Karaoke Forums

I'm running into more and more shows that are run off a computer and the KJ has no way of playing a customer 's disc. I think this practice will eventually lead to the average karaoke singer to either stop buying discs or just stop going to the karaoke bars as often because the KJ refuses to let that person sing their favorite songs if the KJ doesn't have them. A lot of people seem to be losing interest in going to karaoke shows around here anyway and maybe it's because the computer shows are turning away singers with their inability or their choice to not allow a customer to use his or her own discs. Personally, there are quite a few shows that I avoid because I can't sing my favorite songs because the KJ does NOT have them on his amazingly HUGE hard drive collection. Many, not all, of these computerized KJs are constantly bragging about their HUGE library and that they have EVERY SONG ever made for karaoke. These KJs come in two forms. One is the guy or gal who bought a hard drive from E-bay a year or two ago and hasn't bought a new disc since. If you do bring a personal disc, they try to copy it without your knowledge. If they don't have a CDG player, I'll just sing something from their song book but I probably won't go back to that show in the future. The other sort of KJ is the one who just downloads every song from the internet and feels that there is no need for him to carry around a CDG player because, in his mind, he has every song that anyone would ask for. The problem with this sort of KJ is that I make my own karaoke tracks using backing tracks that I purchase from various on line sources and I don't want this KJ to copy my home made tracks to his hard drive. Once he has my home made tracks on his hard drive, he's just one step away from sharing my home made songs with the entire planet. If people that I know want to sing some of the songs that I've made, they are more than welcome to sing them when I'm there but I'm not making copies of them for every KJ that runs from a hard drive only. I spend too much time making them to just give them away to people that never seem to want to buy any new songs since they have purchased their loaded hard drive. It's funny how these people who are always claiming to own all of their songs legally, never seem to have purchased any NEW SONGS for a very long time. They had no problem spending a TON of MONEY to get their first 100,000 songs but then they decided that they didn't want to spend any more money to get any new releases any more.

I split this post from another thread; not related to the subject of the thread but deserved to be a separated thread by itself.

Ok, post along..

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

Why not upgrade and simply carry a flash drive with your mp3+g files on it?

I haven't carried a CD+G player in 6 or 7 years there is just no need for it.


Disc are outdated an less and less KJ's are going to be carring them.

+1. Get a small USB drive. You can pick up a 256mb these days for $5.99!

That's expensive for a 256MB these days... You can get a 4GB for $16

BruceFan, since you create your own disks from backing tracks and if you don't wish to carry a USB drive and want to take your disks, why not just create standard audio disks without the lyrics. Most laptops I know of have a CD or DVD drive which can play these disks without the need for a CD+G drive. If I am expecting a KJ to be able to play my disks, then I feel it is my responsibility to present a disk that can readily be played without the requirement for the KJ to have specialised equipment beyond what he/she would normally use. For me, knowing the lyrics of the songs I sing is reciprocating the KJ's courtesy of playing my disks.

It may be different in other places, but in a couple years of shows (about 125 total) I have only had one person ever bring their own disk. (Athens GA)

I had recently changed computers so I could not play it at the time, although I could have a couple of weeks previously.

For regulars if they have requests, I usually get songs they want quickly if avalible so for them it is not a problem.

At other KJs shows I have very rarely seen it practiced in my area 2-3 times ever...

Incedentally the person with the disk was visiting from out of town...

At least for me, my lack of being able to play singers disks is not a problem (except once) in fact that is the only time I was ever asked if I could do it.

I like the MP3G idea but if a customer brings in their own to play at a show is that "commericial use?" And if there are no legal downloads for commercial use and putting their discs on MP3G is format shifting then where does the customer get legal songs to bring in on their MP3G? I'm thinking it will be the way to go once the legalities get sorted out and companies like Sound Choice start putting out their MP3&G data discs but until then it doesn't appear to be a legal option.

We bring our own discs if we go to other shows. People bring their discs in to our shows. We welcome it. People who get their owns discs are the type of addicts that help to keep shows going.

In complete agreement here regarding legality. However, another question arises:


Would you let someone you don't know walk up and shove unknown software into your PC? Of course not! In essence, that is what you would be doing if you let a customer hand you a thumb drive. How do you know what's on it?

Even if not on purpose, that customer can be handing you a nice little virus to load in.

Between legality and equipment safety, playing discs seems to be the safest answer so far....

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Well sure...except the OP's question was about KJ's with no disc players.

If you have decent anti-virus software, you can set it to scan any incoming USB drive when loaded.

Yeah different at different shows, I get customer discs all the time. One night had around 7 in one round.

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I have patrons that bring in discs on a regular basis.

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

I buy 1 gig flash drives for $3.00..

Use to have one customer that would bring in his own discs, but then he moved, haven't seen him since. If I got a regular that wanted to play his/her own discs, I would probably bring in my CDG player till I could get the songs they wanted. But normally I don't carry the CDG player with me.

Strange as it sounds, I've left my disc with selected KJs so my songs were there when I showed up..

Never had a problem with that..

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Vote with your feet. Most good karaoke hosts know that they still need to play singer's discs. If they can't figure that one out don't give them your support.

I do vote with my feet....I'm also not about to bring my songs on a thumb drive to make it even easier for the KJ to copy my home made songs. If the KJ doesn't want me at their show, they can leave their CDG machine at home. I can always find another place to go that still plays discs. I do make a point of telling the bar manager or the restaurant manager why I won't be coming back. I usually sing a couple songs from the kJ's book before I leave. This way the manager knows that they are losing a singing customer that sings pretty well and not someone who screams their songs at the top of their lungs and chases people out the door to have a cigarette......which means they're not drinking.

Do you want to stop and do that every time? In my area, a lot of customers like to bring their own. It would get kinda time consuming.

What would be neat would be a stand alone anti-virus scanner with imbedded firmware that could be updated....

Oops, but then there's that legality thing again...

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

You don't need to worry about viruses if you disable AutoPlay on those drives. Which you should do in general anyway.

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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.

Loyal customers will stay even more loyal if they can play their own discs, They will look at the KJ as being "customer friendly" and a "full service" Karaoke Host. I don't think it takes that much effort to carry a cdg player to keep people happy. That is the first Question people ask when inquiring about a show! The 2nd question is "How is the sound system?" The 3rd question is "Do they use decent wireless microphones"?

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Man Must Know His Limitations -Clint Eastwood

On some really busy evenings (35+ singers) I can have as many as 15 customer CDG's. I have a rack that I built that can hold as many as 40 CD's. Each one has a singer number (generated by KARMA rotation). Some of the customer's cdg's are original and if I have it I will play my mp3+g. Most of the time they don't know what version they have, so I will play their CDG, and I will make note of their version and play it in the background (no one can see it playing but me). Then the next time they come in and give me the same CDG and song I will have it already in their history.

I do believe that it is very important to take very good care of our valued customers, and that includes playing their CDG's.

Mrmarog