Thanks to him, fans change their tunes

Jack Strauser's Largo business makes millions distributing the latest in karaoke machines and CDs.

By ERIC STIRGUS

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 6, 2000

LARGO -- Meet Jack Strauser: karaoke crusader.

Strauser spends almost half the year away from home, at industry trade shows and in meetings with karaoke equipment manufacturers.

Just don't ask him to sing; he claims he's not good at it.

Tucked away in an office park off 126th Avenue, Strauser runs ProSing, believed to be the country's largest distributor of karaoke party machines and compact discs.

The company was created 10 years ago in Chicago, a joint effort between Strauser and his brother, Jimmy. Strauser, 43, who moved the company to Largo in 1998 after his brother had sold his share in the business to manage professional wrestlers with names like "The Big Show," expects to net about $15-million this year.

"It just exploded," Strauser said of the company's success.

And so has the karaoke industry, where people sing their favorite songs to background music, usually at parties or bars and nightclubs. About 2-million people listen to or sing with karaoke music each month, according to Karaoke Singer magazine. The industry generates about $500-million a year, according to some estimates. Some area bars hold nightly competitions. Last month, ProSing sponsored a national competition in which the winner got $10,000 and a record contract. American Bandstand legend Dick Clark hosted the competition in 1998.

A karaoke CD with the latest top 40 hits costs about $30, nearly twice as much as a regular CD. Karaoke CDs contain a coding chip that transfers song lyrics to a television screen for the singer to read.

With microphone in hand, some singer wannabes perform in bars and nightclubs as often as four times a week.

"It's almost like a religion to a lot of people," said Greg Tutwiler, managing editor of Karaoke Singer.

Some waited 21/2 hours to belt out their favorite tune Thursday at Mugs "N Jugs, a sports bar at the southwest corner of 66th Street and 142nd Avenue in Largo. Favorite artists among karaoke enthusiasts include Kid Rock, the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

"I don't think I can sing that great, but I think I can hold my own," said Melody Keith, 21, of St. Petersburg, who sings with her friends at Mugs 'N Jugs every Monday night. "I just go there for the fun of it."

With any successful business comes those hoping to take advantage. In the case of karaoke, it's bootlegging. Strauser believes he loses at least $2-million a year from the illegal reproduction of karaoke CDs.

Like many pop music stars, ProSing was not an overnight hit. In fact, Strauser said that at one point, he wasn't sure ProSing would survive.

Strauser has spent much of his adult life selling the idea of success to others. A framed poster on the wall in the company cafeteria advises people to "Believe and Succeed." Strauser sold mail order self-help guides and wrote books on the subject, including INVEST IN Yourself, his 1991 book that bears his picture with the image of a $100 bill in the upper right-hand corner of the paperback.

In 1990, Strauser's brother came to him with an idea for a new venture. While singing in Chicago bars, Jimmy Strauser saw that people were singing to the background music of their favorite songs. In most cases, the people on stage didn't care whether they could sing or not; what was important was having a good time.

But Strauser knew that there were many more people who believed deep down that they could sing as well, if not better, than Garth Brooks or Whitney Houston.

So Strauser had a plan: sell them the equipment they would need to sing at a bar or nightclub. You never know, Strauser suggested. A record executive could be sitting in the audience the night you're on stage, ready to sign you up.

Strauser laid out the idea in newspaper ads, hoping to hook aspiring singers. Initially, karaoke, Japanese for "empty orchestra," did not catch on.

"It was a very slow, gradual growth because we had to educate people on a new concept," Strauser recalled. "It was a struggle because it was costing us so much money to find customers."

Strauser offered discounts to his regulars, encouraging them to sell their equipment to others.

By 1996, business was booming. The newer customers called ProSing, asking for the latest karaoke CDs. Karaoke retail stores started popping up across the country.

Disc jockeys, known in the karaoke world as KJs, were getting steady work at bars and nightclubs and needed the latest tunes for their collections.

In 1998, Strauser moved the company to Largo. Strauser had graduated from Eckerd College and still had family in the area. Thirty-five employees, most of them taking telephone orders for CDs, work out of the headquarters on Enterprise Boulevard.

Thousands of CDs and karaoke machines are stored in a 29,000-square-foot warehouse on the premises.

With an estimated $13-million in profits last year, ProSing is probably the largest karaoke distributor in the country, said Tutwiler.

Although karaoke manufacturers and distributors do not have complete figures, they believe counterfeiting costs their industry untold millions each year.

Strauser joined with others in the industry to create an organization dedicated to end pirating, called Stop Pirating Internationally Now.

He pays monthly dues of $1,000. The organization hired a private eye who crisscrosses the country in searchof counterfeit karaoke CDs in nightclubs and bars.

Despite the counterfeiting problems, ProSing continues to flourish.

Six months ago, Strauser treated himself to a turquoise 1999 Mercedes Benz convertible. The license plate? "PROSING," of course.

"That is my one toy," said Strauser, who said he always wanted a convertible.

Although Strauser has made a pretty good living persuadingothers to sing, he refuses to venture to the stage and perform.

"I don't sing because I don't have the time to practice," he said. "My voice would clear the bar."

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