Spanish company hopes to stir up U.S. karaoke social networking
Crooners, unite.
Red Karaoke is launching an English-language version of its karaoke, or sing-along, social networking site in the U.S.
Originally launched in Spanish in the European market in 2007, the site will offer 14,000 songs in the U.S. for karaoke enthusiasts. It will also provide tools for users to interact with the site and other members. You’ll be able to record your own videos or audio files, personalize each song, and then share them online.
The company says that Justin Abbott has joined as international sales and business development director and Fernando Ara will be the country manager for the U.S. He was recently sales and marketing vice president for BlogAds.com.
U.S. competitors include SingShot, Sims On Stage, SingSnap, kSolo, and SingStar.
After the North American launch, the company plans to expand into Asia. Two brothers, Miguel Ángel and Richard Díez Ferreira, started the company in Madrid, Spain, in 2005. In April, 2007, they launched a free online service that generates revenue from ads and sponsorships.
Red Karaoke currently has more than 400,000 users worldwide, and its site gets more than 650,000 monthly visits. The company touts its “plug and sing” functionality, which lets singers start belting out songs within seconds after plugging a microphone into their computer. It can also help improve singing quality with a “tone control” tool.
Well, if it improves the quality of karaoke around the world, that’s a service in itself. In fact, we should all be paying this company to improve the singing of our karaoke brethren. The company received funding from RONDA TIC. It also raised 2 million euros from Clave Mayor, a Spanish venture capital firm, to finance its international expansion.
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