The Sound Choice/Phoenix Story

More than 30 years ago, before the word “karaoke” was widely known in the U.S., Kurt Slep and his brother began a new business centered on making high-quality re-recorded versions of popular songs. Their goal was simple: To make the very best accompaniment music so that everyone who wanted to could sing along to their favorite songs.

The Slep brothers’ dedication to quality was relentless. They called their product “Sound Choice,” and an entertainment phenomenon was born.

In time, the Sound Choice brand became known for one thing: the very best karaoke accompaniment tracks available—the most authentic reproductions of the sound of the original song, the most accurate singing cues, and the most correct lyric displays. Sound Choice karaoke CDs were a little more expensive than other brands, but karaoke professionals and fans knew that the extra cost was worth it.

Between 1987 and 2010, Sound Choice recorded and released more than 16,500 karaoke tracks. But by 2009, it became clear that doing business the old way wasn’t going to work anymore. Thousands of karaoke professionals were using Sound Choice tracks to make money without paying anything.

That’s not fair. And after less drastic means failed to stop the problem, Sound Choice reluctantly looked to the courts for help. Litigation has kept the company alive, but piracy marches on.

But in the course of that litigation, we discovered something about the Sound Choice brand that surprised us just a little. Our investigators go out to karaoke shows to gather information for litigation. Even today, those investigators report that the dominant brand of music used in actual karaoke shows is still Sound Choice, even though we haven’t made any new music since 2010. (Of course, Sound Choice tracks are still available through the fantastic GEM series.)

That’s real staying power. It speaks to the quality that the Slep brothers set out to accomplish. And what it means is that the Sound Choice brand will remain strong for years to come.

In 2015, we reorganized the company as Phoenix Entertainment Partners, LLC, but under the same management. Unfortunately in order to survive, we had to focus on litigation. While these efforts were successful, it was not what we really wanted to do, and certainly our loyal customers preferred that we get back to doing what we did best – make karaoke tracks. So, in 2018, we returned to the studio for the first time in eight years. It took a long time, but when we finally began to release new tracks, we were right back into the same quality “groove” since we used most of the same engineers and musicians. Now we have to slowly rebuild the licensing relationships with writers and publishers in order to produce more tracks.

As we get our production slowly ramped back up, all you’ll have to do is sing along to understand why nobody does it better than we do.

Sound Choice: America’s Favorite Karaoke Brand.