The first karaoke machine was invented by Japanese musician Daisuke Inoue in 25th May 1971 however Inoue admits to not creating the name “karaoke”.

He suggested visitors of the bar where he worked to sing their favourite songs to the backing tracks recorded beforehand.

The word karaoke is a portmanteau of shortened versions of the words for empty (kara) and orchestra (oke), creating karaoke, or “empty orchestra”. This poetic phrase well describes what are simply music tracks, shorn of their lead vocals. It is in those empty places that the magic – or, let’s be honest, the train wreck – happens. In those spaces, amateur singers of all levels are able to sing lead on their favorite songs, with the full backing of that “empty orchestra” (カラオケ).

Daisuke Inoue founded a company that produced 11 karaoke machines. These devices consisted of a car stereo system, an amplifier and a coinbox. Today, a karaoke system is a much more technological device. Daisuke Inoue leased released the karaoke machines to café and restaurants. The cost of the performance of 1 song was 100 yen.

Daisuke Inoue did not patent the machine and so did not directly profit, but he continued to work in the industry it generated, including patenting a pesticide for karaoke machines. Named one of Time magazine's "Most Influential Asians of the Century" in 1999 "check out the article", he was awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 "check out the video" and in 2005 was the subject of the Japanese biographical film Karaoke "check out this link".