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Learning of the varied but similar experiences we KJ's have shared regarding unsong songs in our catalogs (see "Beatles" thread), I can only conclude that new KJ's should be very cautious when creating a new song catalog.

I guess, as a new KJ, before investing in a library of musics, one should be quite clear about what "popular" songs and artists are actually being sung at the karaoke shows in your areas.  Don't worry about what the Karaoke websites say are the most popular tracks that they are selling.  All that matters is what is actually in demand at the local shows.

Don't buy a load of "old" material by popular names, unless you're willing to own them whether they are being sung, or not, by singers at the local venues near you.

And maybe we can give each other a heads up new songs are released as to how popular we are finding these songs to be at our shows. Doing so may save some of us money from buying things we don't need, or alert us on the other hand to tracks we need to buy.  I think we all have too many Beatle tracks and never gave much thought about it prior to the "Beatle" thread!

If I were to begin again, I would still want a strong 'core' of music of the basic/typical karaoke songs.  Then I would (and do) take requests from the actual singers at the clubs I work in.  One could theorhetically run a shows with a couple hundred  songs, but how many singers would look at that book & think, hmmmm not much here - even though THEIR songs are probably in there.  You never have to buy everything - I learned that lesson YEARS ago when I tried to buy JUST to have it first, biggest mistake ANY kj can make, you should buy what people WANT to sing.

As far as a heads up on what to buy, this is again subjective to specific areas/clubs/localities etc.  What is a 'must have' at my show, may be a dust collector at yours, I never go by what others that aren't even in my area tell me I should have, I go BUY what the singers in my club want.
There was a thread about 'must have' discs & several that were mentioned in there I actually had that never get used.  The Sound Choice Can't Stop The Hip Hop was mentioned a few times as a disc that would get used nightly (at their shows), talk to the shows that are mentioning Sinatra & Elvis throughout the night & 60+ YO crowds, I seriously doubt that it would be a must have over there, as it would be a coaster in our shows too as we get more rock/heavy rock & country than anything else.

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Totally agree with you on this Lonman...Core plus requests..>Although I have found that people will ask and beg and plead for a song ... I get it, they sing it once, and into the 'never sung' pile it goes. Almost have to get a concensus about what should be purchased.

I was thinking this same thing - could have a thousand songs and keep everybody satisfied - all meat, no fluff. These pirates running around raving about their 90,000 song collection are barking up the wrong tree...though they do seem to get jobs based on that. (Man,I get tired of dispelling karaoke myths!)

Of course a lot of what has gone into my book are the songs that came on the CDG that I had to get for certain song(s) and had no choice about getting them. I LOVE that we can buy a song at a time now.  (Same can be said about my massive CD collection - buy a CD for the one hit that makes a group popular and never listen to the rest of the CD - thank goodness for Napster/Rhapsody, etc.)

I think an interesting thread would be this: List the top 25 songs that are song week after week at your show.  Wonder which ones would cross over to others' lists consistently.

For years I faithfully bought all six discs of THM I have thicker books and many songs that were never sang. I now add as regulars request. DJ Intelligence runs about $95/year but it has a search capability of searching your library and people can request songs you dont have.  I recently sent a ticket requesting a new feature which would be  a link to all requests for new songs. In a manner I could add verbal requests to that list that all could call up.

We desperately need a list like this and can buy accordingly. Not everybody has a web site or this service but how can we get a list on the web started? If I designed a page on the web would anybody be interested in contributing to the list?

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When I get a request I get the name/email from the requestor & the date.  Take it home & compile a database list with the request, who made it, when it was made, then I go & seek each & every manu that it may be available on & add to the database in each request.  Then I will sort by disc manu number & compare requests.  I will try to stay within my top 4 rated companies most of the time & look for discs that may have multiple requests on them first.  Then I listen & compare audio samples that many online stores have & determine whether getting the disc with multiple requests will outweigh a different manu.  
But yes I have had singers request songs that even THEY have never done, but usually another thing happens & other songs on the disc that was purchased for a different song get sung regularly.

Once you get computerized you can actually check your drive each night for the songs that were sung that evening & take a little time & compile a database list every night (or day when you get a chance).
I would be willing to write down the songs that get done on the nights I work anyway.

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I have over 8,000 dupes.   At $2 a song that's $18,000 worth of music that will never be sung.

But that has happened over 15 years of KJing.   And that includes dupe discs from multiple systems.   Many of the same discs in each system.    So i didn't set out to buy dupes it just happened.   It's still a waste of money.

Many people don't know they want to sing a song until they see that i have it.  So there is the "discovery factor" too.    I have forgotten about many songs i would have sung until i hear them at karaoke.

I try to get songs that people request.    Many time i end up buying a disc for one song.   The rest could be dupes.  So that makes it a $25 song request.   I'll do that for regular singers that aren't a pain in my A$$.    That's a big expenditure because i have done it many times before for other singers and i will do it again.

I know there are many songs that aren't duped, that have never been sung in 15 years.   How do you decide what will be sung and what won't, when you are trying to build a library?   Every generation and every geographic and physical location has a different idea.    It differs from bar to bar.   Some are heavy country, some aren't.

I want to appeal to every generation with as much variety as possible.    Many people comment on my big selection and on how many oldies i have.  But i am also current on all the rock, country and pop.     Minus the hip hop & rap music and some of the young punk stuff, where all they do is scream and swear the entire song.

You will no matter what waste money on dupe songs.    You will waste money on songs that never get sung.    You will have to buy requests.    You will have to keep current.   It's part of our business.

$18K???  Looks more like $16K~!



Never would I do this, I would look for custom disc sites at this point.  For me to purchase a disc, the disc has to have at minimum half of the songs that I do not have.  Only other way would be if it was on sale to the point where I could afford to duplicate a couple songs.  I am very careful not to dup my library, 11K songs non dup'd about 13k with.



Yes it is, however you can limit the amount wasted on dups & songs that don't get sung.

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Lon surprisingly from what I can tell from many posts and in answer to Karen's question the popular songs are not unique to any area and include many of the same. I would like to start generating a list of new songs that are being requested. One could judge by his regulars which ones might apply, react and buy accordingly. Ideas?

In other words I too can provide a list of songs sang but I want a list of new songs sang...

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[highlight=seagreen]How do you spilt the Quotes like that?[/highlight]

Quote each section you want to quote.

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I hate simul-posts and getting lost in the wars here so I post again.



Lon surprisingly from what I can tell from many posts and in answer to Karen's question the popular songs are not unique to any area and include many of the same. I would like to start generating a list of new songs that are being requested. One could judge by his regulars which ones might apply, react and buy accordingly. Ideas?

In other words I too can provide a list of songs sang but I want a list of new songs sang...

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Most of the time the song they want is only on one company and the only way to get it is to buy the disc with that one song.

If i have the choice between the disc that is on sale for $4.99 or the $25 then they get the $4.99 disc.     They are just happy that you actually bought it just for "them."

I hope that by doing a little A$$ kissing that they will come to other places to sing the requested song.  If they tell or bring other people with them then some of the money gets returned in the crowds getting bigger at other places.    Makes me look like i'm doing a good job to the other bar owners.    Word of mouth advertising.    They actually tell me they tell other people about the great KJ, so it could be helping as a cheap effective advertisement ploy.

It could backfire and they never sing the requested song or never come to another bar.  

It's based on their initial loyalty to begin with.

Karyoker

Your exact suggestion is something I was hoping we could accomplish.  I don't have the time to listen to every radio station playing the different music genres to learn what maybe poplular.  And even if I had the time to accomplish all that, I wouldn't know for sure what is actually popular for karaoke.

I can only react to what people request of me or to their excitement over some song I already have.  I may not even have realized when I bought that track that it would be so exciting!

Late last year I got Fergie's Big Girls Don't Cry by request.  Also got Glamorous.  So far no one has sung either!

From responses here I can only assume that most hosts here do not get requests for new songs. In which case no updating of the library is not  necessary. However with my young crowd we get weekly requests. I am trying to get them to do it on the web for tracking purposes.

The only solution I have now is go to my site and enter all your customers new requests in custom requests. I would re-enter into a shared email address where everybody here could access.

Like I say I would dedicate another web page to this project with enough interest..

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We take requests and use tricerasoft.com to get the song when possible. They are pretty up to date, and carry Panorama and Zoom which are acceptable quality.

We also watch the sales, and pick up some outdated PHM disks for $2.00 to $3.00 apiece. We do get some traffic on these songs -- not a lot, but at $.33 a song we can afford this.

Also, if you get a chance to pick up the DK disks at karaoke.com for $5.00 and less I consider them to be an excellent value. I bought every DK Premiere/Applause over time, for anywhere from $1.75 to $5.00 per disk, and have most of the Pop Hits Monthly disks as well. All of these and quite a few Legends artist sets were all bought over time from karaoke.com on sale, with prices of less than $10 and mostly less than $5.

These songs make up the bulk of our core catalog. I bought some CB Essentials to cover oldies and popular older country, and have bought a few SC disks of my own choice.  But I have 6000 unique songs purchased for under $4,000. It isn't as high-quality as a mostly-SoundChoice catalog, but it is reasonable -- much better than the StarDisc/SGB/Song Factory/THM collections you see sold pre-loaded on CAVS machines.

We do likewise. Our venue has WIFI and we download as needed.. We are just trying to establish a list of requested new songs.

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Yeah I hate that, but if I have everything else on that disc except that 1 song, then no they don't get it & when I explain the reasoning to them, they understand.  I am not going to purposely waste money on songs that I don't need.  And many of the custom sites are starting to have the songs that are requested more & more.



Well depends on the brand/quality of the version.  Again not going to buy a cheap version unless it sounds ok.



This is a common occurance as well.



Well to a point.  I take all requests, like said if I find a disc that happens to have some major requests & the one single time request, then chances are that disc will be purchased.

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I get request for new SONGS all the time, not necessarily NEW (current) songs.  We have a ton of 70's-90's requests, country is the bigger 'new' requests.  But as far as new pop/rock, it's not real regular.

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I call it a new song if i don't have it.   It's new to me whether it came out yesterday or 25 years ago.

It still boils down to...you will never have the songs that keep everyone happy.  There are just too many to even consider trying to get.

Probably 300,000 karaoke songs and at least 150,000 one of a kinds.   At $2 a song $300,000 isn't in my budget for the next 500 years.  And by the time you paid for the dupes that you would have to get to get the one of a kinds probably $450,000.


And there would be one song book on a set of wheels.

I can put up the top few songs in my room from the last year or so that I know will get sung every night by someone. I'm just getting in and they were all sung tonight  so they're fresh in my mind. There's really no surprises here and even disc overviews have them all I think:

Guys:
Apologize - Timbaland
Beautiful Girls - Sean Kingston

Ladies:
Big Girls Don't Cry - Fergie
U + Ur Hand - Pink
Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
No One - Alicia Keys

Rehab and Irreplaceable were done so much last summer and fall that no one is doing them any more. It's been a few weeks for both... something I thought I'd never be able to say.

I'm curious if other's lists of non-country recent heavy rotation songs are similar.

And country folks... what's hot that's new right now?