CUSTOM DISCS - Jason Burchard
05/01/2007

If you've ever been out for karaoke night, then there's a good chance you've had this experience. You're excited to get up in front of the crowd to belt out a song that you know so well. So, you get to looking through the karaoke songbook. And you look. And you keep on looking. And looking. Until, finally you think to yourself, 'I can't find any of my favorite songs.'

Well, that's where the wonderful technology of today comes in handy. Now you can come prepared to karaoke night by bringing your own custom karaoke CD-G. There are a plethora of custom services out on the Internet that can fulfill this need. What if you've entered into a contest? You wouldn't want to rely on the venue to provide the songs and discs. If you had your own CD-G, then you will know what you'll be able to sing. Plus, if you have your own karaoke equipment at home, you can practice with your custom discs. However, there is one precaution about custom CD-G's: certain discs are not compatible with particular equipment, especially the older electronics. But, the chances are probably slim to none of your disc not working. But, it does happen, so don't say you were never warned.

Since a custom karaoke disc will probably prove useful for you, you're probably wondering where to get one, aren't you? With so many services out there, how do you choose? You will have to do some searching to find the best service that fits what you're looking for.

The two most important factors would have to be song selection and price. A small test of a number of the services available produced some varied results. A list was created of ten songs-- some old, some new. The challenge was to compare how many songs each service could locate and how much they charge. Which service came out on top?

As shown in the table below, mykaraokecdg.com and karaokefreedom.com found the most songs from the original list. Two services found all ten songs, with the lowest scores being only two songs retrieved. The services' libraries are almost as different as night and day. Some services are exactly the same, where the sites may look different but the libraries are identical.

Click to enlarge graph
Pushing the challenge further, which service has the best value for your money? One would have to first face the facts that not many services will have all the songs you're wanting to find. Substitute songs may have to be searched from the available libraries to be able to complete the disc minimum. Some services offer no minimum number of songs, but they recuperate the cost with a stair-stepped per-song charging plan. Also, a few services offer songs from different recording labels that cannot be mixed onto a custom disc. Though, this practice seems to vanishing from the custom CD-G industry. Still, in those cases, you might have to pick which ones will allow for the largest selection of songs that you're trying to find.

If cost is your priority, you should start with the best valued service and find out if there are enough songs in their library that fit your needs. If not, then move on to the next best deal. If cost is not the highest priority, you should probably start with a list of ten to fifteen songs. Then, you could go with the service that carries the most songs you want. You may have to find some other songs to meet the minimum, but at least you'll still be happy with the disc when it arrives at your door. No matter what, you're likely to be happier that you've got your own disc with your songs on it.