Hey Guys,

Do you know where I could find the remixed song A Little Less Conversation but without the singing? If you could help me out, that would be great.

Thanks,

Evan

If you want you can pm me your e-mail address and I can e-mail it to you -

I live by Adobe Audition.

In most cases it does a very good job of removing the center channel (which is the channel that usually contains the vocal line). I use this program often when rehearsing for musicals. I simply pop the track in, remove the vocal line and I have a perfect Karaoke track to rehease with in just minutes time.

I simply don't know where I would be without Adobe Audition.

Also you can use limewire to find it .. just download it at http://www.limewire.com

Just be careful when dealing with copyrighted music...

Nick Fox

Yes be careful. If you plan on using this music in your show, you must pay to use it. Contact SOCAN and apply for a licence.

If you need royalty free music that is unique you can have me or muzicman to make it for you.

In a normal stereo song, there is no "centre" track per se, but instead, you have one or more of the multi-track original tracks mixed into the centre of the stereo mix.

Be cautious about using the "vocal remover" tools that show up in a lot of audio applications because there's a lot more than just vocals in the centre of the mix, and it will all dissapear with the vocals rendering your music somewhat thin and weak.

As mrbillthentertainer has pointed out, as you live and presumeably perform in and around Manitoba, the SOCAN fee should be considered as part of your overhead. I can assure you that the SOCAN police are in every major city, and in every province, and they DO go out and see what their music is being used for in clubs, restaraunts, and theatres.
I know of two restaraunts that got hit with big fines in my city just recently for playing "top 40" music off a CD, and not registering with SOCAN.

You can find it from everywhere: limewire, edonkey, emule, kazaa etc.

Yes the SOCAN police are everywhere. I know personally of two places/people that were hit. One was a lounge I was DJing Acid Jazz at. He didn't want to pay the fee.

Another was a mobile DJ who downloaded songs and was caught using them.

As a DJ myself, I am very particular about using only licensed music, and having original music.

The DJ that was caught above was fined $10,000! Pretty hefty.

If this is sold as a Karaoke track, then don't you have the rights to perform it? They are singing this song in Bars all around the world. Are they doing it illegally or does purchasing the track from a registered karaoke source give you performance rights?
Just Wondering
Dave

Hi Slim King .
As a former professoinal karaoke jock, I can tell you that that's not the case.
I too once thought that once I purchased the music, that all rights and royalties were paid. Not so. As far as my end, all was fine. However, the venues in which I played were then responsible for the public broadcasting of this music. Therefore they had to pay fees to ASCAP or BMI, since they too were making an income off of the music played.

The fees that the venue owners had to pay were based on the seating capacity of their establishment.

You also may want to look into finding a sound-alike, or even having one made for you. Generally, if there are any, the royalty fees associated with sound-alikes tend to be quite lower when compared with the original music. But you also have to remember that the lyrics are copyrighted too, so if you intend to sing the lyrics over ANY music, there is probably some fee for that as well.

Nick Fox

ASCAP and BMI are the equivilant in the US of SOCAN in Canada.

Brian's experience in the US is identical to what SOCAN would do in Canada. What you get with Karaoke is really not much different than what you get with a regular CD.
It's just music.
What you then do with that music determines what fees you may have to pay.

It's the venue that gets stung for the costs of paying artists rights fees unless you're a singer singing somebody else's songs, then the singer pays.

SOCAN, ASCAP, and BMI are not beyond collecting fees more than once either. They may inadvertantly collect from the artist singing another artists songs, and then the venue that they're performed in.

I manage a couple of theatres, and we are the ones who remit SOCAN fees for most all shows.
We are often called upon to remit fees for artists who use music and don't know about SOCAN. They also often protest.....but SOCAN, ASCAP, and BMI are how our fellow artists who are musicians happen to get paid, so it's really not viewed as a bad thing.

Here's a question. I was talking about this a bit with my supplier (where I lease my music) and he said something to the fact of videos being royalty free. As they are produced for marketing purposes only. Does anyone know about this? I can't believe that they are royalty free. I guess I should contact SOCAN to find out.

Hi everybody,

A very good source of informations on music and the licences and fees to pay or not is the book called "Music and the Magician" written by Gary Ouellet in 1997 and still sold at http://www.camirandmagic.com.

It gives also a good inside on different sources to use and to avoid, aswell as informations on the editing of music.

The book contains aswell contacts to get royalty free music and other type of music.

Good luck.

Great info from everyone...The question of royalty fees is not understood by many.
James

When I did my first year of stage illusions I used a bunch of commercial music and was approached my ASCAP and BMI.......I still shutter when I think back to that day! LOL But it would have been cheaper for me to hire a full ochestra band than to use the music!!! Per show!!!

Another thing you can do is go to http://www.acidplanet.com They have music by artists but if you try to contact the artist you can actually use and also have the right to use it.

The book, "The Professional Amateur" by Toby Travis, also has solid info in it, about music rights, and paying BMI or ASCAP (for the U.S. readers).

Just do an internet search for that title. Daytona Magic Books is the first site to show up for that title, when I do the google search.

- Donald