Karaoke Forums

If you were starting out TODAY putting together a Karaoke library, what would you buy?
Any specific discs that you use on a regular basis?
Most popular songs sung at your shows?

I'd start of with the GEM set - it has the most songs that are sung at our shows currently so I would go with that as my core.

Then go with customer requests from there.

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

Knowing what I know this very moment, I would choose another line of work.

If I was insane and adamant about being a full time KJ, I would.....

....take a serious look at the GEM series,

If you have deeper pockets....

....even the Cookies Sunfly Collection - http://www.cookies.co.uk/product.aspx?productid=21439
I would even consider a Stellar CAP and then just "acquire" their entire CAP covered collection...


-Chris

_________________
-Chris

I'm curious why you would say that Chris? Why would someone be insane to want to be a Karaoke host right now? As long as they have a legal library that they have purchased and they have all of the discs to prove it, where is the risk?

I could go out and get a regular job making $10-$12 per hour instead of hosting, but that's not a very enticing prospect. Even at $100 per night, 4 nights per week I'd still rather host Karaoke. The job situation here is very, very bad. I really would appreciate your insight if there is something other than licensing issues that I should know about that makes the idea of entering the arena a crazy idea.

I'm willing to spend thousands of dollars to get a legal library to AVOID being sued and if absolutely necessary, not buy or use any SC tracks or discs if that is going to open me up to potential legal issues.

If I was going to consider the Stellar Cap program, they would have to supply me with the discs. No way I would pay them thousands of dollars so I could go out and buy a pirated HD with their stuff on it. That makes very little sense to me. At least if you buy the GEM series they will send you the discs. To be honest I know very little about Stellar and can't recall ever having sung a Stellar track. Maybe I'm wrong?

My two concerns about the GEM series are #1. SC could one day end the GEMS series program and withdraw all discs in circulation since you don't own the discs. Then I would have paid over $4,000 only to have to forfeit the discs. This is a MAJOR concern for me since you don't own the GEM series discs. #2. It's a lot of money. If I absolutely have to have some SC in my library I will buy both Foundations and the 5 Bricks and then add additional discs as they become available on craig's list, ebay, retiring hosts, etc.

I'm curious if most of the songs covered in the GEM series are available in collections by other manufactures?

I think it's important to have a nice sized SC library to be considered a host with a high quality and good sized library with songs people want to sing, but sometimes you have to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run. I have only so much money to spend and the GEM series would take most of the money I have to get stated with and prevent me from having much else other than SC.

I'm not second guessing or tossing the suggestions you guys are offering, I'm thinking out loud and trying to process all of this in order to try to make the right decisions.

I would give the GEM series much more consideration if after forking over that much money I actually owned the discs and it required no further ties, stipulations or regulations. I'm not interested in being in business with Sound Choice, I just want to buy their product, use it and have them mind their own business and I mind my own business. I should have jumped on the GEM series a few months ago when it was $3,000 but I hadn't made the decision to do this at that time. For $3,000 I would take the licensing risk. Paying $3,000 for the GEM series would allow me to have enough money to add a lot more to my library.

my personal favorites after SC and CB are the "Pioneer set" and "lost classics" set. Hard to find now however. As far as most sung songs...with us that varies from venue to venue. Good luck in putting together your library

_________________
"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

Zoom would be my first choice before SC & CB anyways, but don't know if you can buy sets from them? I think they have better recording over SC once you extract and use mp3 gain to control the output gain Pionner would be my second choice, search ebay, you might find something...

Sound Choice hasn't produced anything new in around 4 years.
Chartbuster is gone and we still don't we still don't know what is going to happen with their pre-failure certifications.
Stellar isn't really producing anything the singers are requesting.
The legal download situation is about as clear and easy to navigate as the Mississippi in the rainy season.
Overseas manufacturers are expensive (IMO) and there is a significant (IMO) delay between order and receipt.

Then there is the whole Digitrax thing which anyway you slice it, stands to shake up the industry in one way or another.

-Chris

_________________
-Chris

zoom used to sell sets.. Not sure if they still do.

Zoom is my absolute favourite brand next to CB and SC

Two months ago (before end of April) I would definitely start my library with CB 12k songs & SC Gem.

If I’m starting today, SC Gem, Zoom, Pocket Songs, Just Tracks & whatever I can find on ebay, such as DKK, Dangerous, Pioneer Radio Starz, Helluvadisc & the early PopHits TopHits Monthlies. No Sound Images, Standing Ovation, Backstage, Performance Tracks, SGB or MMaestro, except MM Velvet Elvis.

_________________
To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

Zoom would also be my first choice and you can buy sets from them. Worth doing if you need to replace some versions on weaker brands. I tend to check out zoom sets first when I'm realise I have a bit of money spare.

_________________
'A genius is one who can do anything except make a living'. Joey Adams.

Would be my first choice for a basic older core - IF they were readily available which they aren't always, you can sometimes find them on ebay in incomplete sets or piece by piece, but even if you did manage to get a complete set, they would only cover up until 99 or 2000 at the latest.

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

I think Pioneer is going to be very difficult to find. I'll keep an eye peeled and if a Pioneer collection comes up I will buy it.

I've seen some Zoom tracks and they seem for the most part to be very high quality. I looked at their website and they don't have very many US dealers. I'm going to call the dealers listed and see if they can put together a multi disc pack and find out how much $$$?

Even though Chartbusters has gone bust, I'm still leaning towards starting out with as large of a Chartbusters library as possible. If I invest thousands of dollars and buy a large Chartbusters collection at least I'll own it, period, no down the road licensing issues where SC changes their mind and tells everyone to turn in their discs, no fear of having the wool pulled out from under me, no ongoing yearly payments to keep my collection-no nothing.

I found out who Stellar is, Pop Hits Monthly, Top Hits Monthly etc. I can definitely see buying a bunch of their stuff.

Pocket Songs is really expensive and they will be for ordering songs that singers request only. No way I can see paying $2 a song for a disc, not at this time when I'm just starting out.

Some others I've seen mentioned here in the past that are on ebay-Karaoke Starz, Karaoke Kurrents, Quick Hits and a couple others look like they can help to build my library so at least I have something to start out with.

The only brand that I absolutely will stay away from is Backstage. I bought 3 or 4 BS discs over the years and they are by far the worst of any I have sung, used, owned etc.

Keep the suggestions and ideas coming, I appreciate your input and help and who knows, someone else reading this may be doing the very same thing and can benefit from this information.

Stogie, you shouldn't be able to find any Zoom at US dealers unless they still have some old stock. New laws concerning imports of intellectual property went into effect January 2011 and the UK manufacturers can no longer sell to US distributors. I think that as an individual, we can bring in one copy of one disc at a time for non-distribution but the dealers aren't supposed to sell them. I saw on Harry Fox that it is possible to buy an import license for CDs and pay the extra copyright fees and bring them in for distribution but as Harry Fox no longer handles karaoke licensing I don't know if the same applies to CDGs.

Wow, thanks, there goes Zoom - Zooooommmmm, right out the window.

This is kind of hard to do, but nothing good is easy. It just takes some thought and careful consideration and of course the collective knowledge of the community. Oh, and thousands of dollars . . .

Well since your post says besides SC & CB if I could find them my choice would be DK and Pioneer. either one of them sets would get you a decent core to start with.

ps: I have a almost complete DK set that I will be selling pm me if you are interested.

Only problem with even the DK set, nothing over 2000. And it's rare to even find a complete set. I like alot of DK as well - then alot of it I don't care for the automatically lowered keys & the pan flutes that are sometime very prominent.

Another 'add on' disc set I like is the Dangerous - it has quite a few songs that weren't out anywhere and many of them very singable (some are preferred even over SC), you can still find the 11 disc sets on e-bay - not going to debate the legalities here.

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

Stogie,
I spoke with Kurt Slep from SC an if you lease te GEM series and they discontinue them or SC goes out of business it is still fully legal to use the disks and you will keep them. As for how much GEM costs, good luck paying thousands more with bricks and CDs. If you do te math it is much more. You have to equal 6000 songs that GEM series has to offer. Just little insight. Have done all the research .

...I'm sorry for going against your thread titled, "Besides SC and CB...." but I'm just gonna throw this at you. If I remember correctly you stated, in another thread, that you had around 5k-7k to spend on a library? If that's the case, why not just go ahead and think about purchasing the SC Founations I & II along with the 5-bricks. Next, buy the Chartbuster 450 Essentials Vols. 1-10. Add in a Pop Hits Monthly Collection from Stellar. Then you can add 2's and few's of cdg discs and or use the MP3+G Downloads like some others have?

...You can call Pop Hits Monthly/Stellar and they will most likely offer you EVERYTHING they have in their past (what they still have available) and current stock (including updates for 2012) for a very nice price.

...Right now, on Ebay, there's a seller offering the CB 450 Essentials for $1,300.00 (plus free S/H). I believe this seller was an Authorized Chartbuster Dealer. However, you can no longer call Chartbusters and check on any seller since they've closed their doors. On a side note, I would stay away from those Chartbuster SCDG's because they are questionable/debatable as far as being legal or not but that's your choice. I'm not trying to start a SCDG discussion here.

...Although you may think you want to stay away from SC, they do offer a very good product. Perhaps you could call them and asked if they could mark your Foundations I & II plus the 5-Bricks purchases before shipping them to you and pay for the audit in advance. Sure, they can audit you at anytime but that's part of the agreement. My reason for stating this is because mine were purchased from one of their Authorized Dealers but shipped directly from SC.

...There's a few other U.S. based manufacturers (All Star, Pocket Songs, Party Tyme and ???). Of course there's several defunct (for whatever reason/s) Karaoke Manufactures cdg's out there, especially in the secondary market. Again, you can hunt, make offers with some dealers/sellers/manufacturers, pick and choose at whatever you want from what's out there. It's your call! If you're concerned about what you need to buy, you can look search "Most Popular Karaoke Songs" and get a good idea of what to look for. But no matter what, with the exception of what's to come (possibly the Cloud), you're probably gonna end up with some duplicated tracks. Good Luck!

*** Was just about to post when I noticed Enforcer's new post. If that's true, I would definitely call up SC and try to work something out with a Gem Series! By the way, it has been a big pain in the butt ripping all of my discs, plus watching the prices fall for past cdg purchases that I and so many others (long term KJs) have paid for over the years but that's the way the game is played.

Stogie, your title implies one thing and the body another. As for favourite disc collections, it would be Karaokemaker and Sing King. As for a starting set, if available, DK. Supercore would be another choice.

_________________
You can be strange but not a stranger

Maybe I should have said "In addition to SC and CB, what are your favorite disc collections?"

What I was looking for are OTHER disc collections since Chartbusters and Sound Choice are the easy choice. It's easy to just plunk down a big pile of money and say "give me all the good stuff". It's a bit more challenging to sift through all of the noise and information and put together something when you have limited funds that is good enough to start out with and that can satisfy customers at least in the beginning while you build your cash and fill out your library. I thought that it was pretty clear that that is what I was trying to do. Apparently not clear enough.

If calling Sound Choice will get me the GEM series for $3,000 like they offered in the past promotion, then I will certainly call them and do that deal. If they simply tell me it's $4,480, then I go back to how I have been doing-looking for alternatives to Sound Choice. No way I can afford to pay $4,480 for the GEM series and yes, I'm very sorry I didn't take advantage of it when it was offered for $3,000, and yes, I'm very sorry I didn't take advantage of the Chartbusters 12,000 song library when it was being offered-I hadn't made the decision at that time to do what I am doing now and I had no idea Chartbusters would go out of business.