Karaoke Summit 2013 Wrap-Up: full video, excerpts posted

DigiTrax Entertainment, hosts of the 2013 Karaoke Cloud Music City Summit have posted the full videos of the event, including speaker break-outs.

The entire event, recorded on Livestream, is available here. Video break-outs by speaker are below the jump.

No-Fly List for Karaoke Released at Summit

A list of songwriters who refuse to license their works for karaoke singers was opened to the public at the 2013 Karaoke Cloud Music City Summit on Thursday, June 20, with more than a few astonishing names making the list.

“It’s unclear to us why these songwriters do not want their biggest fans to have access to their music,” said Joe Vangieri, CEO of DigiTrax Entertainment, hosts of the Summit and creators of Karaoke Cloud. “When someone cares enough about your song to not only purchase it, but to dare singing it in public, you know you’ve attained what every songwriter hopes for their song – it’s touched someone’s life.”

DigiTrax CEO talks future tech to close Karaoke Summit

Joe Vangieri capped the 2013 Karaoke Summit by walking through the direction that technology is taking karaoke. Some highlights:

• There are many opportunities, thanks to technology
• Karaoke Cloud Pro is built right into PCDJ Karaoke, Compuhost, kJams and Jukebox Jockey
• KCP is coming to venues in ScreenPlay, Promo Only and PC Music
• KCPro-2-Own has just been released.
• Play-A-Tab helps novices learn guitar along with their karaoke.
• Acesonic is building Karaoke Cloud right into the KOD-3000 unit.

More on this after the Summit concludes.

Why metadata is important to the karaoke industry

Toni Roberts, Senior Licensing and Production Coordinator for DigiTrax, spoke about how important it is to have accurate and reliable data about the karaoke songs in everyone’s libraries. Some bullet points:

• Everyone’s idea of “essential information” differs.
• It’s way too difficult to track down the publishers for every song as the data stands now.
• We can post a file for all to use and contribute to.

Allen Jacobi came back to the podium to promote the idea that the database should be crowd-sourced and open-source. If a person or organization has data to contribute, the database would be opened up to them to include their data. The full, correct database would be available to the public.

More on this subject after the Summit ends.

Kurt Slep outlines the history of pirated karaoke

Kurt Slep, CEO of Slep-Tone Entertainment, spoke at length about how his company is acting to curb piracy, and how extensive the problem is. Some bullet points from his talk include:

• There are 45,000 karaoke venues, and most have not yet been investigated.
• Reporting piracy is easy – visit soundchoice.com to do so.
• KJ/Venues who settle their suits get solutions that allow them to continue operations.
• Lawsuits seem to drive sales, based on the numbers. Slep-Tone would prefer not to base their business model on suing people.
• Publishers – please help us prosecute the pirates using abandon-ware.
• There are affordable solutions – KJs don’t have to steal their music to stay competitive.

For more on Kurt’s talk, check back with us after the Summit has concluded.

Piracy Recovery talks about their strategy to halt karaoke piracy

Roby Robinson is an attorney for Piracy Recovery, LLC. He litigates against karaoke pirates, and here are some bullet points from his talk.

• “Ignorance breeds folly.” Not knowing the law can be your undoing.
• The Chartbuster trademarks have passed to Piracy Recovery, LLC. Chartbuster’s copyrights are owned by World Wide Digital, LLC.
• DigiTrax Entertainment, LLC licenses the old Chartbuster copyrighted works from WWD.
• Piracy Recovery is actively working to bring more illegal KJs to justice.

More on Roby’s talk after the Summit concludes.

Maker of Karaoke Anywhere talks about how to reach more people

Jonathan Apostoles, CEO and Founder of JoltSoft, makers of Karaoke Anywhere, spoke about the impact of social media on karaoke.

• Up to now, singers have been ignored in a lot of ways. Singers should become the karaoke label’s primary customer, not a KJ or venue.
• People want to be heard.
• “Karaoke Feed” is like Instagram for karaoke, currently being implemented.
• Singers must get the “five minutes of fame” experience.
• A Pro Version is coming that allows venues and KJs to leverage the power of social media and karaoke

More on Jonathan’s talk after the conclusion of the Summit.

 

 

 

KJ details how hard it is to stay legal

Hal Kinney is the President of the Knoxville Chapter of the American Disc Jockey Association. Some quick points from his talk:

• Customers don’t care about licensing or legality, they just want to sing their favorite songs.
• Customers will acquire the songs they want to sing, even if I can’t legally play them.
• Non-licensed karaoke is available on BitTorrent, YouTube, home-made versions, etc.

More to come on Hal’s talk once the Summit has concluded.

Famous lawyer Jacobi says hope on the horizon for karaoke

Allen Jacobi of Allen Jacobi Law is a highly-regarded attorney in the entertainment field, specializing in copyright law. Here’s a short recap of his major points:

• In the UK and Europe, karaoke companies have a huge advantage over USA-based karaoke companies.
• Not only are licenses easier to obtain for EU/UK karaoke labels, their costs are lower.
• There are developments on the horizon that may indicate a leveling of the playing field in a few years.

We’ll have a more in-depth report following the Summit.

What do publishers think about karaoke?

Natalie Madaj, a Legal Fellow from the National Music Publishers Association, addressed the Karaoke Summit today. Here are some highlights:

• A big revision to the Copyright Act is on the horizon.
• The NMPA is currently working on developing a strategy to better help karaoke labels interface with publishers.
• Publishers aren’t generally open to the idea of a compulsory license – they want the freedom to negotiate rights on the open market.
• The Harry Fox Agency and their Slingshot program may be the best bet for labels to streamline the clearing of licenses.

We’ll break down her talk further after the Summit concludes.