NextUpKara
Karaoke night, without the binder.
Singers pick songs from their own phones. You watch the queue from yours. The room gets a screen with the words on it.
What you need
Almost certainly what you already have.
A screen the room can see
A TV, a projector, a spare monitor. Plugged into a laptop by HDMI, showing the video and the words.
If your TV takes a browser, that works too — no laptop needed.
Something to sing through
Any microphone and speakers. Most bars and restaurants already have a PA for announcements or a band — that is enough.
No way to plug a microphone in? A karaoke mixer with two wireless mics is about $90 and feeds whatever you already have. How to wire it up.
A phone in your hand
Yours. That is the whole control desk — who is up, who is next, skip, reorder. You never touch the laptop once it is running.
Singers use their own phones. Nothing to install, for anyone.
How a night goes
- You start a night and get a six-character code. Takes about a minute.
- Print the card — one page, a QR code and the same six characters — and put a few on the tables.
- People scan it, search for a song and get in line. They can see where they are in the queue without asking you.
- You call the next singer from your phone. The words come up on the screen.
- That is it. No requests on napkins, nobody asking "how long?", no arguing about whose turn it is — the queue is on everybody's phone.
Things people ask
Do we need the internet?
Yes. The songs play from YouTube and the queue is shared between phones. Ordinary venue wi-fi is fine; the laptop is the only thing that needs a steady connection.
What about the song list?
There are thousands of tracks, and if somebody searches for something missing, the system goes and looks for it. Takes get watched by a person and marked for whether the words actually follow along as you sing — which is the difference between a good night and a frustrating one, and is not something an automatic search can tell you. The most-requested songs get checked first.
Can we keep it clean?
Yes. A night can hide explicit tracks with one switch, and there is a kids-only mode that restricts the catalogue to films, cartoons and songs children actually know.
What if somebody is a problem?
Block them from the night with one tap. They stay blocked for that night without a scene.
What does it cost?
Nothing to try. We are looking for rooms to run real nights in and tell us what breaks — if that is you, get in touch and we will set it up together for your first one.
Want to try it?
The quickest way to understand it is to run one at home first — a laptop on the TV, a couple of friends with phones. It takes about five minutes to set up.
Already have a code from someone? Put it in here.