Karaoke Box



A Karaoke Box (カラオケボックス) is a common type of karaoke establishment commonly found in Japan. Karaoke Boxes consist of multiple rooms containing karaoke equipment, usually rented out for time periods. A typical Karaoke Box establishment contains 10-20 (or more) such rooms as well as a main "karaoke bar" area in the front. Karaoke Box establishments often sell refreshments.

The term "Karaoke Box" is primary used in Japan and Hong Kong. In Taiwan and China, Karaoke Box establishments are commonly known as KTV (an abbreviation of karaoke television, videoke in the Philippines, noraebang (노래방) in South Korea (which literally means "song (norae) room (bang)"), and "phòng Karaoke" in Vietnam (which means karaoke room). It is also common to simply abbreviate it as "K", often when used as a verb, such as in usages like "去K歌 (To go "K" songs)" or "去唱K (To go sing "K")" especially in Hong Kong. In Vietnam, Karaoke is used as a verb as well: "đi hát karaoke"(Go sing karaoke).

Legal issue
The word "KTV" can also mean a "karaoke music video", a music video with karaoke lyrics and MMO audio track. Some karaoke music videos were sold to KTV establishments under exclusivity contracts, causing some people to illegally copy karaoke music videos and share them on the Internet. These are often found on the Internet in MPEG (VCD) or VOB (DVD) format with the string "(KTV)" appended to the filename.