Mapping China: Music - Authoritative Media & Institutions: Karaoke & KTV

Asia is known for its love of karaoke and KTV. Also in China KTV is a part of nightlife in any city. That said, its popularity seems to be gradually declining. Chains attract customers with king-like treatments, theme rooms, discounts during the daytime or overnight, and package deals that includes a food buffet.

Public, Private and Illegal

• Although karaoke was invented in Japan, the Taiwanese claim to have invented KTV (Karaoke TV), which moves the public singing around the karaoke jukebox to private rooms. In parks all over China small entrepreneurs still bring out carts with sound equipment on summer evenings. Costumers pay a fixed price for one or several songs and sing these publicly. Nevertheless, KTV in private rooms has been the dominant since the 1990s.
• Private rooms and loges were always part of the Chinese service industry, from Peking Opera, restaurants, to clubs. Their use resonates with Chinese group-oriented entertainment and minimize contact with complete strangers (whereas bar seats and dance arenas enable hooking-up with strangers).  
• Private rooms such as KTV are ideal for informal business negotiations. A business meeting in a KTV forges connections (guanxi) through heavy drinking and singing.
• Most KTVs offer an in-house escort service. One or more hostesses help the costumers drink, sing and have a good time. Sometimes the hostesses offer sexual services.
• Like many profitable entertainment institutions, karaoke has been associated with the mafia and corruption. A number of the first KTV parlors and discotheques in the PRC were run by ex-cops, who had the right connections to survive crack-downs.
• That prostitution takes place in some KTV’s is an open secret. At the same time KTV is a completely acceptable kind of entertainment, for instance for students to celebrate the end of the semester or even to watch sports matches together (especially for Hong Kongers, who live in notoriously cramped apartments).

Revenue

• Because the official video clips are copyrighted or non-existent, many KTVs only provide cheaply produced stereotypical and suggestive visuals. These would typically consist of female models on the beach or among flowers. The lower part of the screen is filled with large characters that fill up along the rhythm of melody. Since 2000 record companies have made deals with karaoke chain stores to provide better quality video clips. 
• Copyrights have been arranged in most countries, with karaoke chain stores paying small percentages of their revenue in lump sums to copyright agencies, which in turn redistribute this income among major companies. Both Hong Kong and Taiwan have laws and functioning institutions.
• In the PRC piracy in KTV has been a sore spot for over a decade, especially because the larger KTV companies earn substantial revenues and are not difficult to find. However, although some laws are in place and record companies have won individual cases, the industry lacks one or more properly functioning organizations. The new amendment of the copyright law proposed in March 2012 may change this (see Copyrights below).

Main chains

These companies have branches in Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and other Chinese cities.

• Cash Box. Based in Taiwan.
• Holiday. Based in Taiwan.
• Neway. Based in Hong Kong.
• Red MR. Based in Hong Kong.
• Melody. Based in the PRC. 

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