The Karaoke Forum

Sorry your bar bit the bullet, Big Dog. Keep an eye on the building, maybe you'll pick up a gig fromthe next owners. I just agreed to a tiered-pay system for a new Tuesday show at my Saturday night bar, basically half-pay until we hit a certain pricepoint, then fullpay, then an extra $25 if one high...

If you go through my posts in this thread, you will learn the many unique things I do to keep interest in my shows high. Even so, there is always one slow night out of the three or four I run each week. Its frustrating. Recently, I added a bright red prop guitar to the proceedings...its a real fende...

Hi singers! Ready for your own club-quality system at home? Today's laptop-based systems are great for home use just like pro use, and can go anywhere easily too. But good ol' karaoke disc and traditional players can be a wise choice for many home karaoke lounge planners, have their own vinyl party-...

Has anyone had any experience with the KARAOKENOW! smartphone app offered by Tricerasoft? It is basically a way to purchase (not rent or stream) songs off your smartphone which may then be transferred to your computer or SD card- enabled karaoke player. Since smartphones have a microSD, an SD adapte...

My state of NC went smoke-free 13 months ago, and it it didn't hurt the barbsiness as much as the other factors we all lament - the recession, DUI roadblocks. But it hurts the room nonetheless as up to a third of my crowd can be gone at any given time, smoking outside. These are people who are missi...

Ok, so how do you handle it besides hopin' and copin'? I will sometimes shuffle play a video right afer im to give the crowd some guaranteed relief.

Hard to break into but one in the gig can last for years thx to inertia, but conversely mgt. and thus the people u deal with can change often, the help can be anywhere from indifferent to openly hostile and/or derisive to karaoke, even so far as talking down about it to the customers. environment ca...

Work the room during sporting events, but make sure you approach people during the commercials, and make your announcements over the PA during the commercials. Instead of sitting around with your regulars waiting for the game to end, hand out some flyers, slips and pens and see if you can't get some...

Posted about this on a different thread but applies here too...90s tech leapfrogs over songbooks AND kiosks. Send them an email with your books and updates as oldtimey PDF attachments right to their smartphones!!! They frickin LOVE IT. They will forward it to everyrone at their table. They will forw...

I buy the Chartbuster TOP 50 COUNTRY and TOP 50 POP semi-annually, giving me 200 new songs per year from Chartbuster, almost always good quality. I get 12 discs total per year for about 150 bucks and back up to SD card or flashdrive off my 4X speed rackmount player. I cant afford to buy three $20 mo...

by the way, i still encourage/appreciate slips and still use them for random giveaway drawings "the more you sing the more chances to win" people can just tell me but if they dont fillout a slip that song is not an entry. pretty soon most of them give me slips. When i get home I post the f...

Since I last posted on this thread ALOT of my singers have switched to smartphones obviously. I don't have a smartphone yet but i encourage singers to send me emails on theirs and when I get to my office computer I email them my songbooks TITLE & ARTIST and UPDATE LIST. They are the absolute shi...

Just as many bars have karaoke as always but i think the price is dropping...two hundred dollar gigs are mostly gone and some KJs, usually the bootleg craptoppers, are even going under the $100 barrier. Keep in mind, sound guys dont even rent out small systems for less than $100 and here you've got ...

Staff at clubs with food are trained to refill for free, that's the nature of the business. At non-food bars, the bartenders will sometimes refill for free in unspoken return for greater tips. Either way the night's take is down and it makes the karaoke look bad. So I often coach mgts about the need...

Right now I use two banks of four american dj leds, about $70 each, they go to the music, are lightwight and store in a little leather suitcase. very cool. a bit of oundactivated, plus candles, goes along way...trust me...