How can authorities collect the karaoke license fee?

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Mrs. Truong Thi Thuy Dung - the Vice Chairwoman of RIAV.

Can you tell us what is the basis to apply the fee of 2,000 vnd per song in a karaoke machine at karaoke bars?

The fee of 2,000 vnd per song in a karaoke machine at karaoke bars has been carefully calculated on the basis of the results of the survey conducted over last year and in accordance with the Law. The survey results have shown that each karaoke machine uses 10,000 to 20,000 records, but only 3,000 - 5,000 records are owned by RIAV members and managers.

Karaoke bars will have one year to use musical products after paying the fee, and RIAV will not retroactively collect the fee. Our musical producers and managers have carefully calculated this fee.

This is the minimum fee level we initially offered so that people can get used to paying a record of a karaoke song. In fact, the producer can spend 50 million vnd to 70 million, even hundreds of millions of vnd recording a song. But we also dare to set a minimum fee. It is widely known that the fee of 2,000 vnd per song is very small and this fee is to make people realize the responsibility in the use of musical products. The fee also helps producers have more revenues to continue to make more musical products with high quality for the audience.

How will this fee be collected in the thousands of karaoke bars in each province and city?

I would like to confirm that we will not collect the license fee for all musical records but only musical records owned by of the RIAV’s members and managers. For karaoke bars, we will check each karaoke machine to calculate. All of the RIAV’s recordings were recorded from 2006 to the first quarter of 2017 on a very comprehensive list. For example, each karaoke machine has more than 20,000 musical records on average but only 2,000 5,000 records are owned by the RIAV.

Karaoke machine makers have contacted the RIAV to buy the intellectual rights of songs, so when we meet users of musical products, we will explain them the rules and obligations of the users when using sound recordings.

After 3 months of the meeting with the users of musical products, we will proceed to collect the fee. With proper preparation and compliance with the Law, I believe that karaoke businesses will understand and cooperate with us to conduct payment of minimum costs.

We are still in the process of explaining karaoke businesses about their rights and obligations. Then, the Recording Industry Association of Vietnam shall have solutions for karaoke businesses which do not comply with the regulations of the Law. In addition, the Association has actively worked with the State agencies of cultural management at provincial and municipal levels to coordinate the implementation of collecting the fee. Accordingly, there have been nearly 10 provinces and cities agreeing with the Association to collect this fee.

10 provinces and cities in Vietnam have agreed to the license fee.

How will the total amount of money collected from license fee be used?

The Association will spend 10% of total amount of money on operating the Association’s office and the rest will be paid directly to the owners of the audio and musical recordings.

The Intellectual Property Law was introduced in 2005, but why until now does the RIAV begin to collect karaoke fee?

We collect the license fee of musical recordings based on Article 33 of the Intellectual Property Law issued in 2005. The RIAV must have collected the fee from that time. However, when we carried out the collection, there were some problems arising.

Firstly, each karaoke machine has about 20,000 songs and the RIAV is also authorized by some members for 20,000 songs. However, in fact, karaoke businesses only use about 2,000 songs to 5,000 songs. Accordingly, karaoke businesses have used songs of other centers, including overseas centers. When we collected the fees, these karaoke businesses said they paid the RIAV. In the case where other centers ask for the license fee of musical products and karaoke businesses said they paid the RIAV, then how do we deal with them?

Second, the collection of license fees for musical products has been only applied to video recordings. The fee of audio recordings has not been collected because of the complexity and difficulty. For example, for the same song of a musician and a singer, there are many musical producers, so it is very difficult to distinguish which recordings to be any producer.

But for video recordings, there are only one composer, performer, and producer, so the collection of the license fee will be easier.

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Thank you!