Karaoke Forums

Being new, and not even established yet as a KJ, I am still pretty much in dream mode as far as being a successesful entertainer.
My dream of course right now is having a decent collection of songs to offer for the singers.
Is buying the cdg's one by one the only way to build a collection, or are there other ways which are legal to do it?
Do people sell large collections? Or are there large sets available to purchase?
I have been searching online (craigs list, Ebay etc.)
Thanks for your help and sugestions!

There is no "right" way. And your focus will differ depending on your audience. (Mine has to account for the heavy country influence in my area). Finally, you have to decide disk only or computer. Most karaoke hosts (at least here) have moved or are moving to computer.

Personally, if I were starting over again I would:

1. Buy the Sound Choice Foundation 1 & 2. This will give you excellent versions of a large number of the classic karaoke songs.
2. Buy the latest two year-end 50-packs of Chartbuster country (Say 2006, 2007 and 2008).
3. Get a gift-pack to Tricerasoft and start downloading the newer rock things and more popular country things from there, *as requested*. I can download and have available the same night, which is kind of cool.
4. Buy Chartbuster artist series disks (or in the rare case of Sound Choice having them, consider sound choice) to add extensive coverage for an artist as you identify popular ones. That way you avoid adding lots of Celine Dion songs -- they won't ever get sung (I have 27, never had one sung yet).
5. For obscure old songs that people want and request, buy occasional Sound Choice custom disks.

Note: If you could still do what I did, which is buy all of the DK Millenium CDGs on sale -- over a year's time -- at karaoke.com for $5.00 or less, I would still recommend that. But as far as I know, DK is no longer available.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

One way to get started and pick up a lot of songs for not a lot of money is to buy several collections off ebay. Start with All Hits, Super Core, Chartbuster, Sweet Georgia Brown and some of the other multi disc sets.

If you have a bit more money to spend, the Sound Choice Foundations, Bricks and Mortar are high quality and very popular.

Other good brands are Top Tunes, Idol Maker, Panorama, Top Hits Monthly, Zoom and Legends. there are more but these should give you a good start. I wish I could find someone going out of business or retiring that was selling their accumulated collection for a good price, that would make things easier. If you want a really good collection expect to spend thousands of dollars.

I would agree with Stogie.

Go with the first part of his post first to get a good selection, and once you find out what music is popular in YOUR venues, go for the more expensive stuff if you want.

If you do it this way you won't be wasting a LOT of money on unused music.

I would like to add Monster Hits and especially Radio Starz as high quality yet well priced mfrs.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Good call, I forgot about Monster hits and Radio Starz, both good.

I also forgot to mention that certain collections are available on Super CDG discs for A LOT LESS cost than on regular discs-check ebay. You need to buy a program from KJamp to convert the discs to standard CD+G format for $39. You can save a lot of money that way.

I spent quite a bit of money on low-quality tracks myself. If you think there is a significant chance you are going to remain a hobbyist, then this might be prudent. But in that case, start out with SuperCore and Sweet Georgia Brown. That will cost $140 and give you 1600 songs that will be of dubious quality but be very cheap.

But if you are committed to karaoke long term, I recommend quality tracks and staying away from the Sweet Georgia Brown, Music Maestro, and Monster Hits. You will find the vast majority of those tracks will never be touched.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Unfortunately, our Sweet Georgia Browns are touched nightly. They cover a lot of 80s and 90s rock that we didn't get on our Sound Choice Foundation and didn't have a clue our mainly oldies country crowd would want. So knowing now what songs people want to sing, I wish I'd just spent the money on better brands to begin with. But we never would have known people wanted those songs if we hadn't tested the waters by being able to cover a lot of ground with the cheap sets. It goes round and round......

Now I look at the ages of the predominant crowd and try to buy for what they would have listened to (or are listening to) when they were in their teens to twenties. Those seem to be the songs that have meaning to them. The 40 year olds want Bruce Springsteen, Eagles, John Mellencamp, Eric Clapton. The 50 year olds want Beatles. The 60 year olds want Elvis and doo wop. The 20 year olds want NOW. Not set in stone as all groups mix and match but its a guide. We also put out a request list which helps.

Agree, stay away from Sweet Georgia Brown. Some of their stuff isn't that bad but some is. Keep watching eBay.

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

This is so funny, I have lots of Sweet Georgia Brown tracks that I like and IMO SGB is WAY better than DK which so many people seem to love. I can't stand a lot of the DK tracks, they're terrible and primitive. People mention Super Core a lot but not many people mention All Hits and I like lots of their tracks. I would love to have a good library of Sound Choice tracks, but it's a lot of money. Some day I will, but it's easy to spend several thousand on Sound Choice alone and you'll only have a few thousand songs. I can see that I will need to start getting more contemporary Karaoke tracks if I want to do bars and restaurants where there are younger crowds.

I don't think the SGBs are as bad as some on here do but if there is going to be a complaint about lyrics or sweeps, they seem to get the brunt of it. They can also sound a bit harsh, even turned down. But I got so used to singing "Hell" and "Zoot Suit Riot" to their version that now I can't warm up to the Sound Choice ones. It's all relative, I guess.

On the SGB I find I can just EQ the highs out of the mix and they sound not too bad. That's about all that can be done with them, though - shrill as can be on the top end otherwise.

Sweet Georgia Brown can sound good, to be sure. And if you know to immediately turn them down 3-6 dB they can be dealt with for level. But they will blow away many singers with the myriad lyrics mistakes and poor sweeps.

With regard to them rivaling DK, I don't know what to say. Many of the DK tracks are better than Sound Choice and are darn near right on the original. They tend to be on the opposite end of SGB, though, volume and EQ wise. They need to be turned up 3 dB and have the lows boosted. The biggest problem with DK is them changing the key, which can throw off a good singer, and the pan flute, which can apparently annoy some people. Our singers love DK, as well they might, because that is the one we choose for many of the standards.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

DK was notorious for adjusting the key on some songs so it was easier to sing. I like 'em, but prefer the Pioneer to DK on many of the tracks... others were darned near about as good as you can get.

A couple things I learned about this business quickly is it's better to have a crap version of a song than none at all, so if you can get a large song library cheap you will probably use some of them eventually. If you get a picky singer who says the KJ down the road has it on Soundchoice and his version is much better, you can always buy it. If you don't have the song at all, you will definitely disappoint them.

Another thing is, there are a lot of KJs out there who will market themselves by saying they have 20,000 songs or whatever, even if tons of those are duplicates. Obviously no group of customers sings 20,000 songs (that's 1,300 hours of karaoke; more than a year worth of gigs for me!) but that is the way the business works. To combat the guys who do this, anytime I see a bunch of CDGs for sale on eBay cheap, I buy them. I just got 27 "Karaoke Megahits" discs (which I am unfamiliar with) for $35 + shipping. If I get a few dozen songs I don't already have, I think that's great. Even if I checked and I already had every one of those songs, I would have bought them anyway, because now when people go "soandso has 20,000 songs" I have a few hundred more to add to my number.

Keep buying new music, too. Even if you only have $50/month to spend on new songs, get the Chartbuster country and pop monthly releases. Make a print-out of your new songs every month and include it in your books. Singers will try your new stuff, and chances are the KJ up the road won't have it yet. Once they learn a few songs the other guy won't spend money on, you will have that customer hooked on coming to your karaoke show.

Music is a huge part of my budget (even though I own a lot of sound equipment too) and it is probably the best place for me to spend money. I have spent thousands of dollars on regular music and karaoke tracks in the one year I have been doing this, but I feel like I have the basics down and I am staying current.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

My money is now ALL spent on the music. Jeff, been to O'Malley's in downtown Louisville? 5 bars in one building? Love that place!!!!!

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

Last time I went to O'Malley's (or whatever they call it now) the karaoke bar was run by some girl who was obviously there to make her $8/hr + bar discount. I was with a group of 8 people, and several of them signed up to sing. The bartender in that room, and the KJ, each sang several times before any of my friends sang. There were no other customers in the room, mind you; it was just us, the bartender, and the KJ. After one of my friends sang once and then the KJ started singing again, I went back to hanging out with the band.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Interesting, don't remember the karaoke bar? Had a disco, a couple country bars including a mechanical bull, 2 clubs. I liked one of the clubs cuz they let girls parade on the bar and it was pretty racy! I still have a ton of pics I took from a couple nights there. Saw one babe fall all the way to the floor and bopped her head! Hard to believe they let them walk on the bar. Oh that club had a rotating dance floor as well. Been 4 years since I was there. I wasn't into karaoke yet, maybe I just didn't notice?

As the dupes mount up, price per song goes up. Still worth it to buy "lots" of disks. My collection is closing on on being half dupes.

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

Well, those KJs who say they have 5,000 songs or whatever, they all count their dupes twice or three times or however many times they have a copy of the same song. But yes, the cost of karaoke songs is quite high compared to say $0.99 iTunes tracks that you can purchase individually without getting 9 other songs you don't need.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

That's always been a huge gripe of mine with kj's that count EVERY song even though they are duplicated. I was once one of them when I started & realized, hey that is not an accurate number. At the time I was only pushing 5000 songs, but when I weeded out dupes, it dropped to around 3000 songs. I am at about 12000 today non-dup'd. 15K with. I try to avoid buying duplicate songs unless absolutely necessary, can't see wasting money on songs over & over - especially if they aren't songs that most likely won't be played anyway.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I've never counted dupes but I wonder how pirates can say they have 100,000 songs. How can there possibly be that many different songs unless they are counting dupes. Again, what kind of marketing ploy is that? "I have 120,000 songs. Of course 87 of those are Addicted to Love and 68 are Crazy Little Thing Called Love but hey, they are all karaoke songs!"

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