Price of Midi songs, Why so much..

I bought 7 midi songs from yamaha music store last night and it cost me $29.80

What a rip off, I could buy a new CD full of 20 songs in a music store for that price.

Why do they charge so much for a simple midi song, greed if you ask me...

Hi,
the reason is the number of copies they sell. Did you notice the price level for karaoke CDs? And these are compatible to many players.
Therefore MIDI-Files are more expensive in general. And the MIDI files you bought are optimized for Yamaha instruments.
Did you buy the files as single songs? Single songs are always more expensive as albums/ sampler. This means printed music, audio music and of course MIDIs and styles.
Another reason is, that the MIDI file companies have to pay Royalty Fees, because it's the using of copyrighted music in the public area.
The only way to save money, is first to buy no single MIDIs and second to buy GM MIDIs and to use the keyboard's sequenzer for optimizing the MIDI.
But in this way you need the original recording as reference.

------------------
Regards
RF

Do you realize how much time and effort it takes to produce a quality[like the record] sequence...even in the old days at $13.95 a song, it was worth it if you have ever tried to sequence like the pros, you can appreciate the effort/cost more...On top of the skill it takes to produce a quality sequence..if you sell one, ten others will get a copy free...It is a tough business..

I remember in 1995 when I first went online with an AOL account You got 5 hrs a month for I think it was $19.95. Anyway I downloaded about 500-800 midi songs with a 14.4 modem for free because back then it was allowed. Anyway, you definatley could tell the difference between a professionally made sequence, and amature. What I don't understand is why Yamaha doesn't sell song-styles-instead of song midis. For example, the style change buttons could be used to separate the verse/chorus/instrumental sections of songs.

Hi:
I know $29 sound like a lot for only 7
commercial Midi Files but that comes out
to less than $4.50 per song. Heck, most
commercially made midis cost on an average
of around $10 each (Midi Hits $8.98, Geerdes
$12 Styles and Music $12.50 etc etc). There
are a few companies that charge as little
as $3.
Hey Rebel, I suggest you include your
email address in your profile, you might
get some good ideas on this topic.
Bruce

I have been succesful finding good quality midis just by utilizing search engines like google, altavista, etc. It does take time to weave out the good ones from the bad but usually on cetain sites if one is good the rest are usually good as well. If you don't mind having to tweak them a little with sound changes etc. It is really not much work and no investment. Karaoke sites seem to have better composed midis, just look for sites by individuals that are kind enough to share them, actual karaoke sites charge a fee.

A midi file search engine can be found at:
http://www.musicrobot.com

if you don't mind weeding through the files for what you want. You might have luck doing searches for Band In A Box files also, and if you don't have Band in A Box then that's available from:
http://www.pgmusic.com/

Other than the obvious (inclusion of lyrics), is there any difference in the creation of SMFs and karaoke files?

I don't think so. Karaoke files are midi files - change the ".KAR" extension to ".MID" and it works as any other SMF.

that`s nothing... If you`ll want to "custom order" MIDI Songs from a musician(you know ... when you sing for him so he`ll make music just for the song, not using styles/auto accompaniment...) I know one guy he was charging up to $300(in U.S.), another $150...
try make a midi song(fro scratch[no styles]) you`ll know why it costs that much...