Karaoke discs are specially formatted discs that have lyrics and music. There are two major karaoke disc formats: VCD and CD+G. CD+G discs are mainly audio CDs, having extra lyric data. They can be played on a CD player, though the images are low in quality. VCD or "Video CD" can support MPEG-compressed video of high quality. This format, while popular in Asia, has some catching up to do here in America. There are also DVDs and karaoke laser discs. With formats that can support video, video clips specially made for karaoke usually accompany the songs. Karaoke discs (VCD, CD+G and Karaoke DVD) are in multiplex or non-multiplex formats. Multiplex possesses vocal demos for every song, giving the user the choice of listening to the track with or without vocals. The user can eliminate the vocal demos by using the "multiplex function" or "vocal remove" button on the karaoke player. Non-multiplex format comes without the vocals.

It is important to note that karaoke tracks are not original songs but rather their recreation. Karaoke songs are re-recorded with the objective of sounding as similar as possible to the original track. Multiplex disc formats do not have the original artist featured.

Also, these discs come with background singers, generally for the chorus. The background singers cannot be removed.

In America, karaoke can be enjoyed in different settings. Karaoke bars charge a fee per song of $1 to $2, and there are suites where a private room can be rented and used for as long as desired. The fee varies from an hourly rate to a flat rate for the room. There are also home karaoke machines, where one can enjoy karaoke in the privacy of their home. These machines can be purchased for less then $100, with discs costing $10 to $20.