My musical aspirations are non-existent, but if you are looking to make a name for yourself with those golden pipes, and an American Idol audition is just too inconvenient, you should check out Red Karaoke.

The Madrid-based startup has recently redesigned their homepage, putting singers center stage.

Audio and videos can be uploaded from virtually any device and performances are ranked and rated by the community. Other social networking features include the ability to start your own blog, leave comments for performers and chat with other singers via instant message or forum. And by the way, I use the word singers loosely.

You can search for performances by genre, song type, and language. There are currently 17,500 free karaokes and 215,000 registered users.

“Plug & sing” technology allows users to simply plug a microphone into their PC and start recording.

Check out Drako singing “It’s My Life” in the style of Bon Jovi.

Not too shabby, eh?

The site aims to appeal to the casual karaoke-er and the dreamer. The community can rally behind you for casting auditions and advice on improving your technique.

Have you ever heard my version of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl?” Nope. And we’re gonna keep it that way – for your sake!

Then again, most people don’t have high quality microphones, making karaoke fall slightly short of an in person audition to be on the show. One thing that would be a nice addition is some sort of multi-player with video. In the meantime it’s a pretty fun way to waste sometime especially if nobody else is around. If you want to bring in more people it’s a little more challenging but still possible.

I tried it out myself and I have to say it was pretty embarrassing to see myself sitting in front of a computer singing. One thing is for sure: I’m not going to be on American Idol anytime soon. Conversely, I’ll take anybody on if you think you can sing better than me Just post a comment with the song below and I’m sure I can record a better version. Perhaps this is the beginning of online karaoke face-offs!

Would you play karaoke online? So far there are some decent singers on the site but there also aren’t many people playing as of yet. Go check out MySpace karaoke and let me know if you want to challenge me!