MTU.Community

OK, back to the topic which Admin in his first reply referred to... if MP3+G as such is good or bad.
Firstly, in my opinion, the MP3+G format DOES have similarities to the ISO CD+G format, in that it uses the same graphics code and way of displaying the graphics. The audio, however, is compressed as an MP3. I'd say it's similar to Hoster's KMA format, only that the audio is stored as MP3 instead of Windows Media (but I do admit I don't really know the KMA format...)

I've seen many MP3+G tracks, and in the majority of them, the manufacturer name has been left intact. I know that this is possible (I personally co-wrote the program that's able to do that), but no one seems to bother doing it. By the way, most of the MP3+G tracks posted on a newsgroup specific for that seem to be by Sound Choice. And from a legal standpoint, if I download them from there and use them privately, this is perfectly legal as long as I don't know money out of it. What's actually illegal is posting them! Same goes for an IRC MP3+G channel which seems to be a pretty clever distribution system. similar to file sharing. You can't be prosecuted for downloading songs from there and using them privately, but you can be for sharing them. Unfortunately, the channel rules now force you to share at least 100 songs or 5 full discs in order to stay there for longer than 14 days after first coming there. But they also encourage anyone buying discs with songs he doesn't find on there, though nearly everything ever released seems to be shared up there by someone, including discontinued discs like Pioneer, RCA, the old DKG series or the Sound Choice Eagles disc which has been discontinued because the syncing rights were retracted.

Karaoke Home Producer for the lyrics, and they really look rather professional. Of course they are not licensed, but they could never be because Disney doesn't issue licenses for their songs done on Karaoke.
And there are some French songs to be found there which may have been done on "playback" discs (backing tracks only without graphics or lyrics included), but not on Karaoke. And I know why: The problem seems to be the synch licenses. The publishers want to have a fixed amount of money for each song plus a fee per copy, which drives up the number of discs you have to sell of a song in order to be profitable. Now for some songs this just doesn't seem to work, and this includes whole languages! That's why no single new German CD+G has been produced since 1995 (!), but some playback CD's were issued.
And that's the point where I think it's better to have an unlicensed song than no song at all. If all that comes out on licensed discs is in English, but the people want to sing German songs, what do you do?
In the Far Eastern countries, this seems to run differently... you can produce Karaoke songs licensing on a compulsory base... which means a fixed fee per copy produced, regardless of what music, and you can produce anything you want. This actually sounds more fair to me...

I do agree that no one should be able to screw anyone. By the way, I asked someone of our copyright agency (AKM) if it's possible to play duplicates of discs in public shows, and they said yes... BUT a duplication fee has to be paid, which basically means the copyright fees the venue owner has to pay are doubled.

Typically, licensed discs today only come from Karaoke companies. But that means that the whole creation process of those discs becomes "companized"... all have to get paid to do it, and maybe they're not really doing what they like. In comparison, there seem to be many "free" MIDI files floating around the Internet. I tried many of them and I do admit that many of them are crap, but there are some gems in there. For instance, one of my favorite songs is "Brothers in arms" by the Dire Straits. Now, Sunfly recently produced a Karaoke version of that which doesn't nearly come close to the original... especially Mark Knopfler's rather complex guitar work on that was more or less corrupted by the guitarist at Sunfly, who only repeats the same line over and over. In comparison, I've found a KAR file of the same song that sounded nearly perfect! A little tweaking here and there (yes, I do know how to do it, and I also do know it's much work) and it IS perfect! Add some lyrics to that, and you get a version which beats Sunfly's any day!

And that's what I mean... if a Karaoke company does songs, it's restained by budget. So, not all songs one wants to have are produced, and some are done horribly bad, and you can't do anything about it. But with the MP3+G format and such tools as MTU's Karaoke Home Producer, anyone is able to produce Karaoke songs and spread them to the masses. I can't find anything bad about that... yes, they're unlicensed, but you couldn't get them any other way. Of course, if professional manufacturer's songs are spread, which you can readily buy on CD+G discs, they better should do something about that!

On the other hand, the companies also use some "free" resources of the Internet! Did you notice that the lyrics errors on Karaoke discs went down recently? That's because now nearly every imaginable song lyrics is published somewhere on the Internet, and even some companies who otherwise properly license the discs they put out use this convenient source of information (at least I know about one that does). So where's the line to draw? If a company downloads a MIDI file from the Internet as base for a song they do, is that legal if they license the disc properly? Or would they have to try to find the author and pay him, even if no author's mentioned in the file or on the site? Or not even use the file and produce another, budget-restrained, probably worse version?

Sorry, but somehow I believe in unity of the world. Of course no one should starve, and people should get rewarded for their work. But I think it's stupid if a Karaoke company puts out a 5th or 6th version of "My way" which is maybe worse than another already existing ones, only for the sake of having it in "their" library. Sorry, I don't take that, for there has only been one original version either. No one else tried to do another version of it, topping Frank Sinatra on it or even competing to his version! There have been some tries, of course...

So I'd rather download a discontinued DKG song before I buy a worse version of that song on another disc, just because it's the only disc with that song which is legally sold here.
But on the other hand, if a song is only out in a bad version, something should be done about it.

But when Karaoke discs are just done for the sake of profit, I don't have any understanding for such a venture, though beautiful products MAY arise of that. In my opinion, creating Karaoke music is an art as well as creating original Karaoke music, and should be treated as such. So, each one wanting to make Karaoke music should be able to publish or spread it without rigorous constraints (such as high licensing fees).

So is Karaoke only a hype made by some manufacturing companies who want to make money out of it? Or is anybody welcome not only to sing and pay for it, but also to parcitipate in hosting shows and EVEN making music used in it? I'd vote for the latter, and MTU has done a wonderful job by releasing Karaoke Home Producer in order to give people the oportunity to create their own Karaoke songs!