Karaoke-style game shows like Don't Forget the Lyrics are becoming the music industry's strong ally towards survival and perhaps, even immortality.  Don't Forget the Lyrics and its contemporary, The Singing Bee, are providing the music business a much needed boost in more ways than one.

For one thing, such singing competitions are intended for the regular people who may or may not be endowed with any actual singing prowess.  As such, the programs bring various tunes from different genres, as well as generations, to a greater number of people.  Secondly, because of certain fees the shows have to pay for use of musical intellectual property, Don't Forget the Lyrics and its kind contribute substantially to an already flailing industry.

"They're a reminder of how important these songs are to the multiple generations tuning in and it points out the fact that people do love to sing," Todd Brabec, executive vice president of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or ASCAP said.

For their part, producers believe that the success of such shows stems from their appeal to the ordinary man or woman.

"You don't have to have musical talent to participate in our show," Phil Gurin, co-creator/executive producer of The Singing Bee pointed out.  "You just need to be a fan."

"What I did was look at the two biggest shows on TV at the time: One was American Idol and the other was Deal or No Deal,” Jeff Apploff, creator of Don't Forget the Lyrics, revealed.  "My whole thing was taking the music and making it into a game show.  This is a great way for people to hear the songs again and have a reason to go and download the music," Apploff added.

Neither Don't Forget the Lyrics nor The Singing Bee is required to pay any licensing fees since they don't use original recordings for accompaniment but employ live bands instead.  However, they do remit public performance fees and synchronization dues to publishers.


-Rosario Santiago, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Reuters, Billboard
(Image Courtesy of FOX)