Hi David It is cheaper to do the licence thing than to try and wangle a deal re music. The companies that produce the music generally don't want to make deals. I have 2000 songs and this cost us around $4,000 - $5,000. I am looking to protect the disc's that I have so as to not have to replace these. This means I can build on what I have when the money is available. Having said this, there are some disc's that have been protected by the producers and they can't be duplicated. These ones I guess I'll have to wear. There are units out there that you can download your music in for example the JB199. I'd like to pose the question, how does this relate to backup and licencing? I find this all very interesting and am enjoying the journey of discovery. I don't mind if you wite about this as I feel it could possibly help others in my position and I'm all for sharing information etc. Licence fees are an ongoing cost every year. However I believe that the permission from companies is a one off. So far I have not had to pay for this! So far. I have had to deal with some silly people though. This morning I received an email from someone who didn't know who APRO/AMCOS were (I'm guessing they are overseas) but the clincher was that they couldn't understand what I wanted. Anyway I will keep you posted. Regards Hi David The fact that they gave me a yes on the using of my burnt disc's, whether unofficially or not, I have taken as giving me permission. I have placed the email with highlighted section in with my licence. One down, more to go! The representative from Zoom indicated in his email that they would need to go to all the singers and artists to get their permission if it were to be done legally. I sort of understand this, however, I also felt that they probably would have the power to give permission as my understanding of recordings etc is that the company buys the copy rights when paying the artists? This gives them permission to distribute said recording. Perhaps I'm wrong. I may just investigate that when I am done doing this. Have a good day. Cheers

REPLY from David
Many thanks for your two emails... the issue of music rights is indeed a difficult one. We tend to think that, when we buy a disc, that we have bought the music and should be able to back it up etc - but of course we've really only bought the physical disc. Actually, with your concerns about discs, I'm surprised you haven't simply loaded all the tracks onto computer and run your karaoke from there. The CAVS units are really custom-designed computers, and the same licencing rights affect these - basically it seems that no one will take action if you load your discs onto computer buying one disc for each computer that you load, and keeping your discs handy in case anyone asks whether you're palying originals. As more people convert to computer, this will become a bigger issue. I'm surprised that Zoom didn't give you a conclusive answer, and it suggests that some of these people don't really understand that the role of APRA/AMCOS is to collect licencing fees from music producers (principally) and pass them back to songwriters. Many thanks for keeping me up to date...
Submitted by on 24-10-2005

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