Be An Online Karaoke Star on Singsnap

Well..yes..and no. Singsnap was started by a man named Trevor McGuire in 2006, and was initially a completely free site, and stayed that way for quite a long time. Eventually, as all businesses must, he decided he'd like to actually make some money and added a Gold membership option to the site. The Gold membership entitles members to a list of special features and unlimited access to the entire Singsnap catalog and unlimited storage of as many performances as they'd like to record.

You also get extra features, like a key changer, so you can change the key of the song if it's not right for your voice, and some effects added like reverb, to make you sound better. If you would rather not pay and don't care about the extra features, there is still a pretty generous free option where you can record as a "blue member".

Blue members can only store up to 100 songs at a time, and they only have access to the songs that are designated as free songs. That still leaves you tons of great stuff to sing, though you won't always be able to sing some of the newer, most popular songs that are added. If you can't afford a paid membership, or are just a casual singer and feel it's not worth it for you to pay, then you can still enjoy singing and sharing your songs.

"As we speak, Singsnap is in beta testing for their brand new recorder/mixer with some really cool new features, such as being able to hear the reverb and effects in preview mode YAY!!! and the ability to speed the song up or slow it down. I'm trying to get in on the beta testing so I can't wait to play around with it. No news yet when it will go live for everyone, but I'm sure it won't be long.

To some people, it wouldn't be worth paying $12.00 a month just to sing and record songs online, but to me it's very worth it. Of course, it all depends on your budget and your priorities. If you enjoy going out to sing karaoke, think how much THAT costs you! Between drinks, parking, and maybe having to pay a babysitter or whatever, it costs you way more than $12.00, and you don't get to keep your recordings and share them with your friends. Then again, singing live in front of real people can be a lot of fun, too. But, for me, I love the fact that i can sing whenever I like, at any time, 24/7, as many songs as I like, and I don't have to get dressed up ..or even dressed, for that matter..to do it. LOL Plus, I get to control whether I want people to hear a performance or not. If I screw it up, I can delete it and keep trying until I get a version I like. On stage, you get whatever comes out of your mouth..in front of lots of strangers...eeeek. That ain't always pretty!

GOLD MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

No Advertisements!
Gold members don't have to look at all the banners and advertising on the site. If you want to get rid of those, you have to become a Gold member. Personally, if it this were the only benefit, Blue wouldn't be bad, I could deal with ads. But some people are really annoyed by them and would gladly pay to see them gone. Gold members get a completely advertising-free experience.


Additional Songs & Storage!
A lot of the songs in the SingSnap catalog are now exclusive to Gold members. Boo!! That's not one of my favorite things about the site, but there's not many places online you can sing completely free anymore, some have very limited, if any,"Trial" periods, and then it's pony up the dough or adios. I don't think any of them have the volume of songs SingSnap has, which is one of the things that really makes it worth paying. Gold members can also sing and save an unlimited number of songs, free members have to start deleting at 100 recordings. I think it should be a bit more, but they didn't ask me.


High Quality Stereo!
As a Gold member you will be able to select stereo backing tracks when recording your song. Then, when the recording is saved, your voice will be mixed together with the music to create a higher quality stereo recording!


Voice Effects!
With the use of the magical "Make Me Sound Better" button you can pretty up your recordings. They add a little compression and reverb to your recordings for you, so you sound a whole heck of a lot better. I haven't actually attempted to record at any other sites recently, but I know that most of them don't, maybe none of them, have the ability to add effects, even for paid members. Of course, if you have the right equipment, or the right soundcard, this isn't an issue, but for those who don't, it definitely is worth paying for.


Split Screen Video!
This is a relatively new feature, and it allows those who like to sing duets with other members to make their recordings split screen, so you are both on camera in the video. This is kind of a fun feature, because it allows you to interact with each other during the song, add a little banter, and make it look like you recorded together. You can really get creative if you want to. Before this, only the person who was adding the 2nd half of the duet would appear on camera. I don't do video with my recordings, but if I did I could have some fun with this feature.


Key Changer!
The key changer is a really handy feature. Before they added it, there were a few songs that I could never do because they were just out of my range, now there's a whole lot more that is in my range. Not sure if that's a good thing or not! LOL You can change the key of songs to better accomodate your voice. You can pitch shift two or four half steps up/down from the original.


Inner Circles!
Want to share recordings with only a friend or two? Want to create your own message boards and chat rooms? If so, "Inner Circle" is the feature you're looking for. It lets you create lists of friends that you can then share these items with.


Playlists!
This is one feature I really like, because it lets you add a bunch of songs to a playlist and listen to them all at once. You can add your friends' songs or your own favorite recordings to a playlist and save it, and listen to them whenever you like! It allows you to set up a bunch of songs you want to listen to and just let them play while you're busy doing other things, so you don't miss out on things you want to hear, but you don't have to be going back and forth starting and stopping each song individually to listen.

.. and Lots More!
The following features are also included: Status message updating, so you can let people know what you're up to if you want to. It displays whatever message you enter under your Singsnap name. Of course, you can turn that feature off, too, if you rather people don't know what you're doing. Just as you can choose to show or hide whether you are currently online. You also get auto-start and full screen display for recordings, and can nominate recordings you love for the People's Choice page ..plus you get your name in Gold!

"Yesterday, on 06/03/2011, Singsnap added the 1st batch of songs from their new contract with SBI Karaoke! We got 500 new songs and that's just the start...just the tip of the iceburg! SBI has a catalog of 24,000 songs and growing. Read about it in The Official Singsnap Blog

Alternative/Folk/Punk
347 artists
Featuring Adele, SingSnap Member, Peter, Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan and Green Day among others.

Gospel/Worship 181 artists
Featuring Elvis Presley, Loretta Lynn, Standard Gospel, Gospel and Praise & Worship among others.

Blues
48 artists
Featuring Eva Cassidy, Fats Domino, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Diana Krall and The Blues Brothers among others.

Dance/Electronic/Club
239 artists
Featuring Standard Gospel, Shania Twain, Gloria Gaynor, D.H.T. and DJ Sammy among others.

International/Ethnic
168 artists
Featuring Traditional, Matt Monro, Traditional Irish, Italian Love Songs and Keane among others.

Latin
213 artists
Featuring Traditional, Enrique Iglesias, Christina Aguilera, Selena and Marc Anthony among others.

Oldies
294 artists
Featuring The Everly Brothers, Dean Martin, Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison and Engelbert Humperdinck among others.

R&B/Soul
506 artists
Featuring Ray Charles, Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Bill Withers and Roberta Flack among others.

Rock
877 artists
Featuring Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Traditional, Eric Clapton and Creedence Clearwater Revival among others.

Bluegrass
37 artists
Featuring Traditional, Ricky Skaggs, Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin and Flatt & Scruggs among others.

Country
935 artists
Featuring Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson and George Strait among others.

Film/Stage/TV
253 artists
Featuring Elvis Presley, Garth Brooks, Martina McBride, Dolly Parton and Bette Midler among others.

Holiday
195 artists
Featuring Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Traditional, George Strait and Merle Haggard among others

Jazz/Big Band
93 artists
Featuring Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, Norah Jones, Bette Midler and Dean Martin among others.

Novelty/Comedy
95 artists
Featuring Ray Stevens, Weird Al Yankovic, Cledus T. Judd, Sam The Sham and Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers among others.

Pop
1,385 artists
Featuring Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley (Live Cuts), Elton John, Anne Murray and Neil Diamond among others.

Rap/Hip-Hop
247 artists
Featuring Beyoncé, Black Eyed Peas, Eminem Feat. Rihanna, Eminem and Afroman among others.

Traditional/Classical
28 artists
Featuring Traditional, Elvis Presley (Live Cuts), Standard Gospel, Eva Cassidy and Standard among others.

Karaoke Girl | Karaoke Queen by Toonboy
See other Music humor T-Shirts

They add new songs every Friday! Though not every single song is at the top of chart, they are always adding new, hot, popular songs, as well as older stuff so you can sing all your favs!

Unfortunately there are some artists they can't get due to licensing limitations, but if they can get it they will..and if you request it and they can get it, they will get it for you! Can't beat that!

Recent additions included these songs:
Sink 'N' Swim - Plumb
Just To Satisfy You - Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings
Willingly duet - Willie Nelson & Shirley Collie
River Deep - Mountain High duet - Four Tops & The Supremes
I Am Not My Hair - India.Arie Feat. Akon
Steady As The Rain - The Larkins
As Time Goes By duet - Rod Stewart & Queen Latifah
New Shining Star duet Ricky Skaggs & James Taylor
By Surprise - Joy Williams
Deeper Life - Natalie Grant
Life Is Good - Jody Brown Indian Family
I'm Blessed - Ricky Atkinson & Compassion
God Is Good - The Hoppers
Mas Que Nada - Sergio Mendes Feat. The Black
Stars In Your Eyes - Her Majesty & The Wolves
Starstruck - Lady Gaga Feat. Space Cowboy
Runaway (Explicit) - Kanye West Feat. Pusha T
Girls (Explicit) - N-Dubz
Right Thru Me (Explicit) - Nicki Minaj
Game Over (Explicit) - Tinchy Stryder
Bass Down Low (Explicit) - DEV Feat. The Cataracs
Live A Little - Kenny Chesney
How Long Is Long Enough - Burns & Poe
Heartache - Key Johnson
Pyro - Kings Of Leon
Blow - Ke$ha

Just A Little Too Much - Ricky Nelson
Still Water - The Four Tops
I'm A Better Man - Engelbert Humperdinck
Rough Boy - ZZ Top
I Want To Stay Here duet - Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme
Island In The Sun -Weezer
Blue Sky - The Allman Brothers Band
Stormy Monday - The Allman Brothers Band
Hungah - Karyn White
Roll On - Kid Rock
Takin' Over The World -
The Pussycat Dolls
Love @ 1st Sight - Mary J. Blige
Is She Really Going Out With Him - Sugar Ray
Baby, I Love You - Jennifer Lopez
Baby I'm In Love - Thalia

Of course, unfortunately, most of these are only available for Gold members. I wish it wasn't true, because I remember the site in the early days when everyone had access to everything, but a business can't be in business if they don't make money, and licensing songs and maintaining a huge site like Singsnap ain't cheap.

Did I mention they add songs EVERY Friday??

If you go to the Singsnap homepage, there is a feature there called " What Are They All Doing? It'sa snapshot of what's happening at that moment on SingSnap. Who logged in or out? What songs were just published? Who commented on what?

if you'd rather the whole world doesn't know what you're up to on the site, you can turn that off and go into Ninja stealth mode! Some people don't like it, but I think it's great. It helps connect people and find others to listen to. Lets you see what your friends are doing.

Every day there is a huge list of "Featured Songs", typically 500 or so songs of all genres, that when you sing one of those particular songs your song will be shown on the "Featured" page for a period of time. That way, people who are looking to see what new songs have just been added can go there and listen to your version of one of the featured songs and leave you comments if they like!

You can also click on "New" under "Watch And Listen" and all every song that has just been recorded is there for people to see.

You can also search under "Watch And Listen" by Song, Artist, Member, Playlist, or search only your favorite Snappers recordings for songs you want to listen to, or search for a song under "Record", click to record it, and underneath there is a link that says something like "See who else has performed this song".

Well, i can't tell you that, since I haven't actually used any other sites in quite a long time. I know that I, personally, like the layout and feel of the site better than any of the other sites I've seen. It's simple and kinda "old school", but it's easy to find what you're looking for and connect with other members, and the people are great! Singsnap is a community and people care and support one another.

There have been lots of couples who have met and gotten married on Singsnap, and noone is going to be rude to you there (except maybe in certain threads in the forums LOL). . Even if you can't carry a tune in a bucket, people will encourage and support you. Everyone is a rock star! Some people may not like that and may think it's fake and dishonest to tell someone they sound great or give their performance high ratings even though they're not Lady Gaga or Celine Dion or whatever, but I disagree. It's about being encouraging and supportive, and helping to boost people's confidence..How can that be bad? I don't want anyone to tell me I sound like a cat on fire, even if I do! LOL

The only other karaoke site I've tried since leaving Ksolo is Myspace Karoake, but I had to download their player (the old Ksolo player) and it messed up my sound settings so my stuff wouldn't work with Singsnap anymore, and even after I deleted it, it took quite a while to get everything working the way I wanted it to again. Nightmare! Maybe I'll check out some of the other sites and do lenses on them to compare.

Actually, you have several options to join:

Join as a Free Member
This will make you a Blue Member and let you enter the site, look around, kick the tires, record some songs, check out the message boards, maybe sing in the chatroom, do pretty much anything you like.. but with the limited access to songs and no extra features, etc , Still lots of fun though! You can be a Blue Member til the end of forever if you like, there is no limited time, and there are tons of songs to sing.

Join and sign up for the Free 10-day Trial
For this, you'll have to give them your PayPal information. I think Paypal is the only thing they accept, but you won't be charged. For 10 days you get complete access to all the songs and all the Gold features. If you don't cancel within the 10 days, you will be charged $12.00, and then $12.00 for every subsequent month until you cancel your Gold membership.

Join as a Gold Member
If you really love karaoke, know you will use the site a lot, and want access to all the features and benefits right away, you can just go ahead and sign up for Gold. I think you have sign up and create your account as a free member first, but you can then go Gold. I'd kick the tires first, just to be sure, but that's up to you. It's $12.00 a month, but there is a 6-month or a yearly option that will save you some money.

1 month = $12
6 months = $66
1 year = $120
as of 4/2011

DISCLAIMER: I am not an employee of Singsnap or in any way associated with the ownership or running of the site. I'm not an affiliate or in any way compensated by them. I am just a site member who happens to think it's really cool.