He invented karaoke, saw it take off, then walked away – Daisuke Inoue taught the world to sing, if not always in harmony
- Daisuke Inoue didn’t consider he had invented anything when he launched the karaoke machine. Last year alone he missed out on US$100 million in royalties
- But he’s not bitter, and happily tells the story of his creation – which turns 50 next year – and how it changed his life and that of millions of singers
The man who helped teach the world to sing – although not always in perfect harmony – could have earned US$100 million in royalties last year alone, but he is not bitter about missing out on the money.
Daisuke Inoue, the inventor of karaoke, shrugs when asked if he regrets not taking out a patent on his creation, which today is ubiquitous around the world.
“At the time, I thought that patents were only for unbelievable inventions that produced something from nothing,” he tells the Post, ahead of his invention’s 50th anniversary next year. “The first karaoke machine just brought together some electronic components that already existed, so I never thought it was an ‘invention’.”
While the money might have come in handy when he was younger, Inoue says it is quite possible that karaoke would never have become the global phenomenon it is today if the first Juke 8 had been patented. And, he adds, patenting it would have missed the point.
“The desire to sing is common to a majority of people, I believe, and karaoke gave them the opportunity to feel like a star,” he says. “And when I see someone singing, that’s what I think of.”
Now 80 years old and living in Nishinomiya, to the west of the Japanese city of Osaka, with his wife, daughter, three grandchildren and seven dogs, Inoue has time to reminisce about a simple idea that revolutionised popular culture.
