Karaoke Forums

I am interested in starting a karaoke business. I was mostly
interested in the legal side of this. Mechanically altering songs and
adding scrolling text has to have some sort of licensing attached with
it and I'd rather not anger the wrong folks. Secondly, I'm curious as
to what the quid pro quo is for distribution or licensing out my karaoke
songs/equipment for others to use (synchronization and mechanically altering licenses). Any and all information would be
greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

First you'll need to contact the copyright holders & pay for the permission to use the tracks & words (BTW it's easier to get permission for the music reproductions over the lyric reproduction). These could technically run anywhere from hundreds to thousands per song. Hence why the legal karaoke companies charge so much, the demand isn't as good as say a standard cd issue so they have to charge more to cover production costs. Also many artists do not allow music re-produced for karaoke & there is a growing list of artists/publishers revoking the rights to do so. If this trend continues, karaoke could be a dying breed altogether.

There's more to it than that, but if you are willing to start paying fees to legally record for distribution, then this is one of the first steps in the whole process.

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Some basics on licensing can be found here:
http://www.karaokeantipiracyagency.com/info-law.html

Regardinging the copyrights:
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/

I've seen the following books recommended:
Confessions of a Record Producer by Moses Avalon

This Business of Music: The Definitive Guide to the Music Industry.

I hope you get this because even though the links point to government, anti-piracy web sites, and other non-competitors to the sponsors and karaoke scene they generally frown on posting web sites in the forums. I hope they remain but it's hit or miss usually.