A group of karaoke venues has stumped up part of its first copyright payment to song writers but said it still doesn't know how it will compensate makers of music videos that play in KTVs.

The Shanghai Culture and Entertainment Association, which represents 500 karaoke companies in the city, remitted the first 300,000 yuan (US$38,462) for last year's copyright fee and is calculating subsequent payments.

The association represents most of the city's karaoke companies including Cashbox, Holiday and Melody.

Karaoke firms not in the association must make their own arrangements to pay the fee.

"The payment shows local karaoke companies are willing to pay copyright fees following legal procedures. We have never said we refused to pay copyright fees," said Zhu Nan, deputy secretary-general of the association.

Last year, karaoke venues were ordered to pay about one yuan a day for each of their karaoke rooms if they have more than 80 rooms.

The payment goes to the Music Copyright Society of China, an organization representing the rights and interests of song writers in China.

In a series of law suits last year, music-video firms also demanded copyright fees from karaoke venues.

The National Copyright Administration said venues should pay music-video makers 12 yuan per karaoke room a day, far higher than the fee paid to song writers. The Audio Visual Management Association of China is being prepared to collect the fees.

But karaoke venues argue the association has no right to collect the fee.

"When a legal collector is available, we will further discuss the payment with it. The maximum is too high for us to bear," Zhu said.

Shanghai has about 27,000 karaoke rooms.

(CRI.cn April 24, 2007)