For the purposes of this program, a “karaoke host” is a person or company who uses its own karaoke equipment to put on a commercial karaoke show. The terms “KJ,” “karaoke jockey,” “karaoke operator,” and “DJ” all mean the same thing as “karaoke host.”

A “commercial purpose” means that the karaoke host is being paid or compensated in some way, 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.

Karaoke hosts who use pirated material are committing infringement of the producer’s intellectual property rights. The producers have spent millions of dollars creating the accompaniment tracks that karaoke hosts use. When a host uses material without paying for it, that host may be violating the law. There are three possible ways that you may be violating the law: copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition. The producers have the right to protect their intellectual property by going to court.

For copyright infringement, a court can impose damages of not less than $750 per infringing song, and if the person was aware they were infringing it becomes “willful” and the penalty can be increased up to $150,000 per infringing song.  For more details, see Title 17, United States Code, Sections 502-506.  For trademark infringement, the court can impose damages of up to $200,000 per federally registered trademark.  If the defendant did know that they were infringing, then the infringement becomes “willful” and the damages can be awarded up to $2 million per mark.  See Title 15 USC, Section 1117.  There are no set damages for unfair competition – the court will decide how much damage the producers have suffered and make an appropriate award. Of course, the actual awards depend on a number of factors.

If you are playing directly from original discs, you are compliant, from the KIAA producer member’s perspective.

If you purchased your dedicated karaoke machine preloaded with Chartbuster, Pop Hits Monthly or Sound Choice tracks, and you did not also receive a set of original producer discs that cover those tracks, your system is non-compliant. Please contact the producer members to discuss a resolution to your problem.

Please refer to the information on this website or see our “Staying Compliant” page  for a description of the media-shifting policy, to determine whether your system is running in compliance.

That is a violation of the producer member’s media-shifting policy. You must have a Compact Disc plus Graphics, MP3G format on CD, SD cards or other original manufacturer supplied media for each hard drive you have in operation. Please contact them to discuss a resolution to your problem.

We are aware that there are some dealers who sell hard drives or CAVS systems, preloaded the producer’s tracks, and claim that all of the music is licensed. Don’t be fooled: Sound Choice and Pop Hits Monthly have never licensed anyone to sell preloaded hard drives and Chartbuster only authorized a very limited number over 5 years ago. Those systems are illegal. You may have a lawsuit against the dealer. The producer members will help you become compliant and give you some tips for getting your money back from the dealer. The member producers are also working through law enforcement and through civil actions in the courts to put these pirates out of business.

Tracks downloaded from iTunes, eMusic, and other similar sites are not licensed by the music publishers for commercial purposes. They are there to serve the home use market only. You are not authorized to use those tracks for any commercial purposes. Check the Terms of Service on those websites for more information.

Sorry, but that system isn’t legal. Think about it for a minute. That’s about half a cent per song, not counting the cost of the hard drive itself. Do you really think the “guy on Craigslist” is paying anything to the karaoke producers?

We understand. One of the big reasons the producer members are suing the pirates is to help compliant operators compete on a level playing field. But that understanding only goes so far. If you’re not in compliance, they have programs to get you in compliance and stay that way. If you contact them before they contact you, it will be easier and cheaper to become compliant.

At this point KIAA is not involved with publisher issues however to pass the KIAA audit you must have original discs for all music files on your system.  If you bought these in good faith and they are original manufacturer’s discs and you are 1:1, then you are fine.

If you decide to get out of the business then you should do it before you and your bar get caught.  Your exit will give an opening to the true karaoke professional to expand their business.

Those bars doing it for the right reasons will continue with karaoke if it makes economic sense for them to do so.  Fewer bars means more singers for the bars that continue to provide karaoke, which means the bars have more money to pay legitimate karaoke hosts.  And if singer rotation times increase the smart karaoke host will see an opportunity to add additional shows.

Chartbuster, Pop Hits Monthly and Sound Choice spent a lot of money creating those accompaniment tracks and paying for the right to do so. The producer members make money by selling CDs to karaoke hosts and enthusiasts. If karaoke hosts steal their music instead of buying CDs, the producer members can’t make a return on their investment, and can’t make more music for your patrons to enjoy. They also can’t invest in new technologies and delivery methods which will make your job easier and more efficient,  So it is about money. But it’s also about fairness and honesty.

VCSH is a program that allows karaoke venues to provide us with information about the hosts that they hire, in exchange for immunity from being sued by Chartbuster, Pop Hits Monthly or Sound Choice for infringement. The venue will ask you to fill out a form with information about your system, which we will then review and, if appropriate, investigate.

Your participation in this program is 100% voluntary. If you don’t want to provide your information to the venue (or to us), you don’t have to. But the venue is 100% within its rights not to hire you, if you don’t cooperate. Legal hosts won’t mind filling out a 2-page form that helps us verify their compliance. It can be an important step in protecting their own business from unfair competition.

We will use the information you provide to verify that you are operating in compliance–or, if not, to help you become compliant and square with the producer member’s policies. The producer members may also use that information against you in a lawsuit, if that becomes necessary. We may also use your information to notify you about developments in the karaoke industry that you might be interested in, or, with your permission, to tell you about karaoke products you might want to buy.

Yes. Whether you play one registered venue or many, you only have to fill out the form one time.  Of course, if your information changes, you should update it.

Absolutely. In fact, we recommend it. That way, you can tell your venue that you’ve signed up with our program and that they should, too, to take advantage of the safe harbor. However you should also expect them to verify that you have enrolled with us.

You can download a PDF copy of the “Host Karaoke System Questionnaire” and just answer a series of questions about your business, read a few disclosures, then fax, email, or mail it back to us.

No. The safe harbor applies to venues who do not own and operate their own karaoke systems, not to hosts.

Your information will be reviewed by a member of our anti-piracy team. We may ask you for additional information. We may also determine that your system is not in compliance. In that situation, we will contact you and ask you to work with the producer members to become compliant.

If you’re running a compliant system, you should consider joining the Karaoke Industry Alliance of America (KIAA). More information is available on the KIAA Website (www.thekiaa.org)