Karaoke Forums

Hi I am moderately new to Karaoke.

I have been singing songs at the local social clubs for a while .

Which is strange since I get totally terrified; after I have put up my name I almost get a panic attack each time they call out the next singer. If the microphone had any loose parts it would sound like a baby's rattle


For home use I have bought a CDG player and a set of CDs by "Sweet Georgia Brown".

I also have been collecting songs in kar format. I have about 3612 songs

I use them at home with family and friends; they suit our needs so we don't really mind them, although I do admit some Kar files are poor quality.

I could run a simple kind of Karaoke show at a local hotel bar; basically a bar where me and my friends get together. It is a tiny bar so I was thinking about volunteering my time and services, I can just use the set of CDGs that I bought but I prefer to use the Kar files.

My question is who owns Kar files? I understand the Midi component has been created by somebody and maybe a different person added the lyrics; all based on copyright material.

Kar files are promoted across the internet as free songs to download.

Anyone have a view? (please don't post if you are just going to talk trash about Kar files; I have already stated some, well maybe quite a few are poor quality).

Thanks

Baz

They're okay for what they were meant for- Home use. For outside the home in a commercial envirement, your singers might actually not come back for quality reasons.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

The problem with songs for karaoke is getting and paying for the songrights to the origional artist that came up with the song in the first place.

Legitimate companies attempt to do this, some are less than 100% sucessful but that is a highly debated topic elsewhere.

As for .kar or other various "midi"* karaoke these "homemade" products are not at all commercially legal (in the US) at least, as the origional artist is not paid for their song. This applies for songs not in the public domain, ie everything written in the last 100 or so years.

You are highly unlikely to get busted for using such songs, but then again your chance of being commerically sucessfull (and holding a gig) using such songs except very rarely is also unlikely.

As for the quality of the .kar "free" downloads you can find on the internet, they are in general poor. You might find someone happy to sing one which is a very obscure song not avalible anywhere else, but for the most part any public show that relies hevily on such songs is unlikely to go over well with a clientelle that is used to better quality song recordings.

The market in karaoke has matured to the point that to be successful in most places in the US it requires a several thousand dollar investment minimum in songs if they are to be purchased legally. Most karaoke singers expect that as a bare minimum.

*Yes I know midi is just a format to recreate a song from audio samples, and there is nothing inherently wrong with the technology that results in a necessaraly inferior product. But for the most part "midi" karaoke is done with low quality software and the limited sound samples that come with various discount or freeware programs. Sure there are probably some "midi" songs out there that are indistinguishable from those done with insturments, but there is a lot of "midi" songs out there sound like they were made with a $15 toy keyboard set to "guitar".