A birthday party at home is the Montreal classic: the living room of a Plateau apartment, the finished basement of a Laval bungalow, the backyard of a Rosemont duplex or the shared party room of a Verdun condo tower. With a karaoke machine delivered and set up, the evening almost runs itself. Here is what to know about renting a karaoke machine for a birthday in Montreal, from choosing the package to the moment the driver leaves.
The right package for the space
For a private residence, the Home Superstar package is the one we recommend: up to 20 guests, a speaker, two microphones, a party light and 67,000+ songs. It plugs into your TV, so no extra screen is needed. Details are on the Home package page.
A condo party room is not a private residence, and that is where the Event packages come in. Event Basic brings its own 22-inch screen; Event Superstar adds wireless microphones, deluxe lights and an 80-inch projector, handy in a big condo party room in Verdun or Brossard. Both take up to 40 guests and are compared on the Event packages page.
Living room, basement, backyard or party room
The living room or the basement
A triplex living room works fine, even in a small apartment: a corner for the speaker, the TV as the screen, and guests singing from the couch. The finished basement is the favourite for family parties in Laval, on the South Shore and in the West Island: less noise for the neighbours and room to dance.
The backyard or the balcony
In summer, a backyard or a duplex's big back balcony makes a great party. You need a covered spot, a power outlet within reach and dry weather, because the equipment cannot sit out in the rain. Keep an indoor plan B if the forecast is undecided.
The condo party room
Book the room through your condo board and read the rules: end time, guest count, deposit. If the building requires it, reserve the elevator or freight elevator for the delivery and tell us in the booking notes, along with the name to give the security desk if there is one. Also check that the room's Wi-Fi has no login page; if it does, a phone hotspot does the job.
TV, Wi-Fi and the upstairs neighbours
The Home package connects to your TV with the cables included. You need one or two power outlets and a Wi-Fi connection: the home network or a phone hotspot. Between songs, play your own music from Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube.
On noise, Montreal is a city of plexes, and the neighbours upstairs and downstairs hear everything. The most Montreal solution: invite them. Otherwise, warn them the day before and turn it down past a certain hour. The speaker has a volume control, and karaoke is still fun at medium volume. In a condo, the building's rules set the noise curfew; in a house in Boucherville or Pointe-Claire, it is more about common sense and the neighbour over the fence.
Delivery, setup and what the driver does
Choose a morning (10 am to 1 pm) or afternoon (1 pm to 5 pm) delivery window. The driver confirms the exact time the week of the party. They carry the equipment in, set it up, run a sound test and show you how it works. They come back for it at the arranged time, usually the next day, so there is no teardown on the night.
Two typically Montreal details to put in the booking notes: the outdoor spiral staircase up to a second floor on the Plateau or in Villeray, which the driver would rather know about in advance, and parking, if it is tricky on your street. To keep the machine an extra day, say for the whole weekend, it is $99 per extra day on the Home package. Book online up to six months ahead and no less than two days before.
Kids, adults and song picks from their phones
No host, no song binder: everyone searches for their songs on their own phone and adds them to the queue, which shows on the screen. Kids get the idea in thirty seconds. For a child's birthday, save the karaoke for a one-hour block after the cake, when the energy peaks, and let the parents close with a duet. For a 40th or a 50th, the evening runs itself: Québécois classics, 80s and 90s hits, and the songs the birthday girl has been singing since high school.
The catalogue holds 67,000+ songs, mostly English and French, with Spanish, Italian, Korean and other languages too, which suits a Montreal family. During the rental, phone support is available, and a replacement is sent if a fault cannot be fixed remotely.
Ready to book? Enter your address in the availability checker: the delivery fee, from $29, shows right away, for a Villeray apartment or a house in Repentigny. The delivery areas page gives approximate driving times, and online booking takes a few minutes.