Originally posted by congalocke:
Hey guy's,
I was thinking of advertising Karaoke services on my website (I'm a dot.com now! :cool: ) and I was wondering what the legality's were.

There are no issues with just advertising the service........

I have seen posted, guy's who have cover bands and get a lawsuit notice from a music publisher and I don't want to go through that.

I have seen bars that did cover bands and then got bills from BMI (and others) for 10's of thousands of dollars...... my reccomendation to any establishment is to get the liscense.

Is it possible to post 30 seconds and not get in trouble or is it a no go unless you have license???

Posting of a copyright material (for the purpose you describe) is a violation of the copyright laws..... and yes it could become an issue for you.

Also, what's your "ripping" rate for Mp3's.
I shall be doing Samples for the website soon and have never ever done it so...pretend your talking to a 3 year old.

I have no idea as i don't do that - but i am sure better minds than mine will speak up soon.

Rod

Variable bit rate all the way. Do a search for "MP3 VBR LAME" on RO and some old threads should pop up.

You guy's are beautiful!

Thanks for responding so quickly...

Regards
conga

VBR is good for downloaded music, but not good for streaming. Many players cannot handle VBR streaming, and it can be tough on slow/unstable connections for players that can.

CBR should be used for streaming, 24kbps for low speed connections, 128kbps max. for high-speed.

LAME is however, the best free MP3 encoder available, for VBR or CBR.

W.