Chinese consumers sing the praises of the TeslaMic, which launched on Friday and sold out within minutes, crashing the website to boot.
Talk about singing the praises of a new product.
Chinese consumers on Friday gave a massive sitting ovation to Tesla’s (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report‘s latest hot accessory, the TeslaMic, a wireless microphone that allows Tesla users to convert their electric car into a mobile karaoke machine.
The TeslaMic, which Austin-based Tesla launched on Friday at a price of $188 a pop on its official Chinese website, sold out within minutes of its release. The microphones work with a Tesla software update also released Friday in China that includes karaoke tracks and videos.
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The new product was so popular that the Tesla webpage to order it from reportedly crashed for many hopeful Chinese karaoke fans. It was introduced as part of Tesla’s ‘Chinese New Year’ software update.
The TeslaMic “provides you with a mobile private karaoke room, allowing you to wander the sea of music and sing to your heart’s content,” according to a description on the company’s website. A video on Tesla’s official social media account shows a young couple, each holding a TeslaMic, singing a Chinese ballad called “Little Happiness.”
Tesla Takes on Karaoke
With the release of its V10 software in 2019, Tesla launched a new in-car ‘Caraoke’ feature to its vehicles, which plays a limited list of songs with lyrics appearing on the car’s center display.
Missing, though, were Tesla-made and branded wireless mics to belt out tunes in stereo — and that look and feel like an actual Tesla product.
Tesla is not the first carmaker to offer a kitch-yet-popular singing option in its cars. Chinese EV makers such as Warren Buffett -backed BYD Co (BYDDF) and Xpeng (XPEV) – Get Xpeng Inc Report also have been heavily advertising their karaoke offerings, which include software that simulates the experience of singing in a karaoke bar.
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Source: Tesla
Belting out tunes on the road is nothing new – since the car radio was first introduced en masse in 1930, hitting the open road and listening to music have gone hand in hand.
Singing along to the words and tempo of Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline,’ however, is not something Tesla or any other carmaker is encouraging while driving. On the contrary, the car-turned-karaoke option is only available when the car is in park.
Indeed, Tesla’s full karaoke system with video is designed to be used by people sitting in a Tesla car when it isn’t moving, substituting for a karaoke booth after a day of travel or during a break on the road, according to Tesla.
The company gave no indication whether the feature might be available in self-driving mode.
Is the TeslaMic Coming to the U.S.?
Tesla’s karaoke-singing couple is indeed very much stationary when singing along to “Little Happiness,” safely parked at a camp site.
TeslaMic is currently only available in China, though the electric carmaker has reportedly expanded its U.S. trademark to audio products, according to Electrek — a sign that Tesla may be preparing to launch the TeslaMic in other markets.
Source: Tesla
Karaoke is a hugely popular hobby in many Asian countries, and it has gained in popularity in China over the last decade, with the mainland now reportedly having over 50,000 karaoke venues.
It’s not exactly a pariah in the U.S. either. The market size of the karaoke bar industry in the U.S. was reportedly forecast to reach $1.12 billion last year, though the number of businesses in the karaoke bar industry in the U.S. has been on the decline over the last decade and reached an all-time low in 2020 — for obvious reasons.
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