Karaoke, Entertainment Rights Tracking & You

You probably didn’t think entertainment metadata was involved when you were beltin’ out “I Will Survive” at your high school reunion.

But you’d have been wrong.

You might be amazed to learn that there’s a whole karaoke industry out there.

In fact, There’s a “Karaoke Cloud” containing an entire streaming platform of songs.

Believe it or not, the karaoke purveyors recently held their 2^nd annual Karaoke Summit.

And, you might also be amazed to learn that the industry letting you sing like Tina Turner has piracy issues—as there are performance royalties to be paid for public playing of songs. That means gigs and gigs of digital data to wrangle, and a whole bunch of labels and publishers who want to be paid for the use of their intellectual property.

Here’s where the metadata comes in. Coordinated with a cloud setup, the karaoke metadata tracks the playing of the song, so the label or publisher gets their just due in royalties.

Naturally, metadata and rights tracking are subjects that are music to our ears. In fact, you might say they’re playing our song.

Gordon McFarland, FYI’s Quality Assurance Manager (and expert on all things “rights tracking oriented”) naturally has some thoughts on the subject.

“Of couse, the first thing is the data. If we’re asked to track performances of a certain Green Day song, we have a number of ways to track that information. One is currently existing data reflecting the use of a recorded song. Another is searching to find Green Day’s live appearances on shows like Saturday Night Live, for example. And, of course, we can always track information supplied to us that details specific uses of a song or a performance,” sang Gordon.

“Our data is flexible enough to accommodate any request—so we can aid those people wanting to get a complete and accurate listing of a recorded song’s usage, a performer’s appearance,  or even another band covering a popular song.”

So, the next time you decide to bust out your version of “Hot In The City” don’t forget your good friend metadata. Or, your entertainment metadata experts at FYI—because, together, we can make beautiful music and some really great rights tracking.