Karaoke Forums

I was reading a thread over in the Tech forum (by Babs) and I started wondering, why wouldn't an artist want his stuff on karaoke?  How would that hurt his profits, image, whatever the problem might be?  It may not make him tons of money, but at least it promotes the artist/songs in a way.

Don Henley thinks that it "cheapens" his material.

I personally think he and every other person that deny's their FANS their material are just wayyyy to lost on themselves.

Interesting, so it's not necessarily a financially motivated reason. Well I like Don Henley's song a lot but if that's the case, he is too caught up in the "I'm an artist - treat me like one" attitude.

I sorta felt the same way at first.  It seems like a great way to enhance your fans.  But I guess you have to wonder, "where does it stop?"  A company could use their song for advertisement and thinking "what artist wouldn't want this."  And I'm not so sure it's always a money thing as far as karaoke.  It seems some karaoke companies don't even bother to ASK if it's ok.

This all brings on another point.  I think the artists are missing out on a great deal of monies towards karaoke and could eliminate the middle man and make more money.  The most expensive part of producing a karaoke track, (besides the companies paying for the rights) is hiring the band that reproduces the music and the studio time required to lay out the tracks.

Well the artists's company has already done this.  So, in addition to the real music the artists are putting on thier CD's, why not add duplicate tracks with the lyrics being added.  They have already spent the biggest portion of funds required to do this.  In addition, a KJ/DJ would also have everything on one disc.  It would not only make more money for the artist but save some money for those of us who not only listen but use their products.  You wouldn't have to worry whether it was a "good version" of the song either.

Kelly

That's a great idea to me too Kellyoke!  It's sounds almost too practical though!  LOL
It'd be like an Enhanced CD with the karaoke content accesible on your regular karaoke players for the graphics. And/or include it in a VCD-MPEG type format that could be played on regular DVD players and computers too.

A musical artist is not much different than any other artist, whether a painter, sculpture, or whatever.  What they create is theirs, the way they want it to be.  To change it, in their minds is wrong.  Imagine if you would what DaVinci, Michaelangelo, or the other masters would say, seeing their masterpieces on T-shirts, velvet, cheap replicas, etc.  They may not be impressed by it.  One of the things that makes art valuable is its uniqueness.  To Don Henley, he doesn't need the money, he has more than plenty.

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Kelly,

Often thought the same thing, WHY wouldn't the artist put out their OWN Karaoke discs???  All the work is done except for adding the graphics!!!  All they have to do is produce the song without the lead vocals???.

Maybe its not an ARTIST issue but a SONGWRITERS thing???

But if you sell a CD for $11.99 or $99 a song  nowadays on line or your could sell the same songs for $1.99 a song without vocals but the added Graphics?
I don't understand why the BIG record companies just don't do it!!!

I would even pay MORE for an orginal soundtrack ...wouldn't you ???

So when cover Band play his songs, what happen.



T

It already happen in The East. BMG/Sonny normaly realeased 2 versons of an album of most of thier local artists. One is the normal cd and the other is a karaoke vcd/dvd. I find it heard to reason why it does not happen in the west. Thet is why when you guys talk about which versons of a song is better or as near to the original, I mustly didn't quite get it at first.

It look like CDG in the west are sold mostly to KJ, but here in the east the main market is the mass.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

It's actually that way here because most are staying home now and realize that minors are a portion of the market too.

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the saying is Imitation is the sincerest flattery.....is true....I would say for  the vast majority, if the money is right, they could give a rat's a$$ about it.....there might be one or two exceptions, but they probably have so much money, they can be finicky.........just my opinion for what it's worth......jj

in some cases, the artist has no idea what's going on... Neil Young mentioned he loved the CCR stuff SC did, and wondered why his own material wasn't being used. When told his management denied the material when it was requested, he wasn't too happy and was going to check on it.

A lot happens at the initial contract negotiations! Many artists I think sign away their rights, and have no idea that they do so! Or they don't want to be flooded with requests, so they leave it to their managment!

I think in most cases, the artists that withhold their material from use for karaoke CDs, commercials, movie soundtracks, etc. do it for artistic or even political reasons.

Did you know that R.E.M. does not allow their songs to be used by anyone other than themselves? No commercials, no movies. They do it for political reasons. I don't know if they license the karaoke that is out there or not. They have never endorsed a product or appeared on a movie soundtrack. The song "Superman" has been used for both, but REM did not write that song and as such could not prohibit the songwriter from using it per their contract.

Also, I don't know how many people remember this, but Led Zeppelin also had a LONG LONG period in which they refused to let anyone use their music for commercials or movies or tributes or anything. One of the big advertising capaigns for the movie ALMOST FAMOUS in 2000 was that it was the first time a Zeppelin song had ever been licensed to appear in a movie. They also never released a single to radio stations from any one of their albums until they released Whole Lotta Love in 2000 to take advantage of the new audience they gained from the movie soundtrack. For them, it was about rebelling against the commercialism in music, but they probably missed out on a sizeable fortune in doing so!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Wasn't R.E.M.'s 'Man On The Moon' used in the movie of the same name? Also Led Zeppelin is cashing in now on a slew of Caddilac commercials featuring their song "Rock 'n Roll".. I guess with age we can look forward to becoming more capitalistic.  :D

Yup, I looked it up and they authored almost the entire man on the moon soundtrack. They must have had a change or heart or at least felt it was OK since they got artistic license over pretty much the entire soundtrack.

Or it could just be because they are not stadium headliners anymore!!

And Zeppelin has put their stuff all over the place since they changed their minds in 2000. I'm sure that was financially motivated as well, but then you have to wonder why they didn't get it while the gettin was good!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I think also with age comes humility. Their egos have been stroked enough that they let down their guard. I think it is money and ego mostly that they don't let their music be used.

Someone will get smart and make some big money when they do exactly what we're talking about, releasing their songs in CDG format with the CD. Can you imagine if
Garth Brooks decided to start his own company selling CDGs with his band. He could bring on board all his country music friends and make a mint.

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I don't kniow if this will make sense but...

Mickey Mouse, we don't see much of him. I think I heard somewhere that Disney basically didn't want to make people sick of seeing him, over exposure.

Too much supply actually drives the demand down in some cases.

R.E.M. hasn't denied any karaoke, that I know of. And they were featured on a really good episode of Smallville... about a gal that dreamt and could bring Clark into her world. EVERY song on the show was an R.E.M. song!

I believe it was Don Henley that said he didn't want a bunch of drunks ruining his songs.

One more thing, when a studio musican redoes a song, he can not play it absolutley like the original artist.   So in some respects the entire musical interpetation is a little different.    That could tend to make some artists mad.    If it isn't exact then is it the artists song?   As they put it out for sale.

Could be a money issue.   They do not get royalties from a karaoke disc. (Directly)   The publisher and the song writer gets paid.    Not the band members, if they didn't write the song.   The ASCAP, BMI payments get trickled down to them.   Not the same as the money made on the original album sales and concerts.    And the percentage may not be as great.

It still comes down to the owner/writer of the song.  They have the ultimate creative license/control of their product.   They can do whatever they want.

I believe some artist don't realize that by allowing songs on cdg, there are people that are being exposed to songs they wouldn't normally be exposed to. Just last night I had 2 people talking about buying an original version of a song sang, that they had never heard before..

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That's a good point and one that I thought most artists would agree with!