Karaoke Forums

It seems that Zoom has cut off the United States. I wanted to download the latest Zoom Pop Chart Picks 31 but when I went to check out and fill in my billing info, the drop down box for Select Country has the U.S. grayed out. It says: United States - License Restricted.

So, does that mean they pulled the plug on us? There was never a problem downloading from them before. What's going on?

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

I put my real address in but left the country as United Kingdom. I was able to buy and download.

Keep in mind that just because they restrict sales, doesn't mean the content can't be used.

You can also use TOR but it is much slower.

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-Chris

The Zoom 100 MP3+G Song disks are still available on ebay @ 35.00/disk free shipping.

I posted this question on Zoom's FB page:

Have you cut off the United States from purchasing downloads from your website?

Zoom Karaoke: Yes, we have. Due to pressure from music publishers, unfortunately customers in the US and Canada can no longer make new purchases (but they can spend their existing credits).

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Well this is just downright tyranny. To the best of my knowledge forcing people to purchase from only one source thru intimidation is supposed to be against the law.

Not that I had must respect for the music publishers anyway, but they have just managed to stoop to a new low that I didn't think was possible even for them. *sigh8


What is happening to this industry is a real travesty

-James

Zoom is still available at KaraokeDownloads.ca They do not carry all of them?

Zoom said they are pulling everything from them by the end of the week.

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Wam bam thank you m'am.

The fundamental problem is this.

Several years ago, under pressure from their music-publisher members (many of which are the UK arms of large multinational publishing conglomerates, which make most of their money from US licensing), PRS for Music, the UK agency that handles virtually all karaoke licensing in that country, stopped issuing licenses with unrestricted territory (i.e., "worldwide" licensing) and began expressly excluding the US and Canada. The reason why the UK has a flourishing karaoke production industry and the U.S. does not is because of the easy and relatively cheap availability of karaoke licensing in the UK. For example, for hard media, a PRS karaoke license costs about 5 cents per track, while the going rate in the US is nearly three times as much--and, more importantly, often requires individual negotiations with multiple publishers who require royalty advances and fixing fees.

For hard media, there is a workaround. If the physical goods legally change hands in the UK (or some other licensed territory), then under US law that is considered a "first sale" and the goods can be legally imported into the US. There are some restrictions in PRS's licensing that make it somewhat difficult to do it wholesale, but for individual purchases, it's generally not a problem, even if the customer is a US or Canada person.

But downloads are a different story. The PRS licenses for karaoke downloads do not allow the download to terminate in the US or Canada, even if the transaction is based in the UK and the server from which the track is downloaded is in the UK. Because there are no physical goods being delivered, the first sale doctrine probably does not apply to allow the licensing to extend in the same way that hard media licensing does.

Of course, Zoom (or any other non-U.S. producer) is free to obtain licensing from US publishers that would allow these downloads, but that's at the discretion of the US publishers, and the cost may be too expensive for profitable operation.

Well said.....

I am not a lawyer, but I believe that giving a fraudulent address, in order to force a purchase would take the liability, of a wrongful sale, off the seller & onto the buyer, as the intent, is no longer buying in good faith... Just a heads up, since for both yours and their records the invoice is the license for use.

I will be moving in roughly a year. Does that invalidate all of my invoices that have the old address on them? Of course not.....

BTW....It isn't very difficult to establish a mailing address in some foreign countries......

Loopholes abound.....

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-Chris

If Zoom's decision to stop selling to the U.S. was truly a result of pressure from the music publishers, then we can thank them (publishers) for helping to increase piracy even further. Cutting off the U.S. from purchasing music from their website will not stop people from using other methods of obtaining it. Except now, the music publishers won't be getting a piece of it. What a stupid move.

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Why would the music publishers stop people from legally purchasing music? What do they have to gain by doing so?

This whole thing is so out of control it isn't even funny.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

All the favorite manus will not be available to anyone in the US. Speculation on my part, but betting it's going to be the case. It's going to be all UK manus, and I bet it will be within months! Leaving the choices to Karaoke.net (excited), Digitrax (not excited) & All Star (blah).

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

Every action that Sound Choice takes gets picked apart, top to bottom and is always characterized as the most horrible thing to ever happen to karaoke.

Yet when the publishers take steps that make it even more difficult to obtain karaoke, pushing people underground and resorting to piracy to obtain content (which is why we are discussing all of this in the first place), very few people speak up.

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-Chris

I've been very vocal that the primary villain to karaoke is the publishers. I'll be more than willing to rant up again on them. They have all the laws stacked just the way they want it and there isn't much us little guys can do about it. The don't care much about piracy because they get paid by the karaoke producers.

The publishers want to get paid U.S. prices for U.S. sales. It's a big difference. The good news is, you've got somebody ready to step in and make these tracks for U.S. download.

What's your perception of Zoom's quality these days?

All my Zoom tracks are awesome. Just bought a few recently.

I like ZOOM tracks. I have a tendency to pickup new tracks in this order based on availability -

KV
SBI
ZOOM
SF

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-Chris

This is more related to quantity rather than quality but am I imagining that Zoom and KV have been putting out less current hits and instead putting out lots of oldies and standards? There were a few days last week when KV put out nothing but songs in French. I don't know if it is a trend or if I am just seeing things that aren't there.

As for the rest, none of it is a surprise as KJ Athena said it was coming and now it has finally started to happen.

Which we've always been told that the US publishers do not allow downloads, yet karaoke.net will be offering Party Tyme among a couple other brands they obtained for legal US commercial & personal downloads. Why is this something SC cannot do?

Most of the Zoom tracks I have are ever as good as SC was, I have run into a few stinkers as well making Music Maestro quality look good - but then ALL manus have had those tracks here & there. My goto is SBI & Karaoke Version for downloads right now.

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