Karaoke Forums

I think this is a fallacy. I knew SEVERAL kj's that had cd copiers that were capable of cdg transfer - I knew of one actual karaoke STORE that bought all the discs, copied them, re-shrank wrap & sold for new while they ran multiple shows (they had 10 systems running 5 nights each). The kj's would not only copy people discs that brought them to the shows and add them to their own library, they'd swap libraries with other kj's completely. I was made the offer several times in the 90's and a little into the 2000's. Always denied it simply because - "WHY the hell would I want any of the competition to have the same songs I offered and paid for". Add to the fact what they DID have to offer in return was crap IMO, trading All Hits and Backstage for Sound Choice & DK didn't seem like a worthwhile trade . Computers made it more rampant but the disc piracy was very active as well.

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

The bottom line to all this is that the Genie is out of the bottle. Piracy is now commonplace and socially acceptable. In the lunch room at my day-job someone was bragging about watching "The Interview" days after release. Someone asked "Did you watch it on demand?" and he boldly said "No, I got it from a torrent". Nobody cared or even flinched. They were more interested in how he liked the movie.

Piracy isn't going away and going back to discs or some super hardened hardware solution just isn't cost effective (or realistic!). So what do you do as a manufacture? You either eliminate it all together by streaming (as much as that pains us all) or do as iTunes did and make it cheap and convenient enough that piracy just isn't worth the effort. Like I said before. People arent going to spend a lot of time & effort to find and illegally download that new Beyonce song for $0.99, as it just isn't worth the effort. But if was only available on a disc for $19.99 you can bet it would be pirated all over the place.

Just weeks after I received my Sound Choice certification (through audit) a competing KJ called me and asked if he could borrow my discs. he wanted them for two reasons (and he told me flat out) - 1) so he could use them for a Sound Choice audit, and 2) he wanted to burn copies of the discs.

I never understood why he wanted to burn copies of the 1400 disc I had at the time. But it is just evidence that even though more rare, people are still willing to burn discs. I know for a fact this same karaoke company runs multiple digital shows and to the best of my knowledge they run zero disc based shows.

I also know that no matter what this company does, they continue to lose shows and i keep getting the call to back fill them.

Karma......

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-Chris

Buy what you can ON DISC while you can the "real dark ages" is still coming....we are just at the start......Stupid Pirates have caused all of this, the publishers will not stand for theft( knowing that for every track they are paid for there are 100's or thousands stolen) and have NO CONCERN about killing our industry and neither do the Pirates.

If everyone remembers I warned everyone that this was coming almost 2 years ago...along with the Tricerisoft lawsuits.

Listen to my advise or don't your own choice.

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

This about sums up piracy and the efforts to stop it.

So at what point when will you finally admit the sky isn't falling? four years, ten years?

Stupid Pirates have been around as long as people have been making music for money. The publishers stand for theft in every walk of the music industry. No one is going to "kill" the karaoke music industry. It may morph into a different format but the sky is not going to fall. Where there is money to be made there will be a will and a way.

MrBoo, you are wrong...the publishers CAN and WILL put an end to the industry if piracy can not be limited. This entire thread started because the OP is unable to get access to songs.....the sky IS FALLING and it will get worse before it gets better.

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

Of course some songs are not accessible. Many of those same original songs are not there for streaming either. So is the sky falling on streaming as well?

Not for everyone. I received this email yesterday:

The reason those songs are not there is because the artists\publishers do not think they are being compensated properly for them in the legit streaming and karaoke segments. Not because of Stupid Pirates. IF this group felt they were being compensated properly, or were forced to go along with established compensation, their content would be available.

Bazza, I happen to like KV as well and from all the research I have done legalities of the tracks they produce are not in question....every track from them I have checked with the publishers has been licensed....AND I hope that remains true. As KJ's we used to have many quality Manus to choose from.....now those choices are gone, what if you want a track that KV does not see as profitable ? or what if the publishers decide to refuse licensing for ?

As far as streaming goes....I have explained WHY streaming is not for me...I have no desire to have songs disappear overnight and no desire to pay forever for my songs. The publishers do NOT feel they are being compensated enough for ANY digital tracks.....wait for it....BECAUSE they know that every single track SOLD is shared and torrented thousands of times.

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

Every delivery method is pirated except for, WAIT FOR IT, cloud based streaming. And by streaming, I am talking about original content, not reproduced karaoke content. Almost all of the same content pulled from downloads is also pulled from original content streaming.

Discs, historically, are as bad or worse for pirated material than newly created downloads. There is no pirated line there. The line is based on legit compensation. Period.

That opinion is NOT shared by the Publishers I have communicated with....maybe you should opens some lines of communication with them and get the details right from them.

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

OK, c'mon, that is a silly question. This has been a factor in karaoke since the beginning. I have song requests going back to 1996 in a database that I still use today for song requests - there are easily 800+ songs that people have wanted to sing going all the way back that have never been made nor probably never will be made. But I do keep all the song requests because on occasion something will pop out that has been requested and I will pick it up.

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

Lonman, I agree this has been an issue from the start....but it was LESS of an issue when there were 20+ manufactures making product than now when there are VERY few. I also keep in mind with ANY downloads that just like DT was sued and had to remove over a 3rd of the library and now faces issues from Publishers other than the one suing them regarding licensing new tracks....I would hate to see it but what if KV was hit by the publishers too ? It is well known that I prefer hard media and the reasons behind that preference.

Trying to say lack of track ability is not an issue that is getting worse ( "the sky is not falling") makes me think of the poor frog that wont jump out of a pot of water if the temp is raised slowly......and boils to death.

I did not start this thread and haven't even been here in many months.....On all of the FB groups I am on the KJ's are also complaining of disappearing tracks and lack of quality new tracks.....this will continue and everyone needs to examine why and what they can do to help prevent the death of our industry.

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

Pick a song, any non karaoke sing and I will find you more torrents than for any karaoke song.
if piracy is the reason publishers are not allowing music out on karaoke, then they will just close up shop altogether and not put out any music in the non karaoke world.

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

We ARE talking about karaoke on a KARAOKE forum. The publishers have no desire to create karaoke tracks themselves....not enough money in it for them. The Publishers control the licensing for new songs and how much they charge to allow those songs to be licensed PERIOD.

Due to piracy the Publishers are VERY demanding and couldnt care less about this small subset of "music consumers" called " KJ's" because they see the greatest majority as thieves. There are also a GROWING number of artists that feel the same way...compare the "no fly list" of 2 years ago to this years list...I think you will be SHOCKED.

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

EMI has pulled their library not because of KJ piracy, but because of SC piracy. WE are not being sued by them for taking without paying, SC is being sued for making without paying properly for.
Sony is not suing US for taking without paying, Sony is suing Tricerasoft for selling songs that the MAUFACTURERS made without paying properly for.

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

This is utterly ridiculous. It ignores the massive technological changes that have occurred. And it ignores the fact that 17 of the 20 manus paid no license fees.

Suggest we go back to the original topic, which the no-fly list.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Business as usual around here.