Why Audits?
If you own original media for all of your tracks, you might be wondering why you need to be audited. In the mid-2000s, it became technically possible
to copy karaoke tracks from CD+G discs to a hard drive.
That was a great change from a technological standpoint, but it also made it much easier for
karaoke operators to get copies of Sound Choice® tracks without buying original discs (also known as stealing).
We quickly reached a point where we would sell maybe 1,000 copies of a new disc, but copies of those songs would be shared via the internet
and otherwise and show up on 20,000 or more karaoke systems.
We want the people who bought our discs to have the convenience of using a hard drive, but not if it means that 95% of the demand for our songs
is satisfied by stealing the product. Certification is a compromise: If you show us you own original media for what you have, 1 to 1, then we'll
give you the OK on using a hard drive instead. That seems fair to us, and virtually all of our Certified KJs agree.
Disc Marking
You might be wondering about how we mark CD+G discs. Regular ink would simply wipe off, and stickers peel. So we came up with a better solution.
When you apply for certification, we send you a stamp and special ink that's specifically
formulated to mark the polycarbonate plastic that your CD+G discs are made of. Our special ink is designed to
embed into the plastic center ring (the non-data area of the disc). It's barely visible under normal light, but under a blacklight, the ink
glows.
Our ink will not interfere with your ability to play the disc at all—just keep it off the data area of the disc.
It also won't harm the resale value. If you decide to sell your disc, and it shows up in a later audit, we may
contact you to verify that you transferred ownership of the disc to another person.
Certification is safe and easy.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who have a lot of time, energy, and money invested in trying to convince karaoke operators not to
cooperate with us. These people like to get on karaoke-focused message boards and forums and spread disinformation about our brands, our company, and
our certification process.
The real truth is simple: If you own original media, 1 to 1 with your hard drive tracks, certification is the least expensive, easiest way to support legal karaoke
and show your customers that you do business the right way.
Don't believe the myths.
We've all heard the arguments. Don't be fooled by the hype.
MYTH
"You should just wait to be sued, then show up in court with your discs."
Court doesn't really work like that, but you
could wait to be sued. If we sue you, we'll offer you an audit. But there's
a big difference between a voluntary (pre-suit) audit and the audits we do after we sue: If you're doing a pre-suit audit and we find that you don't have 1:1
correspondence, all you have to do is delete the tracks you don't have discs for, and we'll issue your certification—no harm, no foul. But if we audit
you after suing you, and you're not 1:1, we'll use that against you in the lawsuit. Is that really a risk you want to take?
MYTH
"They'll look at all the private stuff on your hard drive."
Nope. We're interested in your Sound Choice and Chartbuster tracks, and that's it. We don't
care about your browser history, your financial records, your family photos, or anything else. We don't look at anything but karaoke tracks. We're not even
interested in karaoke tracks from other producers! And we don't share any of the information you give us with anyone else—except, of course, what
you want us to put in our online
Licensee Directory.
MYTH
"They make you sign your life away with that contract."
Hey, if you're concerned about our Audit Acknowledgement, we encourage you to have an attorney
look at it. If you have questions about something, we'll try to answer them. But the agreement is two pages long, it's written in plain English, and most
people can understand it without help.
The bottom line here is that we want to cooperate with the operators who have bought original media for all their music. If you have concerns, talk to us, not
some guy on the internet who has an agenda.
Certification is a great way to get into our
Licensee Directory
(check it out to see what you're missing out on)
