People like to sing along to pop songs on Singstar, and they like to share videos of themselves on YouTube. I don’t know why that is, but they do.
They like to mime to songs, and they like to dance to them. But nobody’s given the tools they need to be The Singer.
Let’s mix karaoke with video sharing and make it a game. And at the same time, legitimise a whole lot of cultural activities like singing on Karaoke Tube.
Superidol Pop-whatsits
I’m calling it… Superstars of the Web. Or something. As far as I can tell there is no un-cringeworthy name for something like this. But anyway, it works like this…
You buy a box. It’s got a disc with the software on it, and a microphone (probably with glitter on it) to plug into your computer. Load up the software, plug the mic into your computer, and you’re ready to rock.
There’s a bunch of pre-loaded karaoke tunes in there. Popular songs with the vocals taken out. As the song starts, your webcam fires up. You sing into the popstar microphone as the video rolls, and your performance is captured.
You see the words along the screen – perhaps with the option to sing along with the original vocals, just as a guide track – and you put your best into it.
On Celebstar Pop Tube – your best is always good enough.
The magic bit
There’s a bit of technical jiggery-pokery, as the song is mixed. A spot of compression and reverb on the vocals, the levels are automatically mixed to an acceptable level. You could even apply a bit of judicious auto-tune.
And then – you can choose to add effects to the videos. I don’t know… stars and unicorns and rainbows and stuff. A funny mask perhaps, or change the background to make it look like you’re on a yacht. Or even that awesome Amii Stewart ‘Knock On Wood‘ effect that never goes out of fashion.
The overall idea is to make the song sound as good as it possibly can, under the circumstances – and make the video a bit of a production. All in the name of fun.
The finished video – with you as the lead singer of the song (not merely ’singing along’) is uploaded to YouTube, tagged appropriately with the song title, etc. – and fed into the Superpoptasticwebstars channel for all to see (or added privately if you just want to show your nearest and dearest).
Updates aren’t free – but they’re cheap.
Want new songs? The ones in the box are covered – but you can download more karaoke tunes for, say, 99 cents – and then there are the usual revenue shares for this sort of thing.
Smarter people than me can sort out the deals – but it strikes me that in a world of Singstar and Guitar Hero, these things are eminently possible in a way that works for all concerned.
I’m imagining this as a PC game, and I think the target market is probably 10 year-old girls or thereabouts (hence the unicorns). Seems like the right place to pitch it. But who knows? Maybe adults would find this a fun party game – often with next-day Facebook repercussions.
Along the way, you could do extra stuff like tutorials, minigames to try and improve people’s pitch or timing, and so on – but the main fun of this is to put yourself on the internet – as the singer of your favourite pop hits.
And nobody’s coming to cut off your internet as a result.
