As karaoke music manufacturers take a stand against the piracy that is crippling the industry, they are faced with some very real concerns. How do they keep up with the technology that karaoke hosts demand while combating the same technology that is eating into their income and profits?
• Illegal downloading from shareware sites
• the sale of thousands of hard drives with 100,000+ songs already loaded,
• CD-ROM's printed with Lightscribe-like technology being sold though internet auction sites
• even the most legal looking stuff that is actually bootlegged from the legal originals of the manufacturer.
Just how is a guy (or gal) who wants to run a karaoke business the right way to know what is legal and what is not? How can one tell the legal discs when the manufacturers themselves can't tell the difference? The truth is it is getting harder to tell.
There appears to be three major American manufacturers of karaoke music still vying for a piece of the karaoke pie. Sound Choice, Chartbuster, and Steller Records still market their karaoke tracks and are taking a stand against piracy, each in its own way. Of the three, Sound Choice is currently not producing new tracks. They have opted for selling what they have in more desirable formats to karaoke hosts who are willing to sign a lease agreement for the use of their library of music. Chartbuster now offers their entire library for streaming to your computer for a monthly fee and the purchase of the software program required to access them. They also offer SD cards already in the best format for computer karaoke shows. Steller Records, who markets Pop Hits Monthly, has chosen to add a "watermark" to their new tracks to enable them to determine if individual tracks are legally purchased.
I recently purchased the 10 volume set of Chartbuster Essentials to replace 6 sets I purchased when I first got back into the business last year. I had unknowingly purchased the first 6 volumes on SCDG where all 450 songs from each volume are formatted to fit onto one disc. When they arrived, the discs looked totally authentic. Each was in a case that had the Chartbuster logos and artwork (that was probably more realistic than the notebooks that the 30 disc sets come in). Each disc was pressed, not recorded on a computer (You can tell). They all had authentic markings around the hole in the center of the disc (usually proves authenticity). Yet I found through research, that there is a problem with the legality of these discs.
It seems Chartbuster entered into an agreement to produce the SCDG discs several years ago. The same discs were legally marketed for a while, and then Chartbuster invalidated the agreement due to non-payment. However, the masters were used to keep pressing the discs illegally. While there was a point in time that the discs were legal to purchase, Chartbuster has stated that any SCDG discs purchased after January 2009 would not be honored as legal in an audit. So, to protect myself, I purchased the sets of 30 to replace the questionable ones and make it easier to sleep at night.
I also purchased a collection of Pop Hits Country discs recently. I ordered the 2010 collection of 10 discs from a supplier. When I received them, they all came in jewel cases with the authentic artwork that is shown on the Pop Hits website. When I opened them though, I found discs that were burned onto CD's on a computer. I immediately became suspicious of possible fraud and emailed my supplier. However, I also looked up the return address that came on the package. The address came back to Steller Records. Emails from Steller tell the real story of what piracy is doing to the karaoke industy.
Computer technology is eating away the profits of the manufacturers who produce the music that we use to run our shows. The money we pay for our legal discs is used to pay the royalties to the producers of the music, the musicians who produce the music, and the company to make quality karaoke for us to use. But for every legal disc purchased, many more are distributed across the internet and across the world for free, taking business away from the karaoke producers. And you, the karaoke host, take it in the butt each time you lose a job to the guy with 200,000 songs who is willing to play for $100 or free beer.
So Steller Records has opted to decrease their inventories of discs they sell to their loyal customers in order to keep the doors open and the music coming. They have placed a digital mark on their music to be able to ascertain the legality of a track during an audit. While I don't know how that plays out on an illegal copy of those tracks, I at least am more at ease knowing that my discs actually came direct from the manufacturer.
I did run into this same scenario with another disc I purchased and got the same result. So I guess this is the way the industry is going.
Now, take a look at your library of discs that you purchased over the last few years. Look at the songs that you paid to internet sites to download. Did you know that you can download tracks from some of the big name music sites? Did you know that those tracks are not legal for commercial use? Even the downloads offered on the manufacturer sites are not sanctioned for commercial use.
As your library continues to grow, the discs you purchase legally are becoming harder and harder to tell from the ones made on the computer next door. The manufacturers are looking for piracy in the bars and clubs and may ask you to submit to an audit to prove that you own a track on a legal disc for every track on every computer you use to run a karaoke show.
My advise to you - save your receipts. Save any and all correspondence with the manufacturers in order to protect yourself and prove to them that you are doing everything you can to combat karaoke piracy by playing fair. Also, make sure the people you deal with are playing by the rules. If you suspect a purchased disc might be illegal, call the seller to task. Call the manufacture if need be to assure that you are in compliance. And consider joining karaoke organizations that are working with the manufacturers to combat piracy and keep it around for all of us to enjoy.
