Karaoke Forums

Ok so our books are too big for their britches we have a 3 inch binder book & its too small now..we got 4 inch ones but they arent staying shut.Any ideas on what to do next ? Our employee likes the idea of paper books (no page protectors) bound with plastic spiraling. I say the first time a beer gets spilled on it that it would be ruined. Our thoughts were laminating each page then spiraling. Id like to hear your ideas.

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Kelley
Star Sounds Karaoke & Mobile Recording Studio


[shadow=black][scroll]You have to respect your audience. Without them, you're essentially standing alone, singing to yourself....KD Lang[/scroll][/shadow]

What about a slightly smaller font? Just dropping down just one size will save a bunch of pages if you have that many songs. Of course you don't want to get too small.

Maybe separate books for "By Artist" and "By Title"?

Wish I had that problem. 1" book holds mine nicely for now.

I would (and have) definitely go with splitting Artist & Title. Smaller fonts would work, but bar patrons' "late night dyslexia" will end up sending them to you for info rather than looking in the book if the font is too small. I use a 12 font and even this can cause difficulty.

As for binding, I would stick with laminated or sheet protected pages over straight paper. Their easy clean surfaces not only give a more professional look, but don't give people "the grimies" to handle. This goes double if you do private events, where appearance is even more important. One may get away with a so-so looking book on a bar, but not on a banquet table.

They may cost more initially, but long life and good looks will save in the long run from having to replace them so often- hence, actually a money SAVER.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

1 1/2' binder for about 13k karaoke.. Dual column 130 paqes. The inserts dont mean anything I also use concert ticket stubs or cover photos of artists.

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my library is the result of about ten years of work. For 3 or 4 years I was buying THM monthly and pruning to about 13k. I worked for years getting rid of typos, dups and pruning a library for popularity and not quantity.
Kjamp puts into PDF files and I print both sides of a sheet odd and even. This saves sheets and is less bulky and not as much weight,

You can get a monochrome laser printer at Office Depot for about $125. Get a spare toner cartridge and toner on Ebay for about $20. This will do many books.

All my files have this naming format.

Patsy Cline - Crazy(SC).zip and books are made directly from these files no typos. I am very proud of my selection and books. I have many hours and years in getting there.

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I have mine Spiral bound, avoiding the whole plastic sleeve per page thing. My observations:

- Ensure you select some good tough covers for them. Get the heaviest plastic covers you can get.
- Make the front cover clear heavy plastic and put a plastic sleeve under it to allow you to put custom cover sheets on it.
- I haven't had a mishap that has ruined a songbook yet, they've been in service since August of 2008 (7 months)
- I have lost a page or two out of them but only one to a mishap, they attempted to catch it by a page as they were dropping it. The other couple were lost to deliberate acts of idiocy. The same acts would probably have resulted in an entire book being popped out of a 3 ring binder.
- Updates are hard to add/publish
- They're lighter and easier to handle and the singers really dig them
- Get the binding done at a local print shop and not Kinko's. They'll have better customization options for you and will probably give you better service.

The books were $25 each printed, drilled and bound. I just handed them a PDF and off they went. I do have a 3 ring for updates and plan on running the books every 18 months or so. I figure 5 books is about right for the venue.

On the whole I'll never go back to a 3 ring binder but your mileage may vary.

I like the layout as shown above for "By artist". Like to see your "By title" is you have one?

Cheers

If you list both artist & title in the same book, separate them. I used to print 15 books total that had both, now I separate & can print 10 (complete) books, but separate them into a separate title & artist section, now get 20 books total for the price of 10 complete books. Also double column the pages & double side them will help & reduce the font if possible.
Here is a sample of mine.
http://lonmanproductions.com/nodupart.pdf - by artist
http://lonmanproductions.com/nodupsong.pdf - by title

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$25 for a single book? I can get a 2" presentation binder with sheet protectors for about $10-15 per book. Easy to update & if they get dirty, you wipe them down. Easy to update for new discs. I was thinking about spiral bound in the future but not if they cost more than I currently spend.

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OFF TOPIC

Lonman:

Wow, it amazes me how poorly some artists do in other countries. Just out of curiosity, I looked up "Robbie Williams" in your book. I expected to see a lesser number of songs than you'd see in a UK book - but 3? He must have totally tanked in the US? Reports over here is that he did "ok" but not great.

In the UK, any decent karaoke book would have a few pages worth...

Sorry, just found it amazing how much publicity he gets for accomplishing very little.

I live in Robbies hometown and before i got in this business had a dj for mine and the wifes wedding what a waste of time he couldnt even play Angels for our first dance .

Kelley

Font Size is a great suggestion to "assist" with the large book issue. Also FORMAT , I don't know what program you use but some formats can "shrink" some pages also off your books. Not to mention DUPLICATES or abbreviations for Mfgs etc.

I went to a NO PAGE PROTECTOR double side printed spiral bound book.
The books have a clear plastic cover page and a solid colored plastic back page.
SURPRISINGLY they hold up well in a Bar!!!! I think its been a couple years and now that you mention it --probably do for an update and replacement

I love these threads that get to see what other peoples books look like. I too was using a 3" binder, page protectors, by title & artist. (Yuck!!! I hate stuffing pages...) I've just had new ones made, they are small. First I removed dups, I split title and artist into seperate books and most importantly I lost the binders. I had planned on going with the spiral bound, I had a few made, they worked out well. I did the covers in cardstock and just normal paper for the insides. They now have a presentation type that comes with a clear cover, they heat the binding and it shrinks to hold the pages together. It was about $2 a book for the small ones I could now use. WOW! (Now, that doesn't include printing). For the price you can change them out or replace as they go bad. So much better in the long run. I also love the idea of changing or reprinting a couple of new ones and cycling the oldest ones out. So every few months you have "brand new books", I'll still have a seperate update one that can be used too. I like Lonman's books, how the artist is bold and is listed only once, then the songs underneath that, not repeated. (2) columns...I may make another change in the future. Here is a sample of mine. Thanks guys...MrD

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[highlight=midnightblue]MrD - KJ/DJ Specialist
Visit MrD on facebook - mrdsentertainment
& on myspace - larrynance[/highlight]

Most here use the sort by Artist and I only have a few by Title. Title takes about 50 more pages.

Title

Artist

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My books are dual column, artist and song title in each book.

I use a 1 1/2" binder. With Sheet Protector.

For the singers book, I DO remove dupes, and tell people if they don't like my chosen version to list of a song, that I DO have a master songbook with everything listed. Doesn't mean songs that aren't listed in the books, I just choose not to list fifteen versions of "Crazy" by Patsy Cline! !

(isn't this about the time someone makes a post about elctronic books )

I am debating on whether or not to dedupe my entire collection and take the disc numbers off my future songbooks. I don't really use the song numbers since I have gone digital, and it would save paper. What are your opinions on that?

My original foundation was Sound Choice. When they started accusing me of being a crook for converting to digital I quit buying from them. my library is mainly SC THM and CB. All the other crap I have deleted. Although now that they have run an entire industry overseas Zooom has some good tracks. I do not have several versions of a song and dont see the need to. If you cant sing my version then supply your own preferably on a flash drive. I run a business and do not give out food stamps.

I do have a Backstage cd of the Doors. Got the Legends version and I think I still have that crappy cd. When somebody says they have 50k songs I dont know whether to cringe or laugh. Get rid of the crap and dups.

I am digital and do not list cd's or track numbers in my books All I need is your name and title or artist and will have it in seconds. Why anybody wants to keep in the cd format is beyond me. It is archaic and requires your singers to provide a number when it is not necessary.

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Yeah what I have is what I got. And never had a request for any more & as far as I can remember, Angels is the only one that got any occasional play when it first came out.

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