Music Industry Thrilled By Recent Trend Of Inane “Karaoke For Dummies” Game Shows

Don’t Forget The Lyrics and The Singing Bee–both of which, after summer runs that garnered ratings even better than ‘Til Death reruns, are returning this fall–have given an unexpected boon to the record industry, apparently because being reminded of a song inspires at least a few people to actually shell out the 99 cents required to put it on their hard drives:

Just two months earlier, Creedence Clearwater Revival was on the receiving end of a feature on the show. For the week ending July 22, after contestant Luke Adams sang “Fortunate Son” on his way to a $350,000 prize, downloads of the CCR track jumped 45 percent to 3,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Not quite enough to get the track back into the digital charts, but hey, that’s a big $2,970 payout right there! Which is a good thing given that the shows don’t pay licensing fees for using bands’ songs:

“Bee” and “Lyrics” do not pay licensing fees because they use live bands versus original recordings. They do, however, pay synchronization fees to publishers and public performance fees.

Given the state of record sales, ASCAP’s Brabec said, the shows’ impact as a source of income for writers is significant, here and abroad.

Ah, the publishing business. They really are the only ones making money these days, aren’t they? Well, aside from the people who will be getting paid to record the inevitable Singing Bee Christmas album:

During the fall season, “Bee” is planning to have guest artists make surprise appearances and perform their own songs. In addition, negotiations are in progress to secure a label to release a Ray Chew & the Groove Christmas album. The hope, Gurin said, is that it will be the first in a long franchise of cover albums of pop hits.

We’re sure that Joey Fatone is already lobbying for one song to be included within.

“Bee,” “Lyrics” strike a chord with fans, industry [Reuters]