Karaoke Forums

US Producers have all but vanished. Digitrax and now Karaokenet (apparently owned by a parent company in Finland) are producing. That's it. I clicked the Allstar ad on this page to check and they haven't released anything since June 2015. Even SC Advance hasn't been able to fulfill a single product order. If US producers are unable to work with US publishers, what chance do UK, FR, AU, CA or any other source have?

Can you enlighten us on what the major malfunction is?

Can you offer an opinion on the action of disregarding geo-location when making a purchase?

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Never the same show twice!

First, France is not involved in the same licensing programs as the UK. Everything I've read says Karaoke-version is good to go in the US. So even though they are not US, they are still available here.

I fully expect to see Zoom and Sunfly re-appear in the US. Why would the publishers go through the trouble of shutting them down without also wanting to use those as an avenue for revenue? They may make them pay more.. And I would bet they will cost us more, but I can't see those guys simply allowing the US market to go away without pursuing it to the end with the publishers.

I can confirm that Karaoke-Version has at least some US-based licensing, and based on that I would expect that they have comprehensive US-based licensing.



I'm not sure the actual US market is big enough for those guys to justify attempting to get US licensing.

Hmm.. I assumed the US was a huge segment, but that was strictly a (false?) and un-researched assumption. I would say if Jim is correct, and he would know better than I, then my opinion may not be worth a squat on this..

it's a bit of a catch 22. IF everyone who uses karaoke music actually bought it, then maybe North America would be a huge market.

Unforutnately, the more difficult the publishers make it to buy that karaoke music, the more people who are willing to circumvent the laws to obtain what they want.

In my opinion, if the publishers took the stick out of their butts and allowed/formed a publishing society in the US & Canada, just like the model based in the UK, things would improve DRASTICALLY!

Sunfly did state on their page to a comment I asked
"Sunfly Karaoke: Hi Lonnie, We are hopeful that we will be able to offer downloads to our US customers again in the first half of next year."

This is in their comment section
https://www.facebook.com/sunflymusic/?fref=ts

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

It won't be the publishers that push that. It would be the people and the political climate in this country says that ain't happening soon unless a Senator and a Congressman likes dual hosting karaoke on the side.

Awesome news! Thanks so much for pursuing this. I'll pay more for it if need be. The more sources we have the better!

They may have been saying it just to appease those upset about it, but I'm hopeful as well!

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

Really, why would the publishers seek to shut them down if they weren't interested in the revenue? Those people do nothing simply on principle..

If that were the case then how is the U.S. market big enough to be worthwhile for anyone to seek licensing?

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KNOW THYSELF

I would think that the US market's demand would be just as much as any of the other foreign markets with (maybe) the exception of the Asian market. Being that's where Karaoke originated and all, I would think the Asian market would hold the largest market for Karaoke.

they don;t get the U.S. licensing because they already pay for licensing for the rest of the world. in order to make the track for total worldwide sale they would need to pat the PRSformusic license to cover the civilized world and then pay 2-4x that amount to sell in the U.S. and Canada. pay five licensing fees to sell one song, not a great return. until the publishers pull their head out of their (@$%&#!) and realize they make more by letting them sell legally here as opposed to the rampant piracy that is looming because of this stupid move, there will not be a biug change. and since the publishers have the brain power of congress....that ain't gonna happen.

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

The demand for tracks in the US is very high. The demand for paid tracks in the US is not.

fixed that. i bet the other manus selling downloads would argue that there is a lot of demand for paid tracks.
since you have been out of the business, SBI, Sunfly, Zoom among others have made a great deal. just ask around here, where do you think all our money went?

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

Actually, you don't know that. Foreign companies have local markets in which to recoup their costs, making their marginal cost to extend to the US very small, as long as they don't have to pay US royalties. The fact that all of those companies are in the process of exiting the US market should tell you what they think of the profitable demand here when US licensing is taken into consideration.

Virtually all of those sales were made without US licensing. When you factor in the huge administrative cost of US licensing, not just royalties but the time required to acquire and manage licenses, it's not profitable. We don't expect to make money off music in the near term, either. Merely breaking even will be a victory, which is why we're looking at other ways to supplement our business.

It is nearly impossible to compete with "free."

I don't know Jim..
I would think they are being pushed out at this time. I can't see how that means they don't want to do the work to be here. Putting in the effort to be here to the liking of the rights holders would take time and that would be the next logical step. It was a step they really were't required to do previously so why do it? I don't mind paying 3 bucks for a quality version. I just paid that for a few Karaoke-Version tracks. I would gladly pay that for Zoom and the better Sunfly tracks.

Que
You are aware the Asian market is the hub of all piracy, right?

I just find it so hard to believe that they are cutting off the Companies we much rely on in acquiring music and on the other hand, all the damn pirate sites are opening up everywhere selling music illegally and they still active.

I noticed in doing some google searches, there are many ONLINE KARAOKE DOWNLOAD stores out there. I feel so bad that main labels have to suffer while the others carry on.

here is the problem. these same artists and publishers...100% of them are happy to work with PRSformusic and since they are allowed to bend over everyone in the U.S. they do for no other reason than they can. the songs being sold in the U.S. by overseas companies are not free, they are not produced for free, they are paid for 100% by the manufacturer according the the contract signed by the publisher that they allow everywhere but at home. as it stands the thousands of downloads that they were getting paid for by the U.S. hosts are now gone. they do not get paid for those anymore. Zoom is losing out on all the thousands of U.S. downloads, the publishers are losing out on the thousands of U.S. downloads. CAN they charge more for nothing? sure, SHOULD they charge more for nothing?...because they can does not mean it is the right thing to do. finding ways to get these tracks from other sources (TOR for example) just means we are supporting karaoke, the publishers and rights holders, not screwing them. finding ways around the blocks would help ensure that the artists get paid more, the publishers get paid more (not that i think THEY need any more) and the karaoke manus get paid more.

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