Sound Choice :: the highest quality musical recordings for karaoke, ringtones, movies, TV commercials and more!

Grab the remote, tune in, and sing to your heart's content
Karaoke comes home with On Demand
By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff | November 26, 2005

It was a Sunday afternoon, in that lazy time between youth football and dinner, and one of Gary Frost's sons was fiddling, as usual, with the remote. This time he came across something unexpected: the words and music to Dobie Gray's ''Driftaway."

It was deep in the inner reaches of Comcast Digital Cable's On Demand service, under ''Music," in a subcategory labeled ''Karaoke." Once he heard the off-key strains -- ''Give me the beat, boys, and thrill my soul, I want to get lost in your rock 'n' roll" -- Frost, 40, did the fatherly thing. He took control of the clicker.

'' 'Sweet Home Alabama,' " he mused. ''I can do that."

Thus began a new tradition in the Frosts' Wilmington home: all-male family singalong. Now, several times a week, Frost and his oldest boys, 12, 11, and 9, belt out ''After Midnight" and ''The Star-Spangled Banner," amplified by the microphone on his 4-year-old's toy guitar. The 4-year-old dances. Frost's wife tolerates it for as long as she can.

Granted, this is not the same as clutching a sweat-covered microphone in a darkened bar, fueled by your last three drinks or the self-conscious cheers of your hipster friends. Karaoke On Demand shows few signs, thus far, of roiling the professional karaoke world.

It's the dynamics of the living room that are changing. As DVRs proliferate and On Demand services grow, viewers are slowly starting to think of TV as a tool, malleable and interactive.

''I think people are in disbelief," said Matt Strauss, Comcast's vice president for on-demand content development, who has been fielding happy customer reactions to the karaoke option, which is free of charge. ''People are used to thinking of TV as a linear kind of environment: I sit back and I watch what's on TV," he said. ''We think we're just at the start of something that could be very, very big."

It is, indeed, just the start; Comcast introduced the feature as a quiet experiment in mid-October, featuring a few dozen songs and promoted only by the cheery VJs -- ''barkers," in company lingo -- who MC the On Demand service. So far, the songs have been ordered 2 million times, nationwide; top hits include ''Sweet Home Alabama," ''I Got You Babe," and ''Beat It." (Strauss and his wife have taken to singing ''The One That I Want," from ''Grease.")

Comcast doesn't make extra money on the service, Strauss said. On Demand offerings are used to build customer loyalty or tout the virtues of cable over satellite (or nothing at all). In recent years the company has introduced fitness lessons, ''Dating On Demand," and guitar lessons, Strauss said.

Karaoke grew out of a similar experiment last May, launched in response to the ''American Idol" craze. Comcast put up a voice lesson feature: footage of a professional voice coach, along with 10 karaoke songs to practice with. It wasn't promoted at all. Within a month the songs had been viewed 600,000 times.

Sensing a good thing, Comcast struck a partnership with Sound Choice, a karaoke company, and plans to expand its repertoire to about 450 songs, Strauss said.

In karaoke circles, the word is slowly spreading -- and the reaction, so far, has been dismissive. There's no substitute for a DJ who pumps up the crowd and puts the songs in a bearable order, said Dr. Drax, executive director of the American Disc Jockey Association.

''Imagine if you went to a karaoke party and all you had was the best of Whitney Houston all night," he said. ''That would be a very long evening."

Karaoke On Demand might be good for practice, agrees Peter Parker, publisher of the California-based Karaoke Scene magazine. But the notion of singing in your living room, far from offendable ears, is a bit contrary to the karaoke spirit, he said.

''Part of what the camaraderie is all about is that you're actually risking something when you go up there," he said. ''It's a little hurt that you feel."

Still, Frost, who belted out ''Margaritaville" at a recent birthday party, doesn't mind the idea of crooning in the safety of his home.

''You don't feel the pressure of worrying about messing up. You don't have a room full of people that you don't know," Frost said. ''Of course, I have a pretty good-sized window in my living room. So we try to pull the blinds a little bit."

Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com.

**JavaScript based drop down DHTML menu generated by NavStudio. (OpenCube Inc. - http://www.opencube.com)**




Grab the remote, tune in, and sing to your heart's content Karaoke comes home with On Demand By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff \| November 26, 2005 It was a Sunday afternoon, in that lazy time between youth football and dinner, and one of Gary Frost's sons was fiddling, as usual, with the remote. This time he came across something unexpected: the words and music to Dobie Gray's ''Driftaway." It was deep in the inner reaches of Comcast Digital Cable's On Demand service, under ''Music," in a subcategory labeled ''Karaoke." Once he heard the off-key strains -- ''Give me the beat, boys, and thrill my soul, I want to get lost in your rock 'n' roll" -- Frost, 40, did the fatherly thing. He took control of the clicker. '' 'Sweet Home Alabama,' " he mused. ''I can do that." Thus began a new tradition in the Frosts' Wilmington home: all-male family singalong. Now, several times a week, Frost and his oldest boys, 12, 11, and 9, belt out ''After Midnight" and ''The Star-Spangled Banner," amplified by the microphone on his 4-year-old's toy guitar. The 4-year-old dances. Frost's wife tolerates it for as long as she can. Granted, this is not the same as clutching a sweat-covered microphone in a darkened bar, fueled by your last three drinks or the self-conscious cheers of your hipster friends. Karaoke On Demand shows few signs, thus far, of roiling the professional karaoke world. It's the dynamics of the living room that are changing. As DVRs proliferate and On Demand services grow, viewers are slowly starting to think of TV as a tool, malleable and interactive. ''I think people are in disbelief," said Matt Strauss, Comcast's vice president for on-demand content development, who has been fielding happy customer reactions to the karaoke option, which is free of charge. ''People are used to thinking of TV as a linear kind of environment: I sit back and I watch what's on TV," he said. ''We think we're just at the start of something that could be very, very big." It is, indeed, just the start; Comcast introduced the feature as a quiet experiment in mid-October, featuring a few dozen songs and promoted only by the cheery VJs -- ''barkers," in company lingo -- who MC the On Demand service. So far, the songs have been ordered 2 million times, nationwide; top hits include ''Sweet Home Alabama," ''I Got You Babe," and ''Beat It." (Strauss and his wife have taken to singing ''The One That I Want," from ''Grease.") Comcast doesn't make extra money on the service, Strauss said. On Demand offerings are used to build customer loyalty or tout the virtues of cable over satellite (or nothing at all). In recent years the company has introduced fitness lessons, ''Dating On Demand," and guitar lessons, Strauss said. Karaoke grew out of a similar experiment last May, launched in response to the ''American Idol" craze. Comcast put up a voice lesson feature: footage of a professional voice coach, along with 10 karaoke songs to practice with. It wasn't promoted at all. Within a month the songs had been viewed 600,000 times. Sensing a good thing, Comcast struck a partnership with Sound Choice, a karaoke company, and plans to expand its repertoire to about 450 songs, Strauss said. In karaoke circles, the word is slowly spreading -- and the reaction, so far, has been dismissive. There's no substitute for a DJ who pumps up the crowd and puts the songs in a bearable order, said Dr. Drax, executive director of the American Disc Jockey Association. ''Imagine if you went to a karaoke party and all you had was the best of Whitney Houston all night," he said. ''That would be a very long evening." Karaoke On Demand might be good for practice, agrees Peter Parker, publisher of the California-based Karaoke Scene magazine. But the notion of singing in your living room, far from offendable ears, is a bit contrary to the karaoke spirit, he said. ''Part of what the camaraderie is all about is that you're actually risking something when you go up there," he said. ''It's a little hurt that you feel." Still, Frost, who belted out ''Margaritaville" at a recent birthday party, doesn't mind the idea of crooning in the safety of his home. ''You don't feel the pressure of worrying about messing up. You don't have a room full of people that you don't know," Frost said. ''Of course, I have a pretty good-sized window in my living room. So we try to pull the blinds a little bit." Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com. © Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

\| Sound Choice Home \| Press Releases \| Privacy Statement \| Contact Us \| The songs we offer are the highest quality professional recreations available. These are not the original artist renditions. 14100 South Lakes Dr., Charlotte, NC 28273 \| 704-583-1616 \| ©1995-2006 Sound Choice