Frequently Asked Questions - Venues

What is a karaoke venue?
A "karaoke venue" is a physical location where karaoke is played for commercial purposes. Typical karaoke venues include bars, restaurants, service clubs and halls (like American Legion or VFW posts, Chamber of Commerce halls, Shrine temples, or Knights of Columbus, to a name a few), wedding chapels, dance halls, nightclubs, and the like. Street fairs, community events, and block parties can also be karaoke venues, if there is a commercial purpose. A "commercial purpose" means that the karaoke host is being paid, or the purpose of the karaoke show is to attract paying customers for another enterprise, or the karaoke show is being used as (or as part of) a fundraiser.

What do you mean, I might be sued?
Karaoke operators that use pirated material are committing infringement of Sound Choice's intellectual property rights. Sound Choice has spent millions of dollars creating the accompaniment tracks that karaoke operators use. When a host uses our material without paying for it, that host may be violating the law. If you own or run a venue and you hire a host who infringes our rights, you may also be held liable for the host's activities. It's called "vicarious liability," and it applies if you knew or should have known about the infringement, you had the right to control the activity (such as by allowing or refusing the host access to your venue), and you benefited from it.

What are the penalties?
For copyright infringement, a court can impose damages of up to $150,000 per infringing song. For trademark infringement, the court can impose damages of up to $2 million per mark infringed. Of course, the actual award depends on a number of factors.

But my karaoke host is an independent contractor.
As far as the law is concerned, that usually doesn't matter, as long as you knew or should have known about the infringement, you had the right to control the activity, and you benefited from it.

All the Karaoke hosts tell me they are legal. What are some clues that they are not being honest?
For a Karaoke Host to have legally acquired Karaoke songs, they would have had to purchase a compact disc-format product for each and every song on each and every system they might have in operation. Even legal download sites selling Karaoke video files (there are many illegal ones as you might imagine) are for home consumer use only as stated in the site’s Terms and Conditions or End User License Agreements. The average price per song on a legally manufactured disc is about $1.00, so if a host claims that they have over 20,000 or 30,000 songs they would have had to invested that much money in their music libraries. Some hosts who have been in business a long time might have made such an investment, but the majority of Karaoke Hosts in business less than a few years have acquired their libraries illegally.

Another clue is the price that they are charging. Any host who has made an investment of tens of thousands of dollars simply cannot afford to work for less than about $150 a night. Illegal hosts often work for $75 a night (or less!) and/or beer and tip money.

I already paid my ASCAP/BMI/SESAC fees.
That's good. Keep paying those fees, because they go to compensate the songwriters and music publishers who supply the material Sound Choice uses to record our accompaniment tracks. Sound Choice pays royalties to the music publishers, too. Sound Choice does not receive any portion of your ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC fees.

Isn't this all about making more money?
It is about making money. Sound Choice spent a lot of money creating those accompaniment tracks and paying for the right to do so. We make money by selling CDs to karaoke hosts and enthusiasts. If karaoke hosts steal our music instead of buying CDs, we can't make a return on our investment, and we can't make more music for your patrons to enjoy. So it is about money. But it's also about fairness and honesty. (Besides, if it was only about making money, why would we bother to create a free safe harbor program, in which we voluntarily agree not to sue you?)

How will you use the information I give you?
We will use the information you provide us about your venue to verify who you are, so that when we bring an enforcement action in your area, we keep you out of the lawsuits we file. We will use the information you provide us about your karaoke host to verify that the host is operating legally--or, if not, to help that host get legal and square with our policies. We may also use all of that information to notify you about developments in the karaoke industry that you might be interested in.

How do I sign up?
You can sign up in one of two ways. The easiest way is through our Registration Page. Just answer a series of questions about your venue, read a few disclosures, and you're done. If you'd rather sign up on paper, we also provide a form that you can fax, e-mail, or mail us.

What if I own/run more than one venue?
You should separately sign up each venue you own/run, if karaoke is being (or will be) provided there using accompaniment tracks provided by someone else (such as a karaoke host).

What happens after I sign up?
You'll be given a set of instructions to follow every time you hire someone who will be bringing songs into your venue to run a karaoke show. We ask you to do three things: (1) Have the karaoke host fill out a two-page form with information about the host's karaoke system(s), (2) Register that form with us, and (3) if we ask you to do so, do a quick inspection of the host's system.

Can you guarantee I won't be sued?
Yes and no. If you follow our instructions, we guarantee that Sound Choice will not sue you for copyright or trademark infringement based upon the actions of any registered host. If we determine that the host you've hired is an infringer and we are unable to resolve our dispute with the host, we will notify you. If you continue to use the services of that host after 30 days following our notification, we may sue you for infringement occurring after that date.

Also, we cannot guarantee that another company, such as a competitor of Sound Choice, will not sue you, even if you are in our Safe Harbor program.

How much does this program cost?
The program is 100% free to venues and karaoke hosts at this time.

I own my own system. Is there a safe harbor for me?
Venues that own their own karaoke systems should determine whether their systems are operating legally. See our Staying Legal page for more details on how to do that. Venues that own their own systems are not eligible for the VCSH program, but should get legal through Sound Choice's regular channels.

How do I register my host's information?
(1) Give your host the Host Questionnaire form on the linked page. (2) Fax the completed and signed form to 888-287-8622, scan it and email it to forms@scsafeharbor.com, or mail it to Sound Choice Safe Harbor, P.O. Box 620688, Charlotte, NC 28262-0688. You will receive a confirmation by fax or e-mail within 1 business day of our receipt.

I want to do more to fight karaoke piracy. What can I do?
The best thing you can do as a venue owner is to join the Karaoke Industry Alliance of America (KIAA). More information is available on the KIAA Website (http://thekiaa.org) (page opens in a new window)

To learn more:

Information for Venues
Information for Hosts | Host FAQ
Lawsuit Information
Contact Us With Questions

To sign up:

As a Venue
As a Host