One of the newest online karaoke experiences is streaming karaoke, which gives the karaoke enthusiast the chance to sing karaoke online. I’ve recently had the opportunity to try several of these online karaoke services out for myself and I have to say that I’ve had a blast!
I’ve tried The Karaoke Channel, Sing Snap, and Karaoke Play. Karaoke Play is 100% free, while the other two have both free versions and paid versions. Each of these online karaoke services has certain pluses and minuses and it’s really a matter of what your looking for that will help you choose the service that is right for you! Here’s a breakdown of each my experience with each online karaoke service and the one I ultimately decided to pay for.
The first streaming karaoke service that I tried was The Karaoke Channel. I was immediately impressed with their playback system. It’s definitely the best user interface for playback of the three services that I tried. It provides one screen for easy search functionality, while preserving a large screen for the karaoke graphics. This service could most definitely pass for a pay to use karaoke jukebox that I would image in just about any bar in the world! The entire user interface, from the search functionality to the karaoke video, sound and graphics are by far the most professional looking of the three. O.K., we’ve talked about the good, now for the downside. Of the three online karaoke services that I tried, the song selection (while ever growing) is not as good on The Karaoke Channel as it is on the other services. I believe this is because The Karaoke Channel’s songs seem to be completely unique, in other words, they aren’t Sound Choice CDG files, or any other type of CDG file that I’ve seen; therefore, I believe they must have their own unique versions produced for each song (just a guess on my part – but a pretty darn educated one). The songs have HD quality video in the background and most songs (not all) can be keyed as you like with little to no loss of audio quality. In addition to this, The Karaoke Channel also provides a Ipod application for streaming playback (which I’ve used on several occasions with great success). I highly recommend The Karaoke Channel if song selection isn’t your number one concern – I’d give song selection a B, while I give everything else an A+.
Sing Snap is the second service that I’ve had the pleasure of using. Sing Snap’s strong suit is their network of users. The playback functionality is pretty good, but not as polished as The Karaoke Channel. The song selection is better than The Karaoke Channel, but the songs are all standard CDG files produced by Sound Choice or other similar karaoke CDG disc manufacturers. They have a huge user message board that is filled with users who sponsor their own competitions with prizes that range from paid subscriptions to Sing Snap to simply html artwork banners that you can proudly display on your Sing Snap profile page. In my opinion Sing Snap is more about the user network. I give Sing Snap an A+ on their network of users and the user experience for sharing and competing with others. I’d give them an A on song selection and a B+ on the playback and other user functionality.
Karaoke Play is the last service that I’ve tried. Karaoke Play’s best point is the fact that it’s 100% free. Sure Sing Snap and the The Karaoke Channel offer free levels of service, but they limit the song selection or other aspects of their service to free members. Karaoke play’s song selection appears to come from venues such as YouTube, they even provide instructions for creating your own songs from YouTube uploads (which I thought was really neat). The downside to this is that while the song selection is good, it’s very hit or miss on quality, depending on the availability of the song on YouTube, or the original uploader’s expertise in converting CDG files to AVI format for upload to YouTube. Therefore, I’d give Karaoke Play an A+ on price, but a B on song selection and playback functionality.
The recording experience and quality on all of these services were very similar in that all of these services use flash for accessing your computers sound card, microphone,etc… I used a Shure SM58
O.K. now the drumroll….. which online karaoke service did I choose to pay for? I chose The Karaoke Channel for two reasons. They have by far the slickest looking, most professional playback system (as I said earlier – much like you’d picture a karaoke juke box). Their paid service was $59.95 for a full year of service, versus Sing Snap’s $120.00 price tag for a full year of service.
Anyway, I chose The Karaoke Channel, which online streaming karaoke service will you choose?