Three Questions about ＂Mayday Accused of lip-synching＂

Recently, a blogger sent a video questioning the lip-synching of some songs in the concert held by the men’s band in Shanghai on November 16th, May. In response to this, the brokerage company said that there was no lip-synching in Mayday’s tour. It is reported that the Law Enforcement Corps of Shanghai Cultural Tourism Bureau attaches great importance to the public opinion of the Mayday concert, and has requested the organizers to cooperate with the investigation in accordance with the Regulations on the Administration of Commercial Performances. At present, the original video and audio of the concert have been submitted to the law enforcement corps, which will be scientifically evaluated and analyzed and the survey results will be published.

Is there lip-synching in the Mayday concert? How to identify lip-synching technically? What are the legal consequences once verified? The Beijing Youth Daily reporter consulted relevant professionals to analyze and interpret the issues that netizens care about.

Bloggers post videos.

Some songs in the Mayday concert were accused of lip-synching.

On November 30th, the blogger Farmer in the Rye released a video saying that by analyzing the audio of 12 singing songs provided by netizens at the Shanghai Stadium concert on November 16th, May, it was found that five of them were lip-synching, including Cheers, Falling in Love, Missing Lover, Writing This Song for You, Don’t Listen to Slow Songs for Sad People, and some songs were actually sung before, followed by lip-synching. Once the video is released, it plays more than one million times. Subsequently, the blogger analyzed the songs of the concert in London, England on November 28th, May, and thought that some songs of the concert were lip-synched.

From November 12th to 14th, November 16th to 18th, and November 20th to 21st, 8 concerts of "I really want to see you" were held in Shanghai Stadium on May Day. The concert tickets were priced at 355 yuan, 655 yuan, 855 yuan, 1055 yuan, 1555 yuan and 1855 yuan, and the number of people attending the eight concerts exceeded 360,000. Subsequently, the series of concerts were held in London, England and Berlin, Germany, respectively. On December 7, the last concert of the series will be held in Paris, France.

On the evening of December 3rd, Mayday’s agent sent a message through the Weibo account of "Believe in Music Bin-Music", saying that the concert to be held in Paris on December 7th will be broadcast live for three hours from 3 am Beijing time on December 8th.

Question 1: Is there lip synching? Brokerage companies deny lip-synching and actively cooperate with relevant investigations.

In response to the question of lip-synching at the Mayday concert, the staff of the Law Enforcement Corps of the Shanghai Cultural Tourism Bureau said that the video of lip-synching identified by online transmission has not been verified yet, and the relevant departments will further verify it.

On the morning of December 4th, the reporter of Beiqing Daily called Mayday’s brokerage company to believe in Music International Co., Ltd. and asked the blogger "Farmer in the Wheat Field" about the lip-synching of Mayday. The staff did not respond to this. The staff said that Mayday’s overseas concert is still going on, and its team is also overseas. "Believe in Music" also has a company in Beijing. If there is any relevant news, it will be announced through official channels. At the same time, the reporter of Beiqing Daily called the Shanghai 12345 hotline as a consumer. The staff said that if you want to complain about lip-synching and refund of the concert, you need to register the concert number, place, ticket purchase channel and order number or mobile phone number of the ticket purchase, which will be forwarded to the relevant departments for follow-up treatment.

Subsequently, I believe that Music Culture Media (Beijing) Co., Ltd. issued a statement saying that there was no lip-synching in Mayday’s tour, and the comments on "lip-synching in Mayday" on the Internet were malicious attacks, rumors and slander, which seriously damaged the artist image of the company. The company is actively cooperating with relevant law enforcement departments to carry out investigations, and I believe relevant departments will give a fair result. The company said that Mayday has been adhering to the theme of "youth, dreams, friendship and love" for 24 years since its debut, and is seriously, persistently and intently committed to presenting the best music to the fans, and will continue to promote the innovation and development of Chinese music in the future. "Please believe in Mayday and music!"

According to Xinhua News Agency, the Law Enforcement Corps of Shanghai Cultural Tourism Bureau has paid attention to the public opinion that the Mayday concert was questioned and lip-synched. In November this year, Shanghai Yunhua Culture Development Co., Ltd. held eight May Day "I really want to see you" concerts in Shanghai Stadium. According to the management mechanism of large-scale commercial performances, during the performance, each performance is supervised by cultural law enforcement staff at the municipal and district levels. The Law Enforcement Corps of the Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism attaches great importance to this alleged "lip-synching" sensation, and has requested the organizers to cooperate with the investigation in accordance with the Regulations on the Administration of Commercial Performances. After the relevant situation is verified according to law, it will respond to the concerns of netizens in a timely manner.

According to CCTV news reports, the original video and audio of the "Mayday" concert in Shanghai have been submitted to the Law Enforcement Corps of Shanghai Culture and Tourism Bureau, and the audio and video content provided will be scientifically evaluated and analyzed, and the investigation results will be published.

Question 2: How to identify lip-synching? Identifying lip-synching videos requires certain technical means.

How to define lip-synching The staff of the Shanghai Citizen Service Hotline said that lip-synching refers to lip-synching. If you want to complain about lip-synching, you need to provide a list of specific lip-synching personnel, dates and song titles.

Lawyer Chang Sha of Beijing Kyoto Law Firm believes that "lip-synching" refers to a singer playing a pre-recorded song during a live performance, and matching it with a lip shape that is actually silent. Therefore, if you use rehearsal audio, record audio in a recording studio, and others lip-synch for you, it is all lip-synching. However, the "half-open" singing adopted by some singers during the performance is similar to the original singing in KTV, but the volume of the original singing track is low, and the audience hears a mixed effect, including both the original singing part recorded in advance and the live singing part, which can cover up some problems such as breath and intonation. The singer did sing the whole song live. From the legal point of view, it is hard to say that "half-opening the wheat" is an act of "replacing live singing with pre-recorded songs", and it is hard to be recognized as lip-synching.

Is the appraisal method of the blogger "Farmer in the Wheat Field" scientific? In this regard, the reporter of Beiqing Daily also consulted Feng Jinshuo, a teacher of Music and recording arts College of China Communication University and a member of Electronic Music Society of China Musicians Association. Teacher Feng introduced that from the video released by the "Farmer in the Rye" blogger, the blogger first separated the concert video from the lead singer by artificial intelligence, and then got the dry voice (that is, the voice of the singer singing) after separation, and then put it in the software for pitch analysis for comparison. On the premise that the video of the concert used and the appraisal process are not fraudulent, the technical means used are reasonable.

Teacher Feng believes that it is not reliable to judge whether singing is true or false only by watching videos and listening to sound effects without technical means. In many cases, it is impossible to directly distinguish whether it is lip-synching. "Live singing will have many effects, such as reverberation effect. Some singers pull the wheat when singing, but the effect of the audience’s sound has not changed. This situation may also be related to the effect device. The songs that netizens think are "real singing" and have poor effects may be recorded in the recording studio in advance, and some defects are reserved when the songs are processed, and the sound is not so accurate when being repaired, so as to obtain a more realistic "live feeling". So we can’t directly judge whether it is true or false by watching a video. "

Question 3: What are the legal consequences of lip-synching? If you lip-synch, you may face administrative punishment and compensation for breach of contract.

If lip-synching is verified, what legal responsibilities should Mayday, its brokerage company and concert organizers bear? In this regard, Yue Shenshan, a lawyer from Beijing Yuecheng Law Firm, and Changsha, a lawyer from Beijing Kyoto Law Firm, both believe that if lip-synching is verified, performers, brokerage companies and concert organizers should bear administrative and civil responsibilities, that is, they will face administrative punishment from the management department and compensation for breach of contract to consumers.

Lawyer Chang Sha said that first of all, in terms of administrative responsibility, according to the punishment provisions of the Regulations on the Administration of Commercial Performances, the performance organizer may have its commercial performance license revoked, and the individual actor may have its business license revoked. At the same time, concert organizers and actors may also face a fine of more than 50 thousand yuan and less than 100 thousand yuan. Secondly, in terms of civil liability, concert organizers should compensate consumers for their losses, and the compensation already paid can be recovered from performers and brokerage companies.

If consumers spend money to buy concert tickets but encounter lip-synching, how to protect their rights? Lawyer Chang Sha said that lip-synching may be suspected of fraud if it is identified as false propaganda or commercial fraud, and consumers’ right to know has also been violated. Consumers can first negotiate with the organizers to solve the problem. If they can’t solve it, they can report it to the regulatory authorities through administrative channels. After the facts of lip-synching are confirmed by the relevant departments, consumers can sue for rights protection.

Text/reporter Dai Youqing Intern Tan Danyu Miao Yuning