Karaoke Forums

I had a singer ask me about a song by John Prine called "In Spite Of Ourselves". The only version I found was a duet version by "Dancing Frog Karaoke" which seems to be a labor of love rather than a commercial endeavor. My virus checker went crazy when I visited the guy's page and I'm not sure about the legalities. Can anybody fill me in? Thanks.

The Dancing Frog Karaoke tracks are a great bunch of homemade karaoke tracks made by a fine gentleman from Canada. He does not sell them but does share them freely with other karaoke lovers. If there is a web site where they are being sold; it is not run by the creator of those tracks. The same gentleman is also contracted to make karaoke tracks for Sunfly, so the quality of the Dancing Frog tracks is at least as good as what you would purchase from Sunfly. I hope this info helps you.

Is it legal for me to use them in a show? Or would their be an issue because of artist royalties? The song in question is pretty old, but I'm not sure how that would all work...

I have never heard of anyone being sued by anyone for using a homemade karaoke track at a karaoke show. As far as the artists are concerned; as long as the venue is paying their legal fees in regards to performance fees, I would think that you would be safe from harrassment. If you're that worried about it though, I would suggest you just tell your customer that the song is not available.

Just to clarify...if the venue is NOT paying the fees I mentioned, then no karaoke track that you legally own can "legally" be used at that venue. The choice is yours to make. My estimate would be that the odds of you getting nailed for using that particular song would be about one in a million.