MUST READ PRIVACY ISSUE.....
This is something I've been wondering about. I have worked for friends in the past who simply handed me a hard drive and the equipment and sent me out on gigs. I have no clue if they have the discs for all the songs on the hard drive. I haven't worked for them in a year and I've decided to go out on my own. I still have a back up of that library on my own hard drive. I was planning on using it since these folks essentially screwed me out of money. So I figure I'm good to go. Then I start reading all this sound choice crap and I'm like wait a minute. What do I do now? So tell me. Do I dare use the library I have without having the discs and risk a site visit?
No c. mark you shouldn't. That is considered piracy which is illegal. Just because you aren't sure that your previous boss' library was on the up and up does not mean you should go the same route. In fact I would suggest you deleting that library, the one you copied not your own. That way if Sound Choice does come to call you will be 100% legal as long as you have discs to back up the songs you have on your drive.
Well that's the problem. Sound Choice GEM is outrageously expensive. I mean beyond expensive. I'm trying to find a cheaper alternative such as searching for a KJ leaving the business and purchasing the discs then transferring those discs onto my hard drive. Sound Choice did confirm this was okay to do. However, it appears from what I'm reading that transferring the format is illegal too. What gives? I can't find a straight answer on anything. And if this is all true, what damn good are the BMI/ASCAP licenses the venues are buying?
Keep in mind you will only be RENTING the GEM series and once you stop renting it, it must be deleted.
I would much rather own all of my music than rent it with them having the legal right to make you delete them.
Find an out of work KJ or buy your own discs.
If you don't want any worries about Sound Choice coming after you...buy everything from another manufacturer. Shortly you won't have to worry about singers complaining about you not having their favorite song by Sound Choice because we will all be deleting their songs to avoid the possible hastle.
I would much rather own all of my music than rent it with them having the legal right to make you delete them.
Find an out of work KJ or buy your own discs.
If you don't want any worries about Sound Choice coming after you...buy everything from another manufacturer. Shortly you won't have to worry about singers complaining about you not having their favorite song by Sound Choice because we will all be deleting their songs to avoid the possible hastle.
I'm pretty much thinking that I'm going to buy the Sound Choice cd's I think I need second hand. I've got a line on some new ones never opened. Then I'll go through my current library and remove all the sound choice and replace it with what I have a disc for. The rest of it, I'm leaving and using. It seems to me all any of these companies have the rights to are their logos. If I'm only displaying logos for what I own, then I'll be fine. It's going to be really hard to prove trademark infringement in a case like this.Bigdog wrote:Keep in mind you will only be RENTING the GEM series and once you stop renting it, it must be deleted.
I would much rather own all of my music than rent it with them having the legal right to make you delete them.
Find an out of work KJ or buy your own discs.
If you don't want any worries about Sound Choice coming after you...buy everything from another manufacturer. Shortly you won't have to worry about singers complaining about you not having their favorite song by Sound Choice because we will all be deleting their songs to avoid the possible hastle.
It still hasn't been totally clarifed as to the legality of doing a format shift to a hard drive. 99% of the disc manufacturers have OKed a 1-1 copy of the disc. The disc companies never paid for a format shift to a hard drive, meaning we don't technically have the right to put our music on a hard drive. When the copyright law was written hard drives/format shifting didn't exist. So there was no provision written covering it. But it has been suggested that the right to do a format shift to a hard drive needs to be purchased separately from the publishing companies that own the music.
Even owning the disc doesn't guarantee that our hard drives are legal. This applies to all the disc manufacturers, not just Sound Choice.
Even owning the disc doesn't guarantee that our hard drives are legal. This applies to all the disc manufacturers, not just Sound Choice.
Mark, I'm a songwriter and a musician
Using music that you haven't paid for has denied the original songwriter part of his or her income. It's possible that you're using songs that I may have created.
How would you like it if people were stealing the things YOU created to feed your family?
Please don't use that hard drive. Go buy the music.
Using music that you haven't paid for has denied the original songwriter part of his or her income. It's possible that you're using songs that I may have created.
How would you like it if people were stealing the things YOU created to feed your family?
Please don't use that hard drive. Go buy the music.
Last week, I went to Philadelphia, but it was closed.
Not if you are 1:1 for EVERY SYSTEM you own. Just go through an audit if you receive a letter of intent or do what I am doing by going through an audit without being named.Bigdog wrote:I'm more worried about my name and other info being turned in to them for investigation.
Every KJ operating with hard drives should be concerned.
They are unzipped 320kbs files on standard CD-R's.Moonrider wrote:The discs are produced in the UK. The 30 songs per CD is a limitation of the mechanical licensing I believe.mnementh wrote: If my calculations are correct, at 30 songs per CD, Sound Choice is also taking the urine in terms of how many discs there are per set.
As a recordable CD has 800Mb available, at even 10Mb per song, you should be able to get at least 80 tracks per disc.
Sandy
having been tru the audit process for both Sound Choice and Chartbuster I can tell you with all honesty the process is not difficult. Our audit with Stellar is already arrainged.
I will say to everyone that will listen
If you are legal ask for your audits before you are named...if you are not get legal or get out...karaoke piracy is stealing it is simple
I will say to everyone that will listen
If you are legal ask for your audits before you are named...if you are not get legal or get out...karaoke piracy is stealing it is simple
Sound choice is ONLY good for classic rock.
Pop Hits has all the new tracks.. Sunfly as well..
The funny thing here is that SBI or Stingray ( one of the the and their Karaoke Locker is rebranding soundchoice files.. )
OS I think a deal is already is the works.. Soundchoice has alienated and gone to war against the KJs both Legal AND Illegal..
My plan works for me.. I bought the Bricks, The Foundations ( on Ebay ) the headbangers set.. and a few other discs ( what in the past they called mortors ) to fill i some of the bands I get most requested for.. ( ACDC, METALLICA, ETC )
no other soundchoice will ever be in my shows. Unless, as BigDog said, I go any buy the disc.. to which I will rip it ( I think its' already been established we are allowed to do that if it remains a 1:1 ratio )
If Chartbuster is following this.. they will be the next ones to go out of business. But something tells me, theyve learned something from SC's blunder, and will at the least make it reasonable to continue to do business with them.
SC's main problem, they are not a current companys.. how long since a new disc from them?
Chartbusters is still putting out new discs every month, hence they have A LOT more to lose..
My .02
Pop Hits has all the new tracks.. Sunfly as well..
The funny thing here is that SBI or Stingray ( one of the the and their Karaoke Locker is rebranding soundchoice files.. )
OS I think a deal is already is the works.. Soundchoice has alienated and gone to war against the KJs both Legal AND Illegal..
My plan works for me.. I bought the Bricks, The Foundations ( on Ebay ) the headbangers set.. and a few other discs ( what in the past they called mortors ) to fill i some of the bands I get most requested for.. ( ACDC, METALLICA, ETC )
no other soundchoice will ever be in my shows. Unless, as BigDog said, I go any buy the disc.. to which I will rip it ( I think its' already been established we are allowed to do that if it remains a 1:1 ratio )
If Chartbuster is following this.. they will be the next ones to go out of business. But something tells me, theyve learned something from SC's blunder, and will at the least make it reasonable to continue to do business with them.
SC's main problem, they are not a current companys.. how long since a new disc from them?
Chartbusters is still putting out new discs every month, hence they have A LOT more to lose..
My .02
C Mark wrote:Well that's the problem. Sound Choice GEM is outrageously expensive. I mean beyond expensive. I'm trying to find a cheaper alternative such as searching for a KJ leaving the business and purchasing the discs then transferring those discs onto my hard drive. Sound Choice did confirm this was okay to do. However, it appears from what I'm reading that transferring the format is illegal too. What gives? I can't find a straight answer on anything. And if this is all true, what damn good are the BMI/ASCAP licenses the venues are buying?
This isnt 1995.. You do not NEED Sound Choice's files.. Library.. go online, and find some other collections..
Pop hits, or ChartBusters.. The Essentials volumes 1-10 are 4500 tracks.. of decent stuff..
Subscribe to Pop hits monthly's service for under 50$ and get all the new tracks.. You can back order the last few years for a couple hundred a year online..
for old standards.. Try All Hits.. hell, even (gulp) Sweet Georgia Brown will get you through some tight spots..
IF you HAVE to have Soundchoice.. grab yourself a few bricks at 100 a pop.. or the foundations.. about 400 a pop
forget spending all that dough for the gem series, and the hangups that come along with it..
Soundchoice has decided to get out of the karaoke business.. and into the residual lawsuit business.
MikoZuma...no one brand is needed to run a great show. We own over 16 brands of discs we have collected over 17+ years. If we were new to the business the GEM series would make sense as you do get 6000 quality un duplicated tracks for the $$ paid, even if you purchased the foundations and all the bricks the cost per song is still cheaper with the GEM series with no dupes. As far as the "orphan" brands go some have good tracks...everyone should know however as part of the fight against piracy "the big 3" have been seeking out and buying the rights so that they enforce the 1-1 rule on those discs also. We buy alot of used discs and OM libraries from many sources and have found it to be a good way to add to our libraries. Thank you for giving C mark some good suggestions
Athena,
Ive done the same thing.. 50$ here, and 75$ there, and before too long it made for a nice library. my biggest purchase was a collection on PHM discs pretty much all of them from 96 to current, with about 30 or 35 discs missing.. for under 1k.
It just boogles my mind that in this day and age, people are still rather hung up on Soundchoice being the end all be all of the industry.
Karaoke is as much current as it is standard selections.. and with soundchoice not producing anything new in years.. theyve fallen into a virtual obscurity.
If they would have introduced their gem series with a fresh 2 or 300 songs from the past year or so, Id consider buying it..
But with SBI, and Karaoke Locker / Karaoke Channel you can buy 1 at a time many of the old soundchoice files. and not have to spend 15$ for 1 or 2 wanted tracks and th rest filler..
of all the sets i wish SC had still, its the mortors.. I would love to spend 150$ and buy 12 discs of 1 band a disc.. things like Kiss, Zeppein, Eagles (cough cough ) FOreigner, Rush.. Benetar, etc..
SC should refocus on THOSE in a digital world.. and maybe people will happily spend money again, hell call it a NUGGET series (gem, nugget.. oh well its late ) and offer me that service, and hell, Id drop 150 in a heartbeat.. as long as I OWNED THEM!
Ive done the same thing.. 50$ here, and 75$ there, and before too long it made for a nice library. my biggest purchase was a collection on PHM discs pretty much all of them from 96 to current, with about 30 or 35 discs missing.. for under 1k.
It just boogles my mind that in this day and age, people are still rather hung up on Soundchoice being the end all be all of the industry.
Karaoke is as much current as it is standard selections.. and with soundchoice not producing anything new in years.. theyve fallen into a virtual obscurity.
If they would have introduced their gem series with a fresh 2 or 300 songs from the past year or so, Id consider buying it..
But with SBI, and Karaoke Locker / Karaoke Channel you can buy 1 at a time many of the old soundchoice files. and not have to spend 15$ for 1 or 2 wanted tracks and th rest filler..
of all the sets i wish SC had still, its the mortors.. I would love to spend 150$ and buy 12 discs of 1 band a disc.. things like Kiss, Zeppein, Eagles (cough cough ) FOreigner, Rush.. Benetar, etc..
SC should refocus on THOSE in a digital world.. and maybe people will happily spend money again, hell call it a NUGGET series (gem, nugget.. oh well its late ) and offer me that service, and hell, Id drop 150 in a heartbeat.. as long as I OWNED THEM!
