Karaoke isn’t unknown to Singaporeans, especially with KTV being a predominantly Asian past-time. But the technology behind karaoke has remained pretty stagnant for the last decade, with large black devices and pre-installed music videos.
Now, a Singapore company has decided to create what could be the karaoke machine of the 21st century — Moment.
This new device sounds almost perfect compared to the traditional karaoke systems available. It’s wireless, compatible with any device (yes, even your smartphone), has an unlimited song library, and is only 16 inches in size.
According to Lewis Goh, CEO and co-founder of Moment, the new karaoke system he offers will fill a gap in the industry that others have yet to tackle.
“When we were younger, we will sometimes go to a friend’s home to sing karaoke, and back then the song library is simple, you just buy karaoke VCDs,” he said. “However, these days you struggle to find karaoke VCDs to buy, especially the new song titles. And there are online karaoke versions where you buy the system and the songs are chargeable through subscription or pay per download. Nobody wants friends to come over and start downloading all the songs they want to sing.”
The Future of Karaoke
So what does the future of karaoke look like?
Well, according to Goh, it’ll come in the form of a compact karaoke sound bar, 16 inches in size. It comes with a built-in AUX port and optical audio port, which will allow you to connect your analog or digital devices. Built-in Bluetooth aptX technology will also provide CD-like quality audio when streaming wirelessly.
The Moment Subwoofer that comes with it enables DTS TruSurround, which creates a surround sound effect, and the Moment app will include a full spectrum equaliser to tune the music to exactly the way you want it. It can even be used as a sound system for your television or PC to support movie viewing and gaming.
To truly make it the karaoke system of the future, Moment will work with any file, app, or online streaming site that you use on your devices, whether it is Smule, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, or Google Play Music. Imagine singing karaoke with your friends from your Spotify playlists!
However, this device hasn’t been made a reality just yet. A subsidiary of parent company AC Ryan, Moment still requires funds to support their tooling and product costs through the R&D process. They’ve turned to crowdfunding, and will officially launch an Indiegogo campaign tomorrow to raise the funds needed to make Moment happen. The starting tier will begin at $199 USD, which will get you a Moment set at $200 off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP).
It’s still uncertain if people will invest in a separate set of hardware when you can connect a mic to a PC and call it a karaoke system, so the biggest strength this device has is probably its adaptability. The ability to connect to so many different music streaming services or karaoke software makes it accessible to pretty much anyone, even those who’d rather use Moment as a sound system than a karaoke machine.
It’s unclear if Moment will be permanently priced at the MSRP of US$399, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Moment gives existing home karaoke systems a run for their money. If karaoke is becoming obsolete, at least Moment will last a little longer.
