📋 Overview
Karaoke Smash was an AI-powered parody song generator. Give it any topic — "my cat keeps knocking things off tables," "the printer in our office," "Monday morning existential dread" — pick a popular song, and it generates custom parody lyrics that match the original's rhythm, syllable count, and rhyme scheme. The lyrics were designed to be singable, not just clever on paper.
💡 Context
Started as a game my girlfriend and I came up with — we'd challenge each other to make up parody lyrics on the spot during karaoke. Graf, Nino, and I turned it into a real product. We reached a positive CAC-to-LTV ratio and were about to scale it with influencer Joey Kalico when we engaged a lawyer, realized our understanding of copyright law was incomplete, and spent two months pitching to Sony, WMG, and others. They passed, and we decided to cut our losses and move on.
🛠 Tech Stack
🎯 Role
Built with Graf (Jacob Grafenstein) and Nino (Giannino Lusic). Collaborative build — prompt engineering for the lyric generation, UX for quick topic-to-parody flow.
✨ Key Highlights
- Reached positive CAC-to-LTV ratio before scaling
- Randy Eckhardt (Guitar Hero's licensing lead) loved it and offered to help
- Pitched to Sony, WMG, and other major labels
- Learned firsthand how music copyright actually works (the hard way)
- Shut down after labels passed — cut losses and moved on
Karaoke Smash
This project has been taken offline, but it was a blast while it lasted. 🎤