Selling / Sharing ?

[Bmurray]

I've done a little google searching to find more information on karaoke licensing and royalties. What I found is that it appears extremely more complicated than I expected.

My interest started because I have a band and we recorded a cover song for a friend to sing for his wife's birthday. (She loved it by the way.)

Anyway, for the fun of it I played with the kJams Producer software and created a karaoke file from the music that our band recorded. Very cool stuff =-)

So my question now is, can I legally share or sell or accept donations for this karaoke file that I've created?

And further, what would I have to do if I wanted to record and create other karaoke songs with my band?

Thanks

[jfbiii]

No...you can't. As a band, you're allowed to cover ANY song. You have to pay automatic royalties to do so, but the rates are set based on the length of the song and nobody can refuse you the right to perform or publish those performances. You just have to pay the automatic licensing fees.

Karaoke is a different story. If you sold the performance without the lyrics AND you didn't provide the lyrics, then you're only responsible for the automatic licensing fees. As soon as you try to market a CDG, you have to negotiate mechanical fees (that pay for displaying lyrics in conjunction with the song). There may be yet another cost with CDGs, but if there is I don't know it. I'm pretty sure that the mechanical fee is the major issue with karaoke publishing. Your best bet is to consult an attorney...the $50–$100 that might cost could save you a LOT of trouble.

Now, if you decide that you're only going to record your band covering a song that you're going to put lyrics on for a disk that you're going to use at your own karaoke show and not make available or sell in any way, then technically you're still on the hook for automatic and mechanical fees, but chances are pretty good that you'll never be busted.

[dave]