There has been a 'crisis' going on in the karaoke world for quite some time now. Some people have taken the time to make Hard Drives full of Karaoke files. They start with one legal library of thousands of discs, which is very expensive, then copy all the songs from all the manufacturers onto this hard drive. From there they copy the hard drive over and over again. These hard drive pirates boast a library of 100,000 songs or more. Then they sell these drives for just a couple of hundred dollars. (This music would be worth $200,000 or more on legal discs.) This is extremely harmful to the karaoke industry and has hurt not only local karaoke companies but the manufacturers themselves. Of the 'big three', Sound Choice has stopped producing new music all together and is spending their resources to find the 'pirates' and put a stop to this practice. Chartbuster has slowed their production of music significantly. The smallest of the three has also stopped producing new music.
The Professional KJ (karaoke jockey) is being hurt by this also. Not only is new, quality karaoke becoming hard to find; but the 'illegal' KJ is infiltrating the public venues and charging substantially less than what a legal KJ company can offer. The quality of music is headed downhill and the venues are putting themselves at risk for a lawsuit for hiring these illegal KJ's. The KJ themselves are also at substantial risk of lawsuit. The fines for this activity are enormous for both the venue and the KJ. Sometimes resulting in the venue being charged up to $750,000. For the KJ, the fine is on a 'per song' basis. They are forced out of the business and their sound equipment is forfeited.
Jimmy Bryant's Entertainment has been in the karaoke business for 21 years. We are proud to say that we are completely legal. We own the original disc to every song in our library.
By posting our Certified Chartbuster Digital KJ business, we are showing our venues and our customers that we promise to always provide legal, quality product along with our professional services.
We are in line to have an audit of our library completed by Sound Choice as well and will post that certificate as soon as it's issued.
We will not be seeking a certificate from Stellar Records because they charge $3,200 for it. They haven't produced new music since 2007. And though we do have some of their CDG's and will show them upon request; we just can't justify spending the money for their certificate.
Transferring karaoke music to a hard drive for use in a commercial manner, without consent of the manufacturer is illegal without prior consent. This is copywrite infringement. When you see a KJ boasting a library of over 100,000 songs, chances are they have acquired their music illegally.
There is no issue for the private user to 'media shift' their own cdg's to a hard drive, or to copy said disc's; however using this 'media-shifted' material in a public performance is illegal.
The piracy issue has gotten so out of control that Jimmy Bryant's Entertainment wanted to be part of the solution. (yes, it has hurt our business also) If the illegal activity isn't stopped, soon there will be no new karaoke songs and hard working, established karaoke businesses will go out of business! Please support Certified Legal KJ's!!
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