Red Karaoke has been around for 4 years now, when based out of Spain, two brothers Miguel Angel y Richard Díez Ferreira first opened it’s online Karaoke doors. They probably had no idea that they were onto something. The service took very quickly and grew not only for the Spanish speaking public, but English and Japanese. Today, with 2 million monthly unique visitors and 1.5 million recordings made, Red Karaoke releases their Facebook app, to socialize their singing experience even more.
The service is currently available in Spanish, English and Japanese and unlike some of their counterparts (MySpace shuts down their Karaoke service), on a growing curve. Their main competitor, The Karaoke Channel has a library of 8,000 titles, whereas Red Karaoke boasts 50,000, high quality mp3 titles. In 2008, the company received 2 million euros from venture capital, Clave Mayor in order to grow their team and invest further into product development. That said, the web could really use a makeover, unless they’re trying to reinforce the karaoke look.
With the Facebook app, Red Karaoke aims to be the first to bring the full singing experience to Facebook, as well as to grow their multi-platform experience. They’re currently available for web, LG smart TVs, iOS, and coming soon to mobile and tablet. Because all of the applications running in the cloud, a user can recover his recording made in the web version in the Facebook app, or vice versa. The Facebook app allow users to record with their webcam, using the company’s Virtua Sing service. You design a 3D avatar that dances on a virtual stage. The 3D character dances and sings with the users voice. The app also allows users to change the karaoke tone and adjust sound effects.
Red Karaoke works on a freemium to subscription model. The free version gives you 20 karaokes to get started with. After that you can upgrade to either monthly or yearly membership, or get yourself a 24h VIP pass, which specifically has a lot of appeal for sporadic events and get togethers.
The Facebook app is a smart move for karaoke, it’s already a very social phenomenon and now they can bank on the social virtual gaming buzz.