Karaoke Forums

That is Stellar, not Sound Choice. My theory STILL holds.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

and don't forget KJ Bill was busted for not paying taxes, kinda like Capone.

and s side note, did you read what PHM had to say?
"He bragged all the time about how many of our recordings he was selling and laughed at us when we complained to Craigs List eBay. Thank you FBI and DOJ. These are the guys that really killed the small businesses that offer Karaoke Sound recordings to the Karaoke Hosts."

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

WOW, you mean that it WASN'T the hosts that shifted their discs to computers that killed the mfrs???? OMG!!!

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

All I can say is.......I don't find the phone call very interesting.....

KJ Bill is not Bill Bene. KJ Bill is William R Marston.

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-- Mark

Chris, LOVE your profile photo! We used to run around as kids making the lizard noises from that show.

RE: You just had an interesting phone call... Monday evening, we had someone email us wanting to let us know about a seller on eBay that was selling 1 tb hard drives with 200,000 kj & dj songs. He said that he found us because he read some of our ads that talks about asking the tough questions of sellers to determine if you are getting pirated material (my assumption based on what he said). He says the guy sold him a drive with all the name brands. and that he reported it to ebay because someone else told him it was illegal if he got caught with it. Yet the guy was evasive when asked what exact name brands even though he said ALL and that is basically an answer of Soundchoice, PHM, etc.

I was stunned that this buyer would tell us that he thought the seller was going to send him disc with the drive. Hmmm, let's see. 1tb drive sold to the consumer for approx.: $177. Figure the drive to be in the $99 range. Then about $6-14 to ship. So the buyer got 200,000 songs for under $70 and acts as if he was non the wiser.

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MADPROAUDIO ~ DISABLED VETERAN ~ FAMILY OWNED COMPANY

you are correct KJ Bill of KJBILL.com is William R Marston

Wait, what? Speaking in the third person?


That's a ban for life..

[quote="Insane KJ"][quote="chrisavis"][quote="Insane KJ"]Kind of blows your theory out of the water, doesn't it Smooth?[/quote]

http://kjbill.com

Kind of lends credibility to Smooth's theory, doesn't it?[/quote]

Bill will get his soon enough! [/quote]

what did bill do?

Wow what a zombie thread started in July 2013

Boy, I'll say!

Hey, did you hear the one about the certified host selling burned discs??? The same set... twice?

Chip,

Did you here the one about the KJ who asked for a variance to park all his pre-loaded vans needed for all his systems and suddenly dropped down to one system when sound choice started to go after pirates ?

Yes Athena had me read those threads so I could see why her opinion of you is so low.

If her account had not been removed with all the posts you could have read that the disc wasn't fake after all and the manufacture returned it with a letter to give to the second host who bought it .

KJ Bill.... arggg.

have recently ( and I have been doing this 24+ years) had a venue demand my "liscences" before they would allow me to play at their club. Saying that they got sued because a DJ was caught playing illegally downloaded song at their venue. So I sat down with the guy and explained, " that doesn't happen" they would sue the DJ, not the venue. Argued with the guy till I was blue in the face till he finally admitted, they got sued because they didn't have BMI/Ascap liscnece.... So I explained to him, then that's on you not that Dj... I also explained since they digitized karaoke, it made it a whole lot easier to "KJ", they get a computer and a hosting program and think that's all there is to it. I told him my liscence is the room full of Cd cases and Laser disc, stored away in my back room... I explained many of the disc's I have aren't even in production anymore...
He tried to show me his other Kj's liscences he puts on file.. they were certificets basically that they use MY cloud music... I tried to explain .. that doesn't mean every song on the HD is legal, it just means they RENT most of it.... I do understand SC's flat out disgust with being pirated til they were damn near bankrupt. I have met a few of those guys that will copy their entire library a few hundred times and sell it on EBAY craiglist etc etc... its their risk if they want to take it, my only argument is it Kills the other shows my pay rate has literally been dropped below half because of the number of shows that are out there now... most I think wouldn't even get into the business if they had to collect ( and pay for) their collection form scratch. 24 years is along time and a whole lot of money in music.
When I get people interested in running a show, they don't understand the equipment really isn't that bad cost wise, it's the music that will cost you. The music you need to update regularly to stay current and have what your singers want to sing. I probably have at least 45K in music easy, not even including the old cassettes and laser discs that aren't really practical anymore.
I have seen "kj's" that use and iPhone and just play the karaoke versions of songs off of YouTube.. ( sadly its the truth I have seen it..) then the club owners don't want karaoke thinking they are all like that..
or the one that kills me the most... that one avid singer that decides they want to start a show " hey I got all the equipment, can I copy your music" ..not no but HELL NO! why would I take all the music I have paid for and collected over years and give it to you so you can compete with me for shows.... screw that! go earn it the hard way by tracking it down and buying it... build your own library.
Now there are times I think when trading is ok.. like the disc you had with certain songs on it was broken, and you find out that disc or even that company doesn't even exist anymore...
Sc seems to think running a show without the disc's should be illegal, if you read the COPY write law disclaimer at the end of their songs now it says.." not playing this on from the original disk, or making a digital copy" is illegal.. meaning SC, doesn't want you to 1. back up your library, or 2. buy their disc and burn it into a hosting program.... its crazy..... also on their website they have a
soundc choice certified" thing that cerftifies all your songs are legal... I had a problem with them because some of the discs I have they don't sell in that form anymore.. I.E sc8147 all jimmy buffet.. they still sell that disc but there are different songs on it now same with their all EAGLES disc's... same disc number but they swapped out some of the songs for other now more popular ones. It's crazy I have been going to places such as Karaoke solutions and SBI (who now owns all of Sunfly and Zoom's librarys) and having to pay more because they are over seas.. though KS is great as they put out a lot of songs I haven't been able to find from any other company.. but the mark up is killer.. with foreign transaction fees etc etc... ugh... then in the 90's they tried to start that KAPA ( karaoke against piracy) thing which was basically a "this guy has more shows them me so I am going to report them and get them shut down) kinda thing... nto realizing they are going to check your library also.. it's as bad as a 1984 novel, or Nazi propaganda, turn in your friends, turn in your competiters, then we will get you too... total hysteria..
I have tangled with them once as well, even got taken to court and won, when I carry in 27 cd cases, 3 tubs of Laser disks and 9 80disc rolo-decks worth of cd's.... so they can eat me... . They should be checking these guys that pop up over night with 100K + songs out of no where or mobile Dj companies that have 7 riggs and they all have the same songs.. etc etc.. they are killing the Karaoke, ( well some of them are quite good).
As I have sais I feel for Soundchoice, they did get pirated into bankruptcy. They use to put out such great tracks and now they are just kinda meh.... but their attitude toward Karaoke and KJ's starts to feel like they want em all shut down...driving off potential customers.. I remember dropping 200-300 bucks n their old BRICK collections just to get my song library up above other shows.. you have three things that will make or break you as a Kj. 1. your personality.. ( and people are going to radiate towards someone more like them, mellow and serious, or wild and crazy Kj's), 2. your ability to run sound ( because no one wants to sound like crap because they have a bad sound guy, that can even be hazardous to your voice), and 3. Your library, they want someone that has what they want to sing and some are hard core about , " I only sing SC, or Sunfly, or zoom, or PHM..." and sometimes you have to spend the money to get the same song from a variety of companies it gets exspensive but if you want to keep the singers you have to do it... I think I spend 30% of what I make buying new music per month, just to try and keep up... but we are all suspect because we are making money form the product these companies put out, with out us their really wouldn't be such a demand for a lot of what they sell. ( ok rant over)...

Vans? As in more than one? You mean more than 1 gigantic, huge, dual-axle commercial truck? Unfortunately, no, I haven't heard of that one... I only heard the one about a Toyota.

But I also understand that the KJ dropped the brand that was suing altogether....

So, if the KJ dropped the sound choice brand... and can't be sued by them anyway.... why would the KJ need to "drop down to one system" at all? He could still have a bunch of trucks... and dozens of systems without that brand on them...

After 6 years, you (and the other cheerleaders) still haven't figured that one out have you?
How do you know this KJ only has 1 system?
Are you sure?
Has the KJ been investigated?
Has any of this been confirmed?
Are you positive he doesn't still use the brand?

So many questions..... so few answers....

You might want to think about cutting down on your "get the KJ drunk nights" that your wife has expounded on as a matter of company policy. It promotes irresponsible drinking, is bad for your liver anyway and has apparently clouded your thought processes.


Nope... I only saw the email where Joe Blackie said the discs were fake because they have never shipped burns to anyone.... ever.
Since the email was directed to the unfortunate KJ who was originally duped, I don't have permission to reproduce it here. But since the "manufacturer returned it with a letter" to you to give to the next buyer, I'm sure you could post a copy of that for everyone to see that certified hosts really don't sell illegally-copied cd+g discs...

Take your time, no rush, we'll wait.

Cheers!

Did you hear the one about the "programmer" who lied to everyone about serialized watermarking on some karaoke tracks he produced for a client?

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-Chris

Had a guy come to my show two Thursday shows ago offering me a drive of 135,000 songs for $200 and this is what I told him: "If you don't have the cd's that the songs came off of I am not interested."

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

Actually the discs say nothing of the sort. They all do state

Warning: This material is protectected by federal copyright laws. Unauthorized duplication, public performance or broadcast is a violation of applicable laws. These are professional re-creations and not the original artist.

Their authorizing duplication via the audit to prove you own the original disc. The PRO fees cover the public performance aspect. Not sure what one would need for broadcast rights. Basically says you can't do any of this just on your own.

The SC 8125 Eagles disc was never re-released - it was simply discontinued. Not sure about 8147 (Jimmy Buffett) but I have had that disc since around 98 and have never seen a re-released version of that one. What songs are different between the two?

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

I realize you're new to this board, so you may not have been aware of SC's policies about becoming a Certified KJ, media-shifting, and so forth. For the record, I am the general counsel (principal attorney) for Phoenix Entertainment Partners, LLC, the company that now owns the SC brand. I held a similar position with Slep-Tone Entertainment Corporation, whose assets were bought by Phoenix earlier this year.

If you have discs--and you should have discs, if you are using SC material in any form--you can look at the face of each and every one of those discs, and they all say that "unauthorized duplication, public performance, or broadcast is a violation of applicable laws." That warning, or something very similar to it, has been on the face of every disc SC produced from 1994-2010, and it sets the default policy: Don't copy without our permission. In order for you to play these tracks from a computer hard drive, you have to make a copy, so you need our permission to do it.

That permission can be obtained by applying for certification. The certification process involves, among other things, our inspection of your SC discs and you hard drives to make sure you have 1:1 correspondence and to make sure that the songs are ripped at a quality level consistent with our brand image. You can get more information about certification--and apply for certification--on our website. There is a charge, presently $250 per system, that covers a portion of our costs in inspecting your discs and drives and administering the program.

If you provide commercial karaoke shows using media-shifted tracks (i.e., copied from discs), and you do not have our permission, you could be sued, so we strongly recommend applying to be certified. If the fee would present a financial hardship, please contact us and we will work with you on a reduced-fee or no-fee audit, depending on your circumstances.



Actually, we no longer sell "red logo" discs. "Red logo" is the term we use to identify the content that was released on CD+G discs between 1994 and early 2010, and which continued to be sold by us until December 2014. The logo on the opening screen includes a red musical staff in our logo. By contrast, the GEM series, which we started licensing in 2010, carries front logos with a blue staff. When we return to production within the next few months, there will be a different color scheme used to identify those tracks.

You can find some retailers who continue to have red logo discs available on a limited basis, and there is a brisk market for "used" discs.

Now, with that out of the way...it is not uncommon for particular songs to go out of licensing from time to time. When a particular disc was released, it would continue to be offered for as long as the licensing for all of the songs on that disc was valid. From time to time, licensing for a particular song would end and the publisher would choose not to renew, or we might deem it not worth renewing. In that situation, we would replace that song on new issues on that disc with something that was licensed. In that situation, we would normally add a letter to the catalog number--usually R for the first reissue, then S, and I have seen some that were RS. This happened with some frequency for long-term, large-scale products like the Bricks and Foundations. A Brick sold in 1999 might have different songs than one sold in 2009



I have no idea who you might be, but it is our standard practice when we sue someone to invite them to present their discs and system(s) for an audit, and if they show that they had 1:1 correspondence, they will be offered certification and dismissed from the suit. In that situation nobody "wins" or "loses."

There is an SC8147 and an SC8147R. There is one song different on the R disc - Track #7

SC8147-07 - Another Saturday Night
SC8147R-07 - The Weather Is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful

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-Chris