Karaoke Forums

A customer came up to me and asked for the artist 'SZA' She told me she's the hottest thing on the R&B charts (And I believe it, with millions of hits on her VEVO account).

That being said, she has only come up on a couple of songs, and only in duets (Rihanna, Maroon 5, and Travis Scott). No solo stuff to be had... I am wondering if maybe it might be licensing issues.

Of course, I use the standard "Only the most popular songs get made" speech, but she isn't exactly a no-name either.

So my question: Is there any companies that specifically produce R&B karaoke tracks?

Thanks!
TM

The reason she doesn't have any karaoke songs is not because she's R&B.

The reason she doesn't have any karaoke songs is because she isn't "hot" commercially. Her best selling album sold 60,000 copies and she had one minor top 40 hit that had just over 1,000,000 downloads. By comparison, the songs you hear over and over again on the radio pretty routinely sell 3-10+ million. Who cares how many Vevo clicks she has? Cute cat videos have millions of clicks too.

SZA's one single, "Love Galore" was probably sprinkled in or on heavy rotation for just a few weeks, never to be heard of again. Not many of these justify a karaoke entry. I'm a R&B fan and routinely listen to a couple modern R&B radio stations, and I've never heard of this song.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

That is the truth, some cat videos have more clicks.

While I agree that sometimes an artist is indeed a flash in the pan, I've seen those artists "Make it" to karaoke... Also, the bigger names in the duet are most likely why SZA got made into karaoke in the first place.

I only ask about someone who makes R&B because I just grab whatever comes out on Sunfly or Zoom and I use KV and SBI for requests. Honestly, if I am going to listen to something its probably the news or EDM. I am sad to say that R&B isn't on my personal radar ::shrug::

Still, the question remains, what active brand would be a good go to for a specific genre?

I don't think anyone is specifically making R&B. In general, if an R&B song makes the pop charts, it's probably going to be a karaoke song on most of the major manufacturer disks. If it doesn't make the pop charts, then it isn't. Easy enough.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

No singles but 2 collaborations available at Karaoke-Version.com


http://www.karaoke-version.com/karaoke/search.html?query=sza

Search results "sza"
Title as made famous by Year Time
What Lovers Do Maroon 5 feat. SZA 2017 3:17
Love Galore SZA feat. Travis Scott 2017 4:36

Some of those artists may not have any licensing restrictions or charge ridiculously low amounts for licensing that some manus might take a chance. And yes you are probably correct on the assumption that the bigger names are what were actually the draw in this case.
There really isn't any one company making specific genre only these days, most are doing a little of this and a little of that but not like the hey days where you'd see all R&B discs or all Hair Band music or whatever......Just keep searching the known active sites like Karaoke Version, SBI, Sunfly, Karaoke.net - if you don't see it here, it's most likely not available (at least actively - many songs not available might still be on discontinued discs).

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I figure a budding artist may not want to worry so much licensing in exchange for exposure, but what do I know. I do know that 90% of what people post on this board deals with all the licensing BS. ::sigh::



Yeah, I know the manus scramble for anything they can get their hands on to stay in business... but some companies used to excel at some styles more then others. I liked a lot of country selections from CB over other brands, etc.

Sad to see that we've lost that a bit when you are just lucky to FIND something to play these days, never mind if it's good.

Unfortunately licensing IS the entire reason karaoke is where it is today. Either manus got it or they didn't and were sued out of business. In which it seems many of them did not acquire it.

I agree. SC had the best selections of headbanger/hairband/metal tracks at one time. And again all those companies that excelled at it were closed because of improper licensing.

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