The Singing Machine attends “successful” Consumer Electronics Tradeshow in Las … – Proactive Investors USA & Canada
Karaoke machine maker The Singing Machine (OTCBB:SMDM) said Monday it attended the 2012 Consumer Electronics Tradeshow (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month, meeting with both current and potential customers, and officially debuting its 4TV product.
Each year, CES attracts national and international attention as most major consumer electronics companies come together to unveil their newest technologies.
This year, The Singing Machine officially introduced the Singing Machine 4TV – the industry’s first home karaoke machine to support digital karaoke downloads in MP3+G format.
The 4TV product also offers other industry firsts, including a USB microphone/remote-control and interactive user interface to govern users’ karaoke experience.
The machine is additionally compatible with traditional CD+G discs, and allows users to download songs to a flash-drive, making for a less complicated user experience.
VP of worldwide sales and marketing, Bernardo Melo, said: “CES was an excellent success this year.
“There has been plenty of buzz surrounding performance-based entertainment this year and there remains excitement and exuberance across the home karaoke category. We’re hopeful that this trend will keep growing.”
Indeed, this trend was observed in the course of the company’s successful holiday season.
Sales on last year’s Black Friday, called the day after the Thanksgiving holiday within the U.S. and the beginning of the vacation shopping season, met internal expectations for the karaoke machine maker.
The Singing Machine participated in Black Friday promotions with various retailers together with Toys ‘R’ Us, Target (), Kohl’s (), and likewise saw record Black Friday sales at Wal-Mart.com (), and during online retailers like ().
The company, whose karaoke machines, accessories, karaoke music downloads, and musical instruments are sold under the brands of Singing Machine and Sound X, made an approximate $1.3 million in sales on Black Friday alone.
The company, which emerged from bankruptcy in 1998 and underwent a restructuring in 2004, has come far.
In 2009, it launched its online karaoke music download business through a partnership with content provider Stingray Digital, and have become the 1st karaoke company to supply legal karaoke downloads, with a variety of greater than 8,000 titles.
The business is 51 percent owned by an outsized manufacturing company in China, named Starlight, who acquired the stake in 2007. The company’s products are actually featured across 1,800 stores around the US, with plans to expand its presence abroad. It entered the vacation season with distribution through approximately 10,000 retail stores throughout North America.
In 2011, the company’s stock at the OTC Bulletin Board greater than doubled.