Today I read about a bar in Colorado Springs, that was sued by BMI for playing a Toby Keith song without authorization. Karaoke has some unique parts, so bare with me.

First, BMI is a company that collects  licenses fees for different artists. They are like the repo man for artist who want to get paid for someone using their creative work. Most people contract for the use of the art, through a license, or written agreement to use the work. BMI collects on these contracts and will also sue on behalf of the artist for any unauthorized use of the artist.

There are three companies that provide these services: BMI, SESAC, and ASCAP. Apparently, this bar has licenses with ASCAP and SESAC, but not for BMI. I find this odd, it would make more sense to think that they would forget all three than to think they paid two of them and forgot one.

Next, if a establishment provides an artist’s protected work to entertain their customers, they have to pay for licenses to use it. This is true even if it’s just music or TV. However, most entertainment has found a way to provide this license very easily. For things like TV, CDs, and jukeboxes, the licenses are included in the cost of purchasing the music or the TV subscription. Usually, this license is covered in the cost of the karaoke machine.

The issue with karaoke is that there is two protected works involved in the use. One protected work is the song being played, even if the vocals have been deleted to allow the performer to sing as their favorite rockstar. The second protection is the video that shows the lyrics. Typically, karaoke machine companies get rights in both the song and lyrics, but still have to pay a “synchronization” fee. Essentially, they have to pay to sync the song with the visual work video. The karaoke company covers this cost in the sales price of the machine. But, what happens when the songs you bought get old or overused?

People have been looking for ways to update their karaoke, so new technology has been created. New karaoke albums have been made for basic systems, called “Compact Disc + Graphics” or CDGs. These CDGs play the songs with a basic lyric display, just like the karaoke machine discs.  However, a lot of the new CDGs don’t pay the synchronization fee or some other fee involved in the license. 

When the license collection companies find bars or restaurants making this mistake, they strike, mostly to set an example and discourage others from infringing. This bar specifically was charged with a twenty-one thousand dollar fine for a couple of Toby Keith songs. 

This typically puts many business owners in a double-edged choice between paying the fees regularly or trying to hide their unauthorized use and avoid the fines involved. So the next time your drunkenly belting out your favorite song in front of a bunch of unknown people, think about how much money was exchanged in order for you to do it.