Karaoke Forums

If true, then I won't be "sleeping on a cloud" as my best friend Alan puts it. I don't spend that much in new music monthly to justify it.



But we have heard this over and over. Chartbuster had a streaming service. Heck you can get karaoke on You Tube free. Bars try it with that cheap college student, it fails, and they end up getting a real KJ with personality.



Many will try, but we have heard this tune before.

OH...and might I point out that the MAJORITY that hated the idea in the other poll, have changed their tune when given different pricing options. Proving my point that it's not about the concept...but how much it costs.

I find it funny that people think they're so good that they can't be replaced. EVERYONE is replaceable, even Joe Chartreuse. If the cloud is all about price then why can't hiring you be about price too? Down here in my area price is a big deal and bars regularly try to get people who will work for $50 or $75. They don't care. They just want cheap entertainment, it doesn't even have to be good.

I've been to Karaoke shows that the host wasn't very good, didn't have a good personality and some that I thought stunk. Apparently quite a few places don't care. We have talented musicians here in this area who work for $75-$100 a night. People who can play an instrument AND sing at the same time. I consider that to be a higher talent than announcing "hey, that was Dave, give it up for Dave, Gail is next, come on up here Gail".

I find it funny that people who host Karaoke have this exalted idea of how great they are and how talented they are. It's not rocket science. What made Karaoke hosts special was that they had all of this Karaoke music and a sound system and they would cart it in and cart it out every night.

Now, or soon, any little bar or restaurant will be able to compete with the big Karaoke library that took years and tens of thousands to develop. If as Lonman said previously that most venues don't want to deal with having their own sound system, then that's a plus for the KJs. But I've been to several venues that have a built in sound system and when the band or KJ or whatever is done for the night, they flip a switch and the house sound system comes on. If they can have it and do it then any venue can install a house sound system.

Maybe I'm chicken little and the sky really isn't falling, only time will tell.

one of the places out here started using that, the only time there is just jukebox music playing is durring the 9-5 work day. after about 6:00, it is karaoke packed until closing 7 nights a week. craziness i tell you. getting your (@$%&#!) handed to you by a $1.00/song computer stuck on the wall.

_________________
Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Anyone who selected anything but the last choice in the poll above is only helping to put yourself out of a job. You people just can't see the big picture, can you?

_________________
Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

And what of those of us that haven't selected any of the choices?

-Chris

_________________
-Chris

If you want to stay in business, your only choice should be the last one.

_________________
Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Bazza my good buddy, how are you today? How was your evening? Did you sleep well? Are you eating healthy? Fine, Fine.

Have you noitced that the majority, once again, would not pay ANY price for the cloud?! Have you noticed that the majority do NOT want it?! They are the smart ones. They are the ones that can see the "Big" picture.

Bazza my friend, I'm sure you have to agree with me that if the cloud comes to pass at ANY price, it could be the beginning of the end for KJ's. A subscription at ANY price could only hurt KJ's and put them out of business. KJ's will be hurt by this, venues will love it and profit by it and won't need KJ's anymore. So, the only one who will benifit from it are venues who subscribe to it.

Think about it, even at $199 per month, a venue can easily pay that and have karaoke every single day, 7 days a week and have one of their employees run it. Their cost: less then $7 dollars a day to do karaoke. No need to hire a KJ anymore now is there?

I hope everyone can see how this can hurt us all. So Please, Do Not Buy Into The Cloud. It is NOT your friend.

_________________
Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Alan, the big money to Digitrax will come with adoption of their service by home users. One or two million subscribers at $9.95 per month is big money compared to a couple or a few hundred thousand per month revenue for venues and KJs. If I were them I would focus on the mass consumer audience and even bundle their service with other multimedia services(s). The money is in the mass market, think about how many people there are in the US compared to how many venues and KJs there are.

Imagine if they sold it to cable companies for $3-$5 per subscriber month? The future of interactive media is going to be BIG. I did a sweet 16 party a couple of months ago and on the back patio they had a wii set up. Those teenagers LOVED it. This type of entertainment is going to grow IMO.

To a point I have to agree with you. It does make it easy for new KJs to start up, for pirate to wipe the slate clean, and for venues to do their own karaoke with much less time devoted behind the scenes.

However, as we all know it's not all about who has the biggest or most diverse selection. That is only one part of it.

Last night I hosted a show, I haven't updated my music (other than on my KJMP) for over six months. No one is complaining that I don't have the new music coming out. I'm hesitant on investing any more money on CDGs or any other source until a few things fall out including this cloud, the KJMP and anything else that pops up with Latshaw etc.

My show last night was very successful. I only host this show about once a month now but the place was packed, I felt I did a great job mixing (give myself an A-), I was interactive with the crowd including going out into the crowd singing and sitting/standing next to audience members allowing them to help me sing the chorus, setting the atmosphere with my announcements and a bit of clowning around at the right time. The place was packed in this little bar in a little town and at the end of the night the door wasn't big enough to get them all out in a timely manner, quite the bottleneck at the door actually. Once I finished tearing down, the owner gave me a $50 tip and told me over and over (literally) that he is going to miss me when I go to Canada.

I don't care how cheap the cloud is or how many songs/manus it offers, a venue can't do what I do for a show. I'm sure there are many KJs that are better than me.


One last thing, I STILL think the cloud should be a per song rental. Those that have big libraries shouldn't have to pay the same monthly fee as newbies/pirates/former pirates/venues. But when it is all said and done, if I see the cloud as making my life easier and my business more profitable, I will try it.

For the KJ that brings the total package to the table, the cloud is only going to give them door dings from a competitive advantage standpoint.

_________________
KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Even though you do an excellent job hosting your show, many bar owners are just too cheap to care. They want cheap entertainment. And that's why if the cloud becomes available to these cheap bastards, I can almost gaurantee they would rather pay $99 for a month of karaoke than $99 to a KJ for one night.

Now, not all venue owners are cheap. Some actually realize the benifits of hiring a professional entertainer and what they can do for their business. But unfortunately, many do not...or just don't care.

In any case, this is why the cloud should not be made available for commercial use via a subscription. I see too many negatives, including an increase in piracy and KJ's going out of business.

I just hope that CompuHost gets it together....and soon!

_________________
Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Correction: The cloud should be a per song purchase.

_________________
Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Sorry, it was late.

_________________
Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

The reality of this seems to be that this CAN be damaging to KJs--the dying breed of first generation KJs using deteriorating discs, most of which are out of production and are disappearing pretty quickly. Without a move like this, it might be hard to sustain another generation of KJs...

I believe that it can only be damaging to those KJ's that are cattle-calling-button-pushers.... because there is no "entertainment value" in a club run that way. The "entertainment" in that case IS "the songs" and really nothing more. These will be the first to be replaced with automation.

If you have a club where the KJ is not only entertaining, but has built and developed strong customer loyalties, even a "free cloud" won't unseat them because a good portion of the "entertainment" is coming from the host and not just the novelty of the music. This is why you can have a huge library, monstrous sound system and still lose out to a host with a small library and mediocre sound who knows how to capture and keep an audience.

Exactly. We heard the same cries when the GEM set came out. OMG! You can get an entire set for pennies per song! This will put us all out of business! The market will be flooded!

If it was simply about quantity for the lowest price, Every bar would buy a Sweet Georgia Brown set off eBay and be done with it. Hasn't happened.

Tha'ts not what I was saying or meaning, that would be the KJMP way.

I'm talking about the cloud in it's current proposed method and the customer (KJs) not owning the songs. I'm saying if they are going to offer the cloud, and we pay a fee to "use" their songs, instead of a monthly fee, it's a fee per song. I'd pay 20 cents per song. With my established library I would probably only use a couple a night starting out. A newby would have to buy 60 per night which is $12.20 a night or a couple hundred a month for a venue that has karaoke 5 days a week in a month. I'd much rather do this than have to pay the same monthly fee as said newby. So again, I say per song rental.

_________________
KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

I hear the sucking sound of corporate elites in yet another industry...

Jon