Singboard Brings Karaoke to the Internet

Ray Chan, Co-Founder and CEO of Singboard, and his partners arrived at 500 Startups with an idea for a photo-sharing app. After initial feedback for the app was luke warm, however, things changed drastically. Based on the fact that, according to Chan, karaoke bars in the U.S. paled in comparison to their native Hong Kong, the team regrouped, came up with a new idea and Singboard was born.

“Basically, Singboard is where YouTube meets karaoke,” says Chan. “It is a much more improved experience of online karaoke…We will get all the latest and most popular music videos from YouTube, and we will overlay the lyrics on top of the videos, and the lyrics will provide a karaoke-like feature, so that you can sing along with it and enjoy a really good singing experience.”

Singboard’s technology streams different content at the same time, allowing you to turn off the vocals on a video and play just the music. You can choose from among the top 100 music videos on YouTube, and, because the service is on your computer as opposed to on a machine in a bar, you can stop, rewind and replay songs as often as you like. You can even record your own version of a song and share it with friends on Facebook or Twitter.

Singboard will likely be offered to users based on the freemium model, where you can play a certain number of songs for free but will have to pay a monthly subscription fee for unlimited access. The app is currently in private beta, but Chan says they are pleased with the initial response.

“So far the feedback is really positive,” says Chan. “People just want to have more songs so that they can find their favorite songs to sing.”

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