Japanese PSP karaoke service launched

TOKYO--In Japan, would-be pop stars can now download tunes and practice singing their favorite songs through their PSPs. Taito, one of the country's major karaoke providers, today announced that it has launched a karaoke download service for the PSP on Portable TV, a Sony Web site dedicated to PSP content.

The selection of karaoke songs currently encompasses Japanese pop music, songs from popular anime shows, and TV theme songs. At this time the site offers only about 70 songs, but Taito plans to expand the available selection to more than 10,000 songs by early summer. Each of Taito's karaoke songs can be downloaded for 105 yen ($.93) and can be played back on the PSP for 15 days.