iKaraoke TunePrompter is a new free program from Griffin Technology for Mac or PC that lets you create your own surprisingly good karaoke videos quickly and easily.

You start by importing your favorite song. Then you type (or paste) in the song's lyrics (TunePrompter can even help you find them online). Then all you do is tap the spacebar at the beginning of each word in the song to sync the lyrics and music. The taps are shown on a timeline and you can drag them around to your heart's content, tweaking the synchronization until every syllable is exactly the way you want it.

Here's what it looks like after you've tapped:

You can import a picture and use it as a background as I've done in the picture above, or have the lyrics appear against a colored background if you prefer. You can specify the background color, as well as the font, font size, font color, font highlight color, and opacity of the background as shown here:

Preview and adjust the timings until you're satisfied, then export the video as a QuickTime movie. When you view the movie, the lyrics are animated on screen in color, just like real karaoke.

And here's what the finished product looks like:

The only complaint I had is that the program crashed a couple of times when I was trying to save a half-finished project. I hate when that happens but it only happened twice in a couple of hours of testing. Even though the program is free, caveat emptor.

The Bottom Line

iKaraoke TunePrompter is fun and easy to use, clever, cute, and free. How can you not like that?