How to throw a COVID-era karaoke party

April 6, 2020 11:20 AM

For a friend's birthday next week, I want to throw a remote karaoke party, one where everyone can participate from their own homes. What kind of setup would you use for this?

I don't have a karaoke system at home (massive oversight, I now see) so I need a source for the music, and I also need a simple way for everyone to hang out and sing together. Probably looking at 10 to 15 people, hanging out for around 2 hours. I'm willing to spend a little money if needed, but would like to keep it affordable and simple.

(In addition to the tech setup, any tips to make this extra fun are also appreciated!)

posted by Mender to Technology (5 answers total)

I've tried this twice online now. The last party I went to asked people to Google for (name of song) + "karaoke" to try to find a video on YouTube, then screenshare (and some kind of audio share) the video. (The other one I did was with an actual karaoke DJ, who was just playing the music/lyrics off his own screenshare.) This didn't work super great for sound, or sharing (sometimes the screen would be very wonky), but under the circumstances, lowering expectations would be good.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:29 AM on April 6, 2020

Oh, and presumably whatever system you're working needs to be able to go for a few hours rather than 40 minutes.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:30 AM on April 6, 2020

Thanks for asking this question! I am ALSO strongly interested in hosting an online karaoke event!

I have not done this yet but have done a little research. Here's what I have found from others who've attempted it.

There's an open Google Document here that gives general instructions on setting up this kind of thing, using a platform called Watch2Gether (which I've never used).

And here's a page offering some basics on using Watch2Gether itself. (This second page is also linked within the first, above.)

As I say, I have not tried this yet, but was just this morning texting with a friend about giving it a whirl.
If anyone has any specific recommendations about Watch2Gether, or about online karaoke in general, I'd also be interesting in hearing them!
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:47 AM on April 6, 2020

A club I'm in is beta testing online karaoke in the next week-ish. I'll report back with the results!
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:50 AM on April 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

I did this the other night. I used Watch2Gether in one window and zoom in another window. Watch2Gether has a busy interface that was confusing for some attendees, refused to play videos that had certain kinds of permissions, and occasionally froze and had to be refreshed. Also one attendee had their voice cancelled out a lot due to feedback from their setup. Some people didn’t have enough network to have two streaming tools going at once. It was still fun but we had to be patient and forgiving with each other.
posted by matildaben at 12:03 PM on April 6, 2020