Karaoke in China
If you want to sound really cool next time you sing karaoke…try saying it right. Ka sounds like the ‘ca’ in car, ‘ra’ sounds like the la in do, re, mi, fa, so, la… ‘o’ like in okay…and ‘ke’ sounds like the ke in keg.
It is not carrieohkey…never was.
No matter how you say it, two Chinese goverment agencies are fighting over the royalties from this fun time entertainment that was born in Japan.
The Ministry of Culture in China is at odds with the National Copyright Administration (NCA). Both want to impose a copyright fee on karaoke bars and clubs.
The NCA thinks royalties should pay on the basis of business volume. The Ministry of Culture thinks it should be based on the number of times a song is ordered/downloaded.
Yet another agency, the Music Copyright Society (MCS) represents music composers and writers. They, too, have their hands out and want to be paid any which way they can.
Last year, China’s 100,000 karaoke bars racked up $1.25 billion in revenues and paid out more than $1 million in copyright royalties.
In the end, some agency somewhere is going to collect the money…and then at least these three agencies are going to fight over how it is divvied up.
By the time it gets to the singer/song writer, chances are the poor fellow plucking away at home, or pounding out melodies on her keyboard will also have to put money IN, rather than make a little.
What do you think?
The funny part is, it’s all for naught. I mean, I can’t imagine any of the small-time shady Ka-la-O-kay companies here in China implimenting any sort of royalty paying system.
The tighter regulations will just further the under-the-table relations these guys already have with local police, and it will expand the pirated equipment/disc market.
Tragic really, as I’d have loved for the restaurants to stop their drunk customers from hollaring out horrible renditions of Lionel Richie while I’m eating.
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