Building the Library

Introduction

Just like with iTunes, all of your karaoke music is organized in a main library. From this library, you can search for music, build playlists, and of course play karaoke. The library allows you to organize music that is on your system—that is, music that is purchased through Kjams, as well as music that resides elsewhere on your hard drive—but it also allows you to include music that you don’t “own,” such as streaming music.

You have several options for building your library. You can:

• Purchase downloadable karaoke music using the built-in kJams store. This is the way most kJams users obtain their music.
• Download music from other music sites (including free songs)and index them into kJams.
• Copy music from your karaoke CD-Gs into the kJams library. This is called ripping.
• Index karaoke tunes that are already on your hard drive into the library.(This includes sample songs that you downloaded during installation.)
• Add streaming songs to your library.

Note:I used the word “index” rather than “copy” because kJams does NOT COPY when you add music to your library. It only makes a note of where the song resides on the internal drive and it then uses the original files right where they are. This can be a big problem for newbies who download music to their desktop and then add the files to the kJams library. Once the files are added, they think they can trash the file from the desktop. But in reality, this is the only file that exists.

If you are new to karaoke, you probably don’t have any tunes on your hard drive or any karaoke CDs to rip. No problem! To try out kJams’ features, you really only need to download a few songs. Free songs will work just fine. You can also go to the Chartbuster music store to find free streaming songs.

Before you start to build your library, I suggest you first:

1. Set up your purchase preferences here: Setting Purchase Preferences Temp
2. Read about meta data here: Understanding Tags (Meta Data) Temp

Then,for information on the different ways to get music into your library, click on the following:

Purchasing Music Through kJams Temp

Downloading Music from Other Sites Temp

Adding to the Library Temp

Ripping Temp

Understanding Tags (Meta Data)

To fully enjoy your karaoke experience, you’ll want to know something about the songs in your library. Besides the name of the song and artist, you might want to know the album, track #, or even the duration of the song. (Especially if your neighbor Bruno is singing Light My Fire.) This meta data is displayed in your kJams library and can be customized to suit your needs.

When you purchase music through the kJams Store, I magically “tag” your music files behind the scenes and voilá—your library displays song name, artist, album, song duration, and whatever other meta data is available. While karaoke stores differ in the kind of meta data provided—for example, some stores provide Composer, while others do not—all stores provide the basic meta data. Unfortunately, if you obtain your music from any other source, I can’t promise you’ll have adequately tagged files. In fact, I can almost guarantee you will have to do some tag editing.

If you want to expand your meta data (for example, to include Composer, Song Writer, Date, etc.), you will most likely have to enter this data manually, even if you purchase through the kJams stores.

It’s completely up to you how much meta data to include in your library, but to start, I recommend that you keep it simple. For now, let’s just add some songs to the library.

Adding Sample Songs

The first step in building your library is to index the sample songs you downloaded when you installed kJams. (By the way, it’s okay to skip this step. If you know you want to purchase music right away, then you don’t really need any sample songs.)

1. From the kJams main screen, click on File.
2. Click on Add to Library.
3. Locate and open the folder that contains the downloaded music files. (This is the file you specified during installation.)
4. Select the file.
5. Click on Open.

The music file is indexed to the library and is ready for playing.

Purchasing Music through kJams

kJams offers 1-Click shopping at several karaoke websites. This option offers a huge advantage in that your account information (credit card #, etc.) is maintained by kJams, so you don’t have to re-enter the information each time you want to purchase a song.

In addition, two of the stores, Chartbuster and TriceraSoft, offer streaming music. For this option, you purchase streaming time (essentially a subscription), and then you can stream music whenever you want. Please note that you must purchase your streaming subscription ahead of time. For more information on setting up streaming accounts, refer to Chartbuster and TriceraSoft.

Take note:

• iTunes does NOT sell karaoke music!
• Karaoke Locker does not sell music for public performances. Therefore, this store is available only to kJams Lite users.

Setting Up Purchase Preferences

Prior to your first purchase, you will need to set up your account information and provide an email address. The email address is used by the music stores to notify you of your order information.

Also, if you plan on streaming music, you will need to set up your account to allow this. To understand the Preferences relating to streaming music, refer to Chartbuster and TriceraSoft.

Please note that kJams keeps your credit card information encrypted at all times.

To set up your basic purchase account information:

1. Click on Edit --> Preferences --> Stores. The Stores information page is displayed.
2. Click on Edit Credit Card Settings.
3. Enter your credit card information.
   1. Note that your card #, expiration date, and security code are immediately encrypted, so be sure to enter them correctly.
   2. The expiration date must be entered in the following format: MM/YYYY
4. Click OK.
5. Click on Edit E-mail Address. (It’s important to use your real address because this is how you get your receipts.)
6. Enter your email address, then click on OK.
7. If you want true “one click” shopping with no questions asked, deselect the Confirm All Purchases box. This is not recommended for newbies, as it is very easy to purchase songs without realizing it.
8. The option to Include Music Store Songs in Main Library allows you to do an exhaustive search when you’re looking for a particular song. With this option activated, kJams searches your Library, plus all enabled music stores. You also have the option of limiting the search to streaming songs only.
9. If you decide to set up your preferences as described above—deselecting Confirm All Purchases and selecting Include Music Store Songs in Main Library—then there is an additional preference that you should deselect. Go to Edit  Preferences  General and deselect Pre-cache Next Song. Leaving this preference selected will cause kJams to purchase the song you are playing, but also the next song in the playlist.
10. If your are planning on streaming music, purchase your subscriptions and then set your preferences according to the information located here: Chartbuster and TriceraSoft.
11. Click on OK to exit the Stores preferences screen.

IMPORTANT: The option described above under #8 is potentially dangerous if you have Confirm All Purchases turned off. For example, you can scroll to any music store song and press play, and it will happily purchase the song for you without asking. And then without asking, it will purchase the next one that plays, and the next one. However, this option can be very useful if you are a KJ and you want Singers to be able to search for and submit songs that are in your music stores (which you will gladly purchase for them).

Now you are ready to purchase karaoke music!

Purchasing Songs

1. Click Music Stores to display a list of available stores OR click the disclosure triangle (twirly arrow) on the Music Store icon.
2. Click on a store.
3. Scroll through the song selections or use the search box at the top to look for a particular title or artist.
4. To hear a sample, double click the song.
5. Purchase songs by EITHER clicking on Buy Now or by dragging the song to your Library.
6. Once a song is purchased, it is automatically downloaded into your library and an email confirming your order is sent to your email address.

If you order from Karaoke Locker, you receive two versions of each song: one is an m4wav for playing and the other is a CDG for burning to disc.

Buying multiple songs? When you click Buy Now, the transaction is completed without the option of adding more songs to your purchase. So if you want to buy 6 songs, you will end up with six separate transactions. By dragging your selections to the library, you can purchase multiple songs with one transaction.

Streaming Songs

1. Simply click on the Stream button for that song. (There could be a bit of a wait while the song buffers.)
2. Or you can drag the song to your Library and play it later. Note that streamed songs appear highlighted in green.

About purchasing

• The first time you start with no music store, kJams must download and parse the store. Only AFTER that will the store appear in the list on the left. Watch the activity window to see when these tasks complete. what do you mean “start with no music store”?

• Click on the little Music Stores shopping bag icon to get info about each store.

• Each music store will ask you to update it once per month. If you decline to update it, it will wait another month to ask you. You can update a store at any time, however, by right clicking on its name and picking "Reload Music Store."

Denied Credit Cards Your credit card company might accept the first few purchases and then start denying the transactions. In this case, you just need to call your credit card company and tell them to allow micro-purchases. For more information on this, click here.

Problems with Your Orders If you have problems with your purchase...