not up to me to be the morality police or a label enforcer. I bought my DK and made back many times over the original investment. One thing is for sure I hosted 19 years without SC and was never lacking for work, not much of a disadvantage was it?