Karaoke Forums

This may have been covered before, but I was wondering how KJs do their books?

Do you have more books by song title and just a couple by artist or is it the other way around, or is it an equal number of each?

How many books do you have? How many people are in attendance at your show on average?

How many would you use if you had 100 people in the audience? Of course not all would be singers.

Thanks y'all

I've seen the ratio of more Artists books than the song titles. And if they have a couple leaflets of the Newer songs not yet in the books, those are always in Artists orders (except for the lazy kj who copies the cd covers of their new stuff)

I tend to print up more artist books as well. This last reprint I did 10 artist to 6 title. The artist books always tend to move out first.

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Same here. 7 Artist to 5 Title.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Definitely in our case the artist's books go out first...then those with song title books begin roaming around trying to 'trade' to an artist book. Really very little call for title books.

I do miss the days when my books were small enough to be able to put both in 1 book. I'd have to go to a 3"+ binder to do so today.

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We use 8 total, 4 by artist and 4 by song title. This would be what we would use for about 100 people. We do find more people look at the artist books though, so next time we print, we may do 5 and 3.

We recently took it down to 9 point type, double column, removed dupes and song numbers, and we are able to get our approx. 10k (without dupes, 15k with dupes) list down to about 100 pages in each format. These fit fine in 1.5 inch binders.

If I had to choose artist vs. title I would make it at least 2-1 artist. They are definitely most popular.

I put both in the same book. I have 10,900 unique titles, but I only list about 4,900. That includes all songs sung in the past at any of my gigs, any song in the Sound Choice Foundation, any song in the DK Millenium/Chartbuster Essentials 1/Supercore (with a few exceptions). I also list all songs by a few selected artists.

I have software I have written which manages all this, so it probably isn't practical for a lot of people. It works well for me, though, as it gives me both artist and title in a book of 110 double-sided pages. If there are multiple versions of the song, the types go in a line on the same line as the song:
[pre]
Strait, George
Ace In The Hole DK
Adalida CB
All My Ex's Live In Texas CB SC
Amarillo By Morning DK CB SC
Blue Clear Sky SC SB
[/pre]

A lot of artists look like:

[pre]
Meat Loaf*
I'd Do Anything For Love DK
[/pre]

They have one song -- the asterisk means "more songs by this artist available,
see host".

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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.

Same here the "Artist" books get used more.

I put six books out on a table next to the stage.

If I had a hundred people in the audience I'd put out the same amount of books to start, but have a couple back ups. People tend to return the books back to the table if they see they are the only ones.

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

We put out 15 of each and subdivided A-L and L-Z (with new additions) in duotangs. So there are 60 "books" out there and some nights they are all used.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I started with 10 each. One was stolen, and I had a request to buy one, so I sold the other for $25. Then I was down to nine each. As my library grew I trimmed two each from the collection because I couldn't fit them into the milk crate I carried them in. Now I provide seven each. I suppose I'm getting ready to drop one more (each) as I have a number of additions to file. And then there were six (each)

Some nights they're all out; some nights they're not.

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JR & Michele LaPorte
Peoria, AZ

I have more artist books than title also. The title books are least requested. I put out about 7 artist and 4 title. I'm just glad to know people still use books. A lot of KJs around here don't use them anymore. I do though, to avoid a long line of "What do you have by Elvis?" What do I not have by Elvis is the winning question. I don't know what I will do when the books get any bigger though.

Just got home as the designated passenger, so I didn't read all of the post, just the Subject.

I no longer keep any by Title only books. Those ones were rarely used. I currently keep 4 books that are by Artist and by Title, one of them is my master that doesn't leave my side. These are in 4 inch binders with two column printing. I have 5 more by Artist only, for a total of 9 books. Since I am in So. Calli, I also have 5 International books in 1 inch binders. These have 2,000 Spanish songs by Artist & Title, and 1,000 Pilipino songs by Title.

The bottom line is this. It is a fine line between having enough books for most situations, and having too many books to carry, or just maintain. It cost money to keep up to date books. I print about once a year. Went a little longer the last time, but after about 15 months had 1,100 new songs and about 28 pages of new additions.

Felix the KJ

I have 9 books by Artist, none by Title, and 1 Master that I never let go of.

(The 9 was determined by the number of notebooks I could fit into a milk crate.)

Eight books. All artist. The title books were never used.

I could use a couple more. But eight gets my by most nights because I save regular singers' slips and they don't use the books much.

I get by with 6 books 5 by artist, 1 by title. The title book is rarely used.

With about 4 minutes for song that means someone can use a book on average for over 20 minutes to find a song, and for most people that is far more than they need.

Except for the very start of a busy show with a lot of non regulars, rarely are all of the books in use.

I dont require singers, especially regulars to turn in slips anymore, and i just get a verbal request to go into the compuhost rotation. For some they just ask to be put in rotation and they call the song they want to do when the come up.

For a lot of the regulars the only reason they need the books is to find a request slip as they already have an idea of what they want to sing.

I also have posted my songlist on facebook, and many use that list to plan ahead.

I think my book lifespan is about 6 months before they get too worn out and beat up looking and need replacement. I use 3" binders, with sheet protectors. I keep the type at least 12 point because it can be hard to read in not too well lit corners of the bar.

Here for me, I use books that have combined both artis and song title. I have to agree with most everyone here, that the pages with "by artist" are the most used. Sometimes I actually wondy why I even print the back half. Artist pages are white, and song title pages are pastel blue. Update pages are put directly in the front of the books (printed on pastel green). I have a total of 12 books, which makes it a pain the ,,,er back sometimes. The books are in a 3" binder. I just reprinted last week and it costed me a small fortune to do it, too. I added 4 extra books (16 total now)as a precaution for anything that might happen. But still only carry and put out 12. I was lucky to have reprinted last monday, cuz my laptop kicked the bucket on thursday, taking my print program with it,,,OUCH!!

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate your input.

Artist is the clear winner. More people remember who sings a particular song,
but often can't recall the exact title.

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"Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid."

I prefer artist personally when I go to a show, but there are times that I do look through and/or need a title book because I can't remember an artist. I know some that will take both books to their table and go through both. I wouldn't stop printing title, just not as many.

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