Karaoke is a great form of entertainment with your friends. And whether you enjoy it on an amateur level or you're an up and coming professional musician there are all kinds of free karaoke downloads available online.

First thing you need to do is understand the different file types that are available. Each is readily available and each serves its own purpose.

CD+G Disks are the most common format and the most popular form. With the CDG format the background music, lyrics, and even video are all encrypted on the CD. MP3 Tracks are a very popular form of digital music and you can find them all over the web. MIDI Tracks are very popular with professionals because there is more flexibility than with other formats. You can change the sound of instruments, remove instruments, and play with the tempo and the key.

Great but I know what you're thinking. Where do I get all those free downloads you were talking about? Not to worry read on!

1. Karaoke 5
Is a Karaoke MIDI and MP3 manager and it plays all .kar and .mid files. You can create your own Karaoke bases and then synchronize the lyrics.

2. GoSing Karaoke Player
Is a complete player that is compatible with all the file formats and it will let you open zip files too. You can personalize your tracks by changing and editing as much as you want.

3. Karaoke Midi Files
Miles and miles of free downloads here.

4. Vanbasco Karaoke Player
It might be free but it is professional and you can get it right every time.

5. Mikey Karaoke
This is a great place to store your karaoke library and you can convert to MIK or KAR file format.

6. Karaoke & Lyrics Central
Here you can find all kinds of downloads and all your favorite tunes.

7. MP3 Karaoke Player
This is a very cool player with complete playlist management and it's free. Now that's a deal!

8. MidiMaster Karaoke 3.5
You can play both karaoke and midi files and it will highlight the lyrics as they scroll so you can easily follow along. This program lets you adjust the key, temp, and it has a host of other features.

9. Easy Karaoke Player
You can record your karaoke as wav files and you can play them. You can play all types of multimedia files and you can record while you sing. Nice simple program to use.

10. PowerKaraoke
Is a CD+G karaoke mastering tool that lets you import any KAR or MIDI song and you can even create from scratch. It's got plenty of options that let you create the perfect CDG track.

11. JukeBox'er 3.7
This is the perfect jukebox system for home! It can play any type of track you want for those home parties. And it allows you to choose your favorite songs on the run. It also has the CD burner and CDDB function.

12. Lyred PRO
This is a lyric and karaoke editor and it has better tag support than most. You can print your lyric books and even your covers. All kinds of freebees here and the registered version has more than 150,000 lyrics to choose from.

13. KaraWin
This is a multi purpose package with jukebox and the ability to create. It gives you everything you need to make those perfect karaoke cd's.

Of course this is just a few of the free karaoke downloads online but it's a great place to start and you can discover others over time. Are you ready for your next karaoke night?