Currently, there are two organizations managing audio-video copyrights in China: the CAVCA and the Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC). The CAVCA is in charge of protecting the producers of sound recordings, videos, and music, and MCSC protects the interests of lyric writers and composers. The karaoke fees will be collected by the CAVCA and distributed among the two organizations.

On November 9, 2006, the State Copyright Bureau released a karaoke fee standard to be implemented by the association, which at that time was still being built.

On July 22, 2008, the association received approval to manage audio and video program-related issues such as rights for performance, broadcasting, leasing, Internet broadcasting, duplication and distribution, and karaoke copyright royalties collection in an effort to protect intellectual property rights in the audio and video sectors.

Since February 2007 when south China's Guangdong Province started to collect karaoke royalties, a small number of 50 karaoke operators in the province signed royalties payment agreements, accounting for 5 percent of the total number of karaoke bars.

"It's not that we are unwilling to pay the copyrights fees, but that we want a reasonable payment," said one karaoke operator in Guangzhou, the province's capital, pointing out that on some days karaoke rooms could go unused.

Huang Shiqiu, President of the Guang-zhou Cultural and Recreational Industry Association, said the fees should be levied according to the number of songs played instead of charging fees according to rooms.

According to Wang Ziqiang, a spokesman for the National Copyright Administration, regions and countries such as Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Malaysia do not charge karaoke fees according to the numbers of songs played either. The current payment standard is set at 1 percent of the karaoke operators' turnover.

Before setting up royalties payment standards, authorities across China conducted thorough research. A charge of 12 yuan ($1.8) per day per room was set according to market surveys, and market acceptance was taken into consideration.

The Shanghai Cultural and Recreational Industry Association reached an agreement with the CAVCA representing the local association's member enterprises on September 28. Its members include 54 karaoke operators, with 3,500 rooms, representing royalties of 10 million yuan ($1.4 million).

It was reported that the Shanghai industry association had been in negotiations with the CAVCA for three months before reaching the agreement, according to which operators buy copyrights at a package price: 4 yuan ($0.58) per day per room for 2007 and 6 yuan ($0.88) per day per room in 2008.