In 1971, Daisuke Inoue was working in a bar in Kobe as a keyboard and vibraphone player. He often played live music in the bar during opening hours, and especially for customer parties. A customer wanted him to perform at a party but unfortunately he couldn’t because he was too busy. In order to help out the customer, he decided to record some backup music on tape and gave it to the customer. This became the first version of the karaoke machine.
He did not patent the machine because he wanted to "teach the world to sing". Despite his idea becoming a worldwide success, he earned nothing from the billion dollar industry, and has no regrets.
This is a photo of him and the very first karaoke machine ever made.
