Welcome to my site! This is a fansite I created to explain and share information about the hardware related to Sega’s fairly successful venture into the Karaoke business from the mid-90s through mid-2000s. This site is currently a work in progress, and information is scarce about much of the hardware and their use online. Most everything here has been learned over the last several years spending time to complete a fully functional setup and through trial and error use. I am very interested in any official documentation that may exist at this point. If you see any information you believe to be incorrect or know anything that should be added, please let me know by sending me an email at segasteve0429@gmail.com
Karaoke In Japan
Karaoke is a fairly prominent social pastime in Japan. Until the early 1990s, accessibility to new songs at karaoke establishments in Japan was restricted to how quickly new physical media could be delivered, and physically installed and set up with the machines. With the dawn of the internet, a new possibility appeared. 1992 saw the release of Taito’s X2000 and Xing’s Joysound online karaoke machines, which could connect to a server over telephone lines to download new music near instantaneously. Soon after, there was seemingly a rush by many companies within Japan to capitalize on the possibility of taking significant market share for karaoke equipment. 1994 and 1995 saw a number of companies release online karaoke machines. Daiichikosho, Pioneer, Nikkodo, Toei, Victor, Usen, and several others all released new machines in this timeframe, all competing for market share of this emerging niche.
This same timeframe, Sega decided to try it’s hand in the karaoke business. The Saturn was in development, and it was decided that as it had great sound capabilities and to reduce costs, would be the basis of the resulting Karaoke machine. Teaming up with several other companies that likely all felt they wouldn’t make a big enough splash in the soon to be crowded market on their own, Sega Music Networks was founded with major investments from Sega, CSK, and NEC, and in cooperation with Taikan and Clarion. Several other notable names would be seen at points in production, to include Roland, Nippon Columbia, Hitachi, and Marantz.
Released in late 1994, the Prologue 21 line of karaoke equipment, also known as SegaKara, was quickly a hit. Manufactured through 1998, roughly 40,000 Prologue 21 “Commander” units were manufactured and distributed throughout Japan for commercial use. Sega Music Networks released an unsuccessful successor in 2005, the Candoone, and was later sold to BMB in 2007. the Candoone was quickly discontinued, and Prologue 21 shut down soon after in early 2008. This would be inconvenient for equipment meant to connect to an online service for data, so several MIDI discs were available that would contain most of SMN’s song library that could be installed in the locally accessible changer. Some level of service for existing equipment remained though, as what was left of SMN was still replacing hard drives when they failed through at least 2017, as indicated by the date on a service tag inside one of my units.
SEGA Prologue 21 