DIY Cheap Karaoke Set Ups for Your Next House Party

Introduction

Whether you’re an avid karaoke goer and want to bring that experience into your home or you’re currently at a house party and looking for ways to really set the night off with some ad hoc karaoke? Then read on as we show you some of the cheapest and easiest ways to set up karaoke in your home without breaking the bank.

Speakers

First things first, speakers, you can’t sing your heart out to a track if you can’t hear it. Now depending on how serious you want to go with your set up there are various options we can choose from.

The simplest solution if you have one would be to connect to your existing soundbar or surround sound system in your living room, you wont be able to really crank the volume too much as the compressor will kick it but it should just do the trick.

The better solution would be to purchase an external active speaker with an aux input, some even come with the mixer and wireless mics already built in meaning you don’t have to worry about purchasing these separately. The quality of these units isn’t anything to write home about, but they are perfect for karaoke, playing music, small conferences, and a whole bunch of other use cases.

Microphones

Now if cheap is the name of the game then it is quite possible to pick up a half decent wired microphone for as little as £8 each, they won’t be the best quality but will get the job done. If you are however feeling a little more flush you could look at a wireless microphone set up.

In our opinion wireless is always better as it will give you and your guests the freedom to freely move around room and not get tangled up in cables, the only thing you will need to remember is having an extra set of batteries on hand if the ones in the microphone eventually die.

Depending on the size of the room also you will need to take the wireless microphones range into account though for most living rooms the cheapest options are usually fine.

Karaoke Software / Hardware

For the hardware itself we are going to assume that you already have either a smart phone, tablet, laptop, or smart tv with a decent internet connection. Without these you may need to look into a standalone karaoke unit.

Spotify

Believe it or not you can somewhat use Spotify for karaoke, now this isn’t the best solution, if anything its more the MacGyver solution to karaoke but, it gets the job done.

Simply follow these steps

Search for the song you want to sing
Tap where the song is playing to make it full screen
You will see a little tab at the bottom for lyrics tap there
Tap the icon that say more to make it full screen
Bam, you have karaoke in the palm of your hand

Spotify karaoke set up

Now you’re still going to hear the singing on the track and that can’t be helped, but if you’re not looking for anything with bells and whistles on then this is the perfect solution for you.

It’s worth noting that you ideally need a subscription to Spotify for this to work seamlessly otherwise you will be plagued with advertisements between tracks which can be a real mood killer.

YouTube

YouTube have been pumping out video content since 2005 and what a lot of people don’t know is that karaoke tracks also get uploaded daily. Simply use the search bar to find your song followed by the words “karaoke track”, 9 times out of 10 they will have it.

There are a few ways you can set this up by using any one of the following.

Laptop
Computer
Smart TV
Smart Phone
Apple TV / Amazon Firestick
Tablet

Again, there are some drawbacks, as you’re probably aware YouTube makes it money from ad revenue so get used to ads popping up mid song sometimes. You can disable this by signing up to YouTube Premium for £11.99 a month.

If your event is just a one off then get the free trial for YouTube premium and just cancel your subscription at the end of the night, but you didn’t hear that from me.

KaraFun

Like the name suggests KaraFun is easily the best and most fun karaoke solution for the home currently on the market, with 50,000 tracks to currently choose from there is something for everyone. All the tracks on KaraFun are of high quality and in most cases use actual live recorded instruments rather than the polyphonic, midi sounded tracks you might find with older karaoke tracks.

Its biggest feature by far is accessibility, it works on a wide range of devices including

Laptops
Computer
Smartphone
Tablet
Apple TV
Fire TV
Android Smart TV

Meaning if you have one of these devices then you can have karaoke.

Now KaraFun doesn’t offer a free solution like YouTube or Spotify I’m afraid, but the pricing is extremely reasonable, and you don’t have to sign up for month long subscriptions if you don’t want to which makes it perfect for one off events, KaraFun currently has two pricing models.

2 Day Pass – £4.99
Monthly Subscription – £6.99 (cancel anytime)

Pricing as of 26/10/2022

If you want to purchase a license for your next party, click here and hit the subscribe button.

As well as playing karaoke tracks you also have a bunch of other features at your disposal like, changing the tempo and key of tracks, sending selfies to the system to display on screen, as well as requesting songs from your smartphone using the QR code on the screen meaning you wont have all your friends gathered around the one device to pick songs or view the catalogue.

To put it simply KaraFun is the best karaoke software on the market for house parties.

Final Thoughts

So, there you have just some of the ways you can have karaoke on the cheap at your next house party. If you are in the market for something a bit more professional The Karaoke Company offer some fantastic home hire solutions which include.