What does India’s first karaoke website have to do with its name, Singchana? Well, nothing much, but if you ask its creators, Hitesh and Vikram Mehta, they quip: “It is a funny name, it’s a punny name, it’s a value for money name.”
But gimmickry aside, Singchana has all the right ingredients to tap into the largely unexplored karaoke market in India by taking it to the next level.
Simply put, Singchana is an online music service that allows users to sing karaoke, practice their singing, and challenge friends to beat their score. Hitesh explained, “Much like karaoke, you listen to a song, you see the lyrics on the screen, and sing into your microphone. Your voice is benchmarked against the pitch and the tone of the song, so you can see how you’re performing.
When the song ends, you can see how many notes of the song you were able to match.” Users can then put up the song for public review, or share it with their friends via social media websites such as Facebook.
The world over, karaoke has been playing an impressive role in integrating the diaspora through the familiar notes of a shared culture. Incidentally, NRIs constitute a significant section of the Singchana online community. However, the website is now gaining popularity in India as well, especially in Mumbai, where it has spread mostly through word-of-mouth and karaoke events organised by Singchana at inter-college festivals.
Launched in October last year, Singchana has a limited playlist at present, but there are plans to expand the collection. “The younger crowd can’t get enough of the contemporary stuff, while those over 30 often request songs of Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar. Kabhi Kabhi is one of our most played numbers,” said Vikram.
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