Eric,
Your personal business issues will not be affected in any meaningful way by eliminating karaoke piracy.
It takes money to make money.
Karaoke media is relatively cheap.
If an operator can't afford the media while managing their other expenses then they are already at a disadvantage far beyond the reach of any anti-piracy campaign.
You are also assuming people are pirates simply because they run a lot of shows.
If there's someone out there with 35 weekly karaoke shows then the cost of their media is pretty far down the list of things that differentiate them from a single-op.
I've previously managed multi-ops with as many as 35 shows in a single weekend. It takes as few as only 9 music libraries to accomplish. If the events are stretched across the entire week it requires as few as only 6 collections.
I'm a single op and even I own 6 legitmate collections. It's not much of a hurdle.
Furthermore, 35 separate weekly karaoke shows at lounges in the same metro area would not survive. To succeed at that level requires a large region that would extend far beyond the area you are likely to want to serve.
As a generalization, everyone of your premises is flawed. As a generalization!
Let's start with the understanding that I am IN FACT in a major metropolitan area: Miami-dade/Broward (Ft Lauderdale)/Palm Beach Counties! And the 35 shows I mentioned all take place in Miami-dade and all of the shows are NOT in "lounges"!
And as a fact:
I know several comuterized multi-riggers and everyone that I am familiar with IS a pirate. And that is how it is in MY world regardless of how it is in your sphere of reference.
One guy who truly believed that he was legal, purchased four loaded CAVS systems. He told me he purchased 4 of them in order to have the same equipment and library on each rig. During that period of time I was researching karaoke as a retirement job and I discussed his CAVS experience extensively with him! It was then that I started to get an inkling that CAVS was not really legal. And when a retailer offered to throw in the entire MM library if I bought a CAVS from him I knew to avoid CAVS! So the guy could have purchased one library and triplicated it without being an more illegal than he actually is! And he had an amazing library comprised primarily of SC and PH. It was quite tempting to me, particularly because of the reasonable cost and the avowals that it is a legal system!
And even before computers facilitated piracy, the few disc shows that had multiple jobs on any given night used duplicate copies of their discs. How do I know? I saw the physical discs, and I saw the "confetti/artifacts" on the screen that they produced.
And you'll never prove to me that purchasing an additional library is the least of an independent operators financial concerns! It is a larger investment than the equipment and useless if you fail. If nothing else, who would invest in an additional library without having some work lined up ahead of time?
Meanwhile, if a pirate buys another rig, and dups his library, he has two complete rigs! He pays for the equipment and gets the library for free. And if it takes awhile to get another show, so be it. An extra rig is always good to have and with their credentials, the pirate WILL always find additional shows. There isn't one venue interested in doing karaoke that isn't impressed with the sales presentation, including references, that a multi-rigger provides. And this is where and how I am most impacted!
Having already stated the local reality is that the multiriggers were facilitated primarily though piracy, let me also mention that generally speaking, they have the worst equipment. One multi-rigger uses one speaker, can't play customer discs and trains many who lack the competence to run the shows. And in the process the "cream rises to the top" and they end up with some decent KJ's
Now, this is most important, their new shows fail much more frequently than they succeed. But consider their formula. They approach many venues with the equivalent strategy of using "spam". They mislead and deceive. 5 venues take them up on their proposal. Within 2-3 months 3 of those jobs are gone, while 2 stick. And the process repeats itself! Now that is a business model that works and the success of it proves just that!
While I work alone, I own enough equipment to have the equivalent of three "rigs". I use whichever rig I feel is most appropriate for the particular venue! I have no intention at this time to spend money on another library. And it's not just the cost of purchasing the library, I can buy 5 libraries if I'd like, it's the 100's of hours required to update my computer for the (each) new library, maintaining separate and distinct files for each distinct library and printing up a different set of books for each that can never be substituted for the library on another rig.
My local pirates, on the other hand, have no significant data to input in order to add a new rig/library. And interestingly, most don't even bother printing up books. They "comfort" their audience with the announcement that "they have every track ever made, so just ask for what you want"!
And, frankly, Proformance, I don't know what to make of your owning 6 libraries. The question in my mind is not "how" but "why"?
Lastly, I am perplexed to hear that you managed 35 shows and have no knowledge of the economies of scale that were afforded to you. For example, if you managed 35 shows the cost of having you do that didn't change if the shows dropped down to 30 or increased to 40. And the cost of the extra hosts were, I hope, covered by the fees from each new engagement! And any effort to increase an email list of followers is only facilitated as the number of shows you attend grows. And the cost/time to send out email blasts doesn't increase that much every time you increase the list!
