THE cache of songs stored by karaoke outlets for patrons to pick and choose from is now at the centre of a copyright wrangle.

The Composers And Authors Society of Singapore (Compass) sent out letters to over 300 karaoke establishments islandwide late last month, asking that they pay royalties to the music composers and lyricists for the songs in their collections.

The karaoke places were caught flat-footed. The royalties involved - estimated at $3 a song for the first copy and $1,000 for each subsequent copy - could run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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