VTuber Karaoke Stream Guide
Table of Contents
This section is currently YouTube-focused. Twitch might have different rules and ways to handle copyright but I am not well-versed in them yet.
This section will go over some need-to-know items and considerations when planning a karaoke stream.
Pre-work
Archived vs. Unarchived
If you’re unfamiliar with content creation, you may be wondering why someone would opt to do an unarchived karaoke stream instead of an archived one and have all their hard work disappear forever. Unfortunatel, copyrights are often the key reason why due to how karaoke streams end up being in a copyright “grey area” due to song licenses and broadcasting rights. Because of this, what types of songs you perform can determine if the streams should be archived or unarchived.
Archived
At least on YouTube, typically Japanese songs won’t get you copyright struck. This is, based on my understanding, because YouTube has an agreement with the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers (JASRAC) where YouTube pays for these copyright fees.
However, this does not apply so all songs. To check if a song you want to sing is included in this, you can search the JASRAC database as suggested by this Redditor.
Unarchived
You may have noticed that most unarchived karaoke streams feature Western music. This is because how stringent copyright is in the US for music. If you are insistent on making these archived, you may run into copyright claims and potentially strikes. On Twitch, you can get around this by separating your audio tracks so that the background track won’t show up on your VOD but note that that will lead to an incomplete experience for VOD viewers.
Copyright Claims vs Copyright Strikes
To start off, we need to answer the question of “what is the difference between a copyright claim and a copyright strike?”
Copyright Claims are when YouTube identifies copyrighted material in your video using automated Content IDs. The best case when receiving one of these is nothing happens or the copyright holder claims the revenue on your video. The worst thing that can happen is the copyright holder can issue a takedown notice for your content. Either way, these copyright claims rarely account for fair use and you can try to dispute these claims by proving you either have the rights or that your work is transformative.
Copyright Strikes are far more serious and are the ones you definitely do not want. These are manually initiated by the copyright holder and can negatively impact your account greatly. These are important to avoid and fight, since 3 copyright strikes can result in the termination of your channel.
For further reading, I found this article on Copyrighted extremely helpful.
Choosing Songs
I would recommend finding songs you’re comfortable with. However, keep in mind that your favorite song might be out of your range.
You can always pitch shift but it may not sound the best when doing it through third-party means:
Making Your Setlist
If you know what you’re doing, you can start with a high-energy song. However, starting with a lower energy song with less high notes can be a good warm-up for you to get into the groove. It will allow you to give it your all later on and build more hype for the bigger and better songs down the line.
Finding Karaoke Versions of Songs
Japanese Songs
- Karaoke Mugen is an open-source karaoke app. They also maintain an database for anime music.
- Instrumentals/off-vocals from singles/albums/EPs
- YouTube
English Songs
- Karaoke Version is a pay-per-song website but also has some free songs (mostly Christmas Carols).
- KaraFun is a subscription-based karaoke app/service that some corporate VTubers have used. It costs $10/mo and can be cancelled any time.
- YouTube
Setup
OBS Settings
Resources
Youtaite Resources
While mostly revolving around recording song covers, the Youtaite Resources page has a number of resources ranging from singing tips to microphone recommendations that are still relevant to karaoke streams.
Shoost
As stated in the previous video, you will need to subscribe to the developer MuRo’s Patreon to obtain access to Shoost. Similar effects have been directly built into VTube Studio v1.28.0. However, Shoost is made by a small developer worth supporting and has a number of additional effects built into it.
Assets
Self-plug for my free concert ticket assets you can use to advertise your karaoke streams.
There are also some microphone assets you can find on the Common Assets page.