Karaoke reproducing apparatus

A karaoke reproducing apparatus for recording singing sound together with karaoke play sound, has a facility of printing information on the recorded musical program. The karaoke reproducing apparatus has a memory which contains previously stored recorded music information including at least the title, songwriter's name, and composer's name for each of musical programs recorded on the recording medium. In response to a recording start command, the recorded music information corresponding to a musical program selected by an operation is read from the memory, and output to a printer. Since recorded music information can be printed on a printed member such as a label and preserved as a record when singing sound is recorded together with karaoke play sound, the label, if adhered to a recording medium on which the sound is recorded, allows the user to readily know the recorded contents afterward. According to another aspect of the invention, a karaoke reproducing apparatus has a memory which contains copy right information on each of musical programs recorded on a recording medium. For a recording prohibited musical program, its karaoke play music can be prevented from being recorded so as to appropriately protect the copy right thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to an apparatus for reproducing accompanied 
music, having recording media on which a plurality of musical programs are 
recorded, so as to reproduce one selected from the plurality of musical 
programs. The accompanied music especially prepared for people to sing 
with will be called "karaoke music", as is generally done, and a 
reproducing apparatus particularly for reproducing the karaoke music will 
be called the "karaoke reproducing apparatus" in this specification. 
2. Description of Background Information 
Some karaoke reproducing apparatuses include a recording apparatus or 
output terminals for connection with an external recording apparatus so as 
to enable a song sung by a person to be recorded with karaoke music. The 
recording is performed on a recording medium such as a compact disk which 
may be reproduced on a later date in order for the person to listen to the 
song the person sang accompanied with the karaoke music. 
It is desirable that the recording medium thus recorded be provided with a 
label, attached thereon, on which information on recorded music such as 
the titles of songs are written, so that the contents of the recording 
medium can be readily known afterwards without actually reproducing it. 
However, writing recorded music information on a label requires time and 
labor to a user, and such written information, if only including the 
titles, may be insufficient for later use. 
Another point to be considered in recording karaoke play sound is that such 
recording act is subjected to the copy right law so that there are musical 
programs of which recording is permitted and those of which recording is 
prohibited, depending on copy right owners of the respective musical 
programs. 
Conventionally, users have determined whether nor not recording is 
permitted to a selected musical program by use of a reference table. 
Stated in another way, the right of copy right owners has been protected 
from illegal recording, placing confidence in users that they would not 
record music of which recording is prohibited. Alternatively, there is a 
karaoke reproducing apparatus which only collects musical programs of 
which recording is permitted, in order to avoid the handling of matters 
related to the copy right. 
It is however difficult to appropriately protect the right of copy right 
owners while placing confidence in users. Moreover, the above-mentioned 
karaoke reproducing apparatus, which only has recording permitted musical 
programs, cannot unfailingly provide musical programs with which people 
desire to sing. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a karaoke 
reproducing apparatus which is capable of printing information on recorded 
music when singing sound is recorded together with its karaoke play sound. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide a karaoke 
reproducing apparatus which is capable of playing recording prohibited 
musical programs while the copy right is appropriately protected for such 
recording prohibited musical programs. 
A karaoke reproducing apparatus according to a first aspect of the present 
invention has a recording medium on which at least karaoke play sound for 
a plurality of musical programs are recorded, means for generating a music 
selection command indicative of a musical program selected from the 
plurality of musical program in response to an operation, and player means 
for playing the musical program indicated by the music selection command 
on the recording medium, and is characterized by a memory containing 
previously stored copy right information on each of the musical programs 
recorded on the recording medium; means for reading from the memory the 
copy right information corresponding to the music selection command; 
determination means for determining whether or not recording is permitted 
to the selected musical program in accordance with the read copy right 
information; and control means for generating a control signal for 
controlling a recorder in accordance with the determination result of the 
determination means. 
The karaoke reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect of the 
present invention is provided with the memory which contains previously 
stored information on each recorded music including at least the title, 
songwriter's name, and composer' name. Recorded music information 
corresponding to a musical program selected by an operation is read from 
the memory in response to a recording start command, and the recorded 
music information thus read out is output to the printer. 
A karaoke reproducing apparatus according to a second aspect of the present 
invention has a first recording medium on which at least karaoke play 
sound for a plurality of musical programs are recorded, means for 
generating a music selection command indicative of a musical program 
selected from the plurality of musical program in response to an 
operation, and player means for playing the musical program indicated by 
the music selection command on the recording medium, and is characterized 
by means for generating a recording start command to a recorder for 
recording karaoke play sound and singing sound; a memory containing 
previously stored recorded music information of each of the musical 
programs recorded on the first recording medium, the recorded music 
information including at least the title, songwriter's name, and 
composer's name of each of the musical programs; means responsive to the 
recording start command for reading from the memory the recorded music 
information corresponding to the music selection command; and output means 
for outputting the read recorded music information to a printer. 
The karaoke reproducing apparatus according to the second aspect of the 
present invention is provided with the memory which contains previously 
recorded copy right information on each of musical programs recorded on a 
recording medium. The copy right information corresponding to a musical 
program selected by an operation is read from the memory in order to 
determine whether or not the selected musical program may be recorded on 
the basis of the read copy right information, and a control signal for 
controlling the recorder is generated in accordance with the determination 
result.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The present invention will hereinafter be described in connection with 
preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
In a karaoke reproducing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, an automatic disk 
changer 1 is provided with a disk container 2, a disk carrying part 3, and 
a player section 4. A plurality of disks 5 are housed in the disk 
container 2, such that one of these disks 5, selected to be played, is 
carried to a turn table (not shown) in the player section 4 by the 
carrying part 3. When the play is over, the disk on the turn table is 
returned to a predetermined position in the disk container 2 by the 
carrying part 3. The player section 4 plays the disk on the turn table and 
outputs data read from the disk. The disk carrying part 3 and the player 
section 4 are operated in response to commands from a system controller 7 
which will be later described. 
A data output of the player section 4 is connected to a data separator 
circuit 6. The data separator circuit 6 separates data output from the 
player section 4 into a variety of data such as compressed image data, 
compressed audio data, control data, information data, and so on, and 
outputs these data portions from separate output terminals. The data 
separator circuit 6 is connected to the above-mentioned system controller 
7 as well as to an audio decoder 8 and a video decoder 9. The data 
separator circuit 6 is also provided with a terminal for connecting an 
external apparatus 10 thereto. The external apparatus 10 may be a 
controller for illumination, video images, telops and so on which are used 
to produce stage effects for people who want to sing. 
The audio decoder 8 decodes separated compressed audio data to recover 
therefrom decompressed audio data such as PCM digital data. Since the 
compressed audio data includes audio data of plural channels, the audio 
decoder 8 decodes audio data of a specified channel in accordance with a 
signal from the system controller 7. The audio data output from the audio 
decoder 8 is supplied to a D/A convertor 11 and converted to an analog 
audio signal which is supplied to a speaker 19 through an amplifier 18. 
The video decoder 9 decodes separated compressed image data to recover 
therefrom decompressed image data. The image data output from the video 
decoder 9 is supplied to a D/A convertor 12 and converted to an analog 
moving video signal which is output, as it is, as well as is supplied to 
an image synthesizer 21. 
The system controller 7 comprises a microcomputer which receives separated 
information data. The information data is once stored in a RAM (Random 
Access Memory) 13 and selectively read therefrom. Information data read 
from the RAM 13 is processed in the system controller 7 and supplied to a 
displayed character control circuit 20. The displayed character control 
circuit 20 has a character generator and a V-RAM so as to generate 
character data to be displayed, corresponding to supplied information 
data, writes the generated character data into the V-RAM, reads the 
character data to be displayed from the V-RAM in synchronism with a 
synchronization signal of the moving video signal, and converts the read 
character data to s character video signal which is output to the image 
synthesizer 21. The character video signal is synthesized with the moving 
video signal from the D/A convertor 12 in the image synthesizer 21. 
The system controller 7 is connected to an operation unit 15, a recorder 
16, and a printer 17. The operation unit 15 has a keyboard for specifying 
a musical program to be played as well as a receiver (not shown) for 
receiving the specified musical program from a remote control transmitter 
23. The recorder 16 records played karaoke music with singing sound on a 
recordable compact disk (not shown) such as CD-R. Audio signals 
representative of the karaoke play sound and the singing sound are 
supplied from an amplifier 18 to the recorder 16. The printer 17 prints 
recorded music information such as the title on a label to be adhered on a 
compact disk. 
Next, the contents recorded on the disk 5, which is played by the player 
section 4, will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. On the disk 
5, all information is recorded in a digital signal form, for example, in 
conformity to the MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) standard. 
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, each information recording area on the 
disk 5 has a non-real time file area and a real time file area. Recorded 
on the non-real time file area are access information file such as TOC and 
karaoke information file such as titles of musical programs. On the other 
hand, on the real time file area, N real time files are recorded (N is an 
integer number which corresponds to the number of musical programs). Each 
real time file is called in a unit named "chapter", where one chapter 
corresponds to one musical program. One chapter of real time file 
comprises compressed image data and compressed audio data of a musical 
program, and real time data except for image and audio data. These data 
portions are recorded in the file in a time-division multiplex manner. 
The access information file comprises information indicative of the 
position on a disk and a time length of each chapter. By referring to this 
information, an arbitrary chapter can be accessed. The karaoke information 
file comprises a variety of information related to the disk and music, the 
structure of which is shown in FIG. 3. The karaoke information file 
includes a disk related information and one or more chapter information 
sections. One chapter information section represents one chapter, i.e., 
music related information, and the number of chapter information sections 
coincides with the number of musical programs recorded on the disk. The 
disk related information includes information on all about the disk, 
specifically, the contents of the disk, identification of the disk itself, 
the number of musical programs recorded on the disk, and so on. 
Each chapter information section includes a chapter information header, 
common information used in all chapters, telop channel inherent 
information, and language related information. The chapter information 
header comprises information for identifying an associated chapter 
information section, information indicative of the contents of the same, 
and so on. The common chapter information comprises (1) the original 
country of an associated musical program; (2) the published date of the 
musical program; (3) the duration of the musical program; (4) a copy right 
code; (5) the classification of the singer; (6) the classification of the 
musical program; (7) a subjective impression and theme of the musical 
program; (8) a situation of the musical program; (9) a special 
classification of the musical program; (10) a speed of the musical 
program; (11) an impression given by the musical program; (12) difficulty 
of the musical program for singing; (13) a multi-audio mode; (14) a 
background image; (15) information on control devices; (16) a DSP mode; 
and so on. 
The telop channel inherent information relates to character information 
(telop) corresponding to an associated chapter. A plurality of character 
information sequences (telop channel) may be assigned to a chapter. For 
example, a plurality of telops in different languages selectable may be 
added to a chapter. The telop channel inherent information comprises (1) 
the number of telop channels; (2) a telop channel number; (3) a language 
in which an associated telop is written; and (4) a style of characters 
constituting the telop. Among the foregoing information, the telop 
language and telop character style are repetitively recorded a number of 
times equal to the number of telop channels. 
The language related information is information depending on a language, 
among the information on an associated chapter, and comprises (1) the 
number of language related information blocks; (2) a language code; (3) a 
description code system; (4) a language related information size; (5) the 
title of a musical program; (6) how to read the title; (7) singer's name; 
(8) how to read the singer's name; (9) songwriter's name; (10) how to read 
the songwriter's name; (11) composer's name; (12) how to read the 
composer's name; (13) the first fraise; (14) how to read the first fraise; 
(15) data on location; and so on. The information sections from (2) a 
language code to (15) data on location are repetitively recorded a number 
of times equal to the number of language related information blocks. 
Next, the operation of the above described karaoke reproducing apparatus 
will be explained with reference to FIG. 4. When a disk is newly housed in 
the disk container 2 of the automatic changer 1, an installing operation 
is first performed. In this installing operation, the system controller 7, 
when detecting that a disk has been housed in the disk container 2 (step 
S1), generates a disk set command to the disk carrying part 3 in order to 
mount the disk on the turn table of the player section 4 (step S2). When 
the disk carrying part 3 has mounted the disk on the turn table of the 
player section 4, the system controller 7 is informed of this fact by a 
mounting completion signal supplied thereto. When the system controller 7 
thus receives the mounting completion signal (step S3), it instructs the 
player section 4 to drive the turn table (step S4) and read data from the 
thus mounted disk (step S5). The player section 4 rotates the turn table 
together with the disk mounted thereon, and after the rotating speed of 
the turn table has reached a predetermined value, the player section 4 
reads and outputs data from the non-real time file area of the disk. 
The read data is supplied to the system controller 7 through the data 
separator circuit 6, and temporarily stored in a buffer memory (not shown) 
in the system controller 7. The system controller 7 sequentially writes 
the supplied data into the external RAM 13 (step S6), and determines 
whether or not the player section 4 has read necessary data from the disk 
(step S7). For example, until a bit indicative of the completion of data 
supply is supplied to the system controller 7 to determine that the data 
read has been completed, the supplied data is written into the RAM 13 by 
the repetitive executions of step S6. When the data read has been 
completed, the system controller 7 generates an operation stop command to 
the player section 4 (step S8), and generates a disk return command to the 
disk carrying part 3 (step S9). The player section 4, responsive to the 
disk return command, stops the rotation of the turn table, and thereafter 
the disk carrying part 3 carries the disk on the turn table to the disk 
container 2 and houses it in a defined housing position therefor in the 
disk container 2. The system controller 7, after executing step S9, 
determines whether or not another new disk has been housed (step S10). If 
there is another new disk which has been housed in the disk container 2, 
the flow jumps back to step S2 to repeat the foregoing steps S2-S9. 
Conversely, if there is no new disk housed, the installing operation is 
terminated. 
While all the above-mentioned data in the access information file and the 
karaoke information file may be written into the RAM 13, minimally 
required data may be data on a musical program including the unique disk 
number of a disk; an address indicative of the accommodating position 
therefor in the disk container 2; the title of the musical program; the 
singer's name; the songwriter's name; the composer's name; the duration of 
the musical program; a copy right code; the classification of the musical 
program; a speed of the musical program; difficulty of the program music 
for singing; a multi-audio mode; and so on. 
Incidentally, a new disk can be housed by a command input by the user from 
the operation unit 15. Also, a sensor may be provided for detecting the 
presence or absence of a disk in each housing position in the disk 
container 2, with a region for storing the detection result being reserved 
in the RAM 13, such that outputs of all sensors are compared with the 
related contents stored in the RAM 13 to determine housing of new disks 
and to write the detection result into the RAM 13. 
Also, while in the above described embodiment the music data such as the 
title of a musical program is derived together with image data and audio 
data when a recorded disk is installed, the music data such as the title 
only may be derived from a dedicated disk, on which the music data only is 
recorded, when the disk is installed. Alternatively, the music data of a 
plurality of disks having image data and audio data recorded thereon may 
be recorded on one of these plural disks so as to derive the music data 
from the one disk when it is installed. 
In the foregoing manner, after the installing operation has been performed, 
a musical program selected by the user can be reproduced for the karaoke 
purpose, i.e., in order for a person to sing a song accompanied with the 
karaoke music sound. First, in a music selection operation, the user 
inputs a number indicative of a selected musical program through numerical 
keys or alphanumerical keys on the operation unit 15 or the remote control 
transmitter 23. The selection number, consisting of a plurality of digits, 
is a number for specifying a disk and a musical program recorded on the 
disk, and is held in a buffer (not shown) in the operation unit 15 when it 
is input by key pressing. As shown in FIG. 5, the system controller 7 
determines, at a predetermined timing or by an interrupt operation, 
whether or not a music selection key (not shown) on the operation unit 15 
has been pressed (step S11). If the music selection key has been pressed, 
the music selection number is read from the buffer and written into a 
selected music listing table in the RAM 13 (step S12). The selected music 
listing table is formed in the RAM 13, in which music selection numbers 
and recording flags, later described, are written in the playing order as 
shown in FIG. 6. When a musical program corresponding to the first music 
selection number has been finished, the order of the following music 
selection numbers are moved up. The title of a musical program 
corresponding to a read music selection number is read from the RAM 13 as 
information data (step S13), and the read data is supplied to the 
displayed character control circuit 20 (step S14). The displayed character 
control circuit 20 generates displayed character data indicative of the 
title of the music program, which is written in a predetermined position 
of the V-RAM. The displayed character data read from the V-RAM is 
converted to a character video signal which is then output to the image 
synthesizer 21. In the image synthesizer 21, when the character video 
signal is a signal indicative of a predetermined color, it is output in 
place of a moving video signal from the D/A convertor 12, whereby the 
character video signal is synthesized with the moving video signal. In 
this manner, the title of the selected musical program is displayed on the 
display 22 as a character video image, thus confirming that the musical 
program selected by the key operation has been accepted. 
The system controller 7, after executing step S14, reads a copy right code 
corresponding to the read music selection number from the RAM 13 (step 
S15). Since the RAM 13 contains the copy right codes which were read from 
the disk during the installing operation and written thereinto, the 
corresponding one is read from the RAM 13. The copy right code is a code 
indicative of the copy right owner of a musical program. It is then 
determined on the basis of the read copy right code whether or not the 
selected musical program may be recorded (step S16). A ROM (Read Only 
Memory) 14 provided outside the system controller 7 has the copy right 
codes, copy right owners' names, and data indicating whether each musical 
program is recordable, previously written therein as a recording 
permitted/prohibited data table, as shown in FIG. 7. For the recording 
permitted/prohibited data, "1" indicates a recording permitted musical 
program, while "0" a recording prohibited musical program. Thus, whether a 
selected musical program may be recorded or not is determined from the 
recording permitted/prohibited data table. If a musical program may be 
recorded, a mark indicative of "recording permitted" is displayed (step 
S17), whereas if it may not recorded, a mark indicative of "recording 
prohibited" is displayed (step S18). These indications may appear on the 
display 22 or on an indicator (not shown) separately provided on the 
apparatus for indicating whether recording is permitted or prohibited. 
When they are displayed on the display 22, the displayed character control 
circuit 20, responsive to a command from the system controller 7, 
generates displayed character data indicative of recording permitted or 
recording prohibited which is written into the V-RAM. 
The system controller 7, after executing step S17 for determining whether 
recording is permitted or prohibited, determines whether or not recording 
has been reserved (step S19). This determination is made by checking 
whether or not a recording reservation key on the operation unit 15 or the 
remote control transmitter 23 has been pressed. If recording has been 
reserved, a recording flag in the above-mentioned selected music listing 
table is set (step S20). Since the selected music listing table has the 
recording flag previously set at "0", indicative of recording not 
reserved, as an initial value, this recording flag is switched to "1", 
indicative of recording reserved, corresponding to a music selection 
number when the recording reservation key has been pressed. Next, the disk 
play operation will be explained with reference to FIG. 8. As shown in 
FIG. 8, when the user instructs to start playing by key operation on the 
operation unit 15 (step S21), the system controller 7 reads a music 
selection number and a recording flag in the first row of the play order 
in the selected music listing table formed in the RAM 13 (step S22). Then, 
the disk address and the music number corresponding to the read music 
selection number are read from the RAM 13 (step S23). Next, a disk set 
command is generated to the disk carrying part 3 in order to mount a disk 
having the read disk address on the turn table of the player section 4 
(step S24). When the disk carrying part 3 has carried the disk onto the 
turn table of the player section 4, a mounting completion signal is 
supplied to the system controller 7 (step S25). The system controller 7, 
upon receiving the mounting completion signal (step S25), instructs the 
player section 4 to rotate the disk (step S26), and determines whether or 
not the disk play may be started (step S27). For example, if a musical 
program is prohibited from being played by key operation on the operation 
unit 15, the disk play is not started. Conversely, if the disk play may be 
started, the system controller 7 instructs the player section 4 to play 
the disk from a track corresponding to the read music number (step S28). 
In this manner, the player section 4 starts playing the musical program 
specified by the music selection number, while reproduced video and audio 
signals are output to the display 22 and the speaker 19, respectively. 
The system controller 7 also determines from the recording flag whether or 
not a recording reservation has been made. When the recording flag is set 
to "1", the system controller 7 generates a recording start command to the 
recorder 16 (step S30). Since the recorder 16 is provided with audio 
signals including singing sound from the amplifier 18, these audio signals 
are recorded on a compact disk in response to the recording start command. 
The system controller 7, after executing step S30, reads recorded music 
information corresponding to the music selection number read at step S22 
from the RAM 13 (step S31). The recorded music information includes at 
least the title, the songwriter's name and the composer's name, and 
information such as the singer's name, recording date, place and so on may 
be added. The recorded music information, after being read out, are output 
to the printer 17 (step S32). The printer 17 prints the recorded music 
information on a label adapted to be adhered on the compact disk. With the 
recorded disk having the label adhered on a label surface thereof, the 
information on a recorded musical program is available on the disk. 
Incidentally, it goes without saying that the recorded music information 
may not be recorded on a label but directly on the label surface on the 
compact disk. 
The system controller 7, after executing step S32, determines whether or 
not the play of the selected musical program has been completed (step 
S33). This determination is made from time information contained in the 
control data which is supplied from the data separator circuit 6 while the 
disk is being played. When the play of the selected musical program has 
been completed, the system controller 7 generates a play stop command to 
the player section 4 (step S34), and generates a disk return command to 
the disk carrying part 3 (step S35). Responsively, the player section 4 
stops the disk play operation, and after the rotation of the turn table is 
stopped, the disk carrying part 3 carries the disk on the turn table to 
the disk container 2 and accommodates the disk in an accommodating 
position reserved therefor. The system controller 7, after generating the 
disk return command, moves up the play order in the selected music listing 
table by one (step S36), and determines whether or not a music selection 
number is recorded at the top of the selected music listing table (step 
S37). If a music selection number is recorded there, the flow returns to 
step S22 to repeat the above described operations. On the contrary, if no 
music selection number is recorded, the disk play operation is terminated. 
FIG. 9 shows another procedure of the installing operation. This installing 
operation is applied to the case where the copy right owner, recording 
permitted/prohibited data, and a registration date of the recording 
permitted/prohibited data are recorded on a disk in addition to the copy 
right code. In this case, the recording permitted/prohibited data table 
shown in FIG. 7 is formed in the RAM 13, not in the ROM 14. More 
specifically, as can be seen from FIG. 9, this installing operation 
executes steps S1-S7 similarly to those of the installing operation shown 
in FIG. 4, wherein read data is written into the RAM 13 through the system 
controller 7. In this write operation, the copy right owner and the 
recording permitted/prohibited data are not written into the recording 
permitted/prohibited data table but they are written simply as data on a 
disk or on each musical program. When the data read has been completed, it 
is determined whether or not the recording permitted/prohibited data read 
from the disk is the latest (step S41). If the read recording 
permitted/prohibited data is not later than the latest registration data 
stored in the RAM 13, the flow proceeds to step S8, where the operation of 
the player section 4 is stopped. On the other hand, if the read recording 
permitted/prohibited data is later than the latest registration data 
stored in the RAM 13, the recording permitted/prohibited data table is 
updated using the read copy right owner and recording permitted/prohibited 
data (step S42). Further, the latest registration date is updated by 
replacing it with the read registration date of the recording 
permitted/prohibited information (step S43). After executing step S43, the 
flow proceeds to step S8. Steps S8-S10 in FIG. 9 are similar to those of 
the installing operation shown in FIG. 4. 
Incidentally, it is also possible to design the apparatus that a service 
engineer is allowed to modify the copy right owner and recording 
permitted/prohibited data in the recording permitted/prohibited data table 
by special key operation on the operation unit 15 when he maintains and 
checks the karaoke reproducing apparatus. 
Also, it is apparent that a recording medium, having at least a plurality 
of karaoke play sound recorded thereon, is not limited to the disk but may 
be any other recording medium such as a tape. As described above, the 
karaoke reproducing apparatus according to a first aspect of the present 
invention is provided with the memory which contains previously stored 
information on each recorded music including at least the title, 
songwriter's name, and composer'name. Recorded music information 
corresponding to a musical program selected by an operation is read from 
the memory in response to a recording start command, and the recorded 
music information thus read out is output to the printer. Therefore, since 
recorded music information including at least the title, songwriter's name 
and composer's name can be printed on a printed member such as a label and 
preserved as a record when singing sound is recorded together with karaoke 
play sound, the label, if adhered to a recording medium on which the sound 
is recorded, conveniently allows the user to readily know the recorded 
contents afterward. 
Moreover, the karaoke reproducing apparatus according to a second aspect of 
the present invention is provided with the memory which contains 
previously recorded copy right information on each of musical programs 
recorded on a recording medium. The copy right information corresponding 
to a musical program selected by an operation is read from the memory in 
order to determine whether or not the selected musical program may be 
recorded on the basis of the read copy right information, and a control 
signal for controlling the recorder is generated in accordance with the 
determination result. For a recording prohibited musical program, 
recording of its karaoke play music can be prevented, so that the copy 
right thereof can be appropriately protected. On the other hand, karaoke 
play sound for recording prohibited musical programs may be reproduced in 
order for people to sing to the accompaniment of the karaoke play sound, 
thereby avoiding a problem that the karaoke reproducing apparatus cannot 
provide people with karaoke play sound with which they want to sing.