A little intro for the uninitiated. KTV is the colloquial term for “Karaoke TV”, and is probably the most popular way for Chinese youth to interface with music. Groups rent out a room with a big TV and a seemingly bottomless pit of sugary Canto and Mando pop videos, then lounge around on sofas, singing and carousing. There are other versions of KTV in increasingly sordid varieties, but we will leave that for other blogs to discuss.
What is incredible is that even these highly visible and entrenched institutions indulge in blatant piracy every day of the week. According to this Beijinger investigation, only 10 of Beijing’s 1,500 pay any sort of royalty on the songs that they let their customers sing.
