Karaoke Forums

OK, let's. But let's compare it to a BYO restaurant where I bring my own wine of which I like to partake of with my meal. In such a scenario, the waiter gladly opens the wine for me, for he knows that I am spending money for the service he/she and the restaurant provides.

And no, I never expect that a KJ has to or will play my disc and I don't consider a KJ BAD just because he/she won't. But it is a nice service if they do... and one they will most likely receive a nice tip for in return at the end of the night (but never a bribe!). HEY! There's another thing I am willing to do if I can't use my own disk..... NOT leave a nice tip for the KJ!

OK BFFL... we know the score, and what KJs have and don't have. We know that several have purchased pre-loaded hard drives and don't know how to operate anything other than the program that they're used to running. We know that there are KJs out there that don't update their libraries either.


That is NOT what this topic thread is about!

One valid point that you bring up is the fact that someone once copied your songs into their system (from a thumb drive that you provided), and then they kept those songs and added them to their library. That person is a thief, and that is low. Not only that, but I get the impression that this happened to you locally (at a show that you attend every so often).

My question to you now is, what about when you're on vacation? Would you give that thumb drive to another KJ to play your songs, and then care if they did the same thing? What I did (as described in my 1st post), was to insure that I would have a good time. I did not ask that KJ to erase those songs after I left. And, I would probably do it again. Are any of you KJs (that don't play CDs at all) willing to accommodate that (for when I travel)?

"With all due respect, if I had a long line of customers waiting at my ice cream shop which offered 10,000 flavors and you wanted the one flavor I didn't have, but brought the flavoring in a jar and wanted me to take the time to hand mix it for you, I'd probably serve the next person in line. "

DAN---if I went to a place that didnt have the flavor I wanted then I wouldnt get anything that visit and simply wouldnt return there. If they had what I wanted then I woudl be a LIFE-LONG LOYAL FOLLOWING.

The mixing flavor analogy is REDICULOUS.

They either have the songs I want to sing or not. If not i have my discs. If they cant or wont play them then I dont return there. They then lose a LIFELONG EXTREMELY LOYAL CUSTOMER WHO WOULD GLADLY JOIN THIER FOLLOWING. The bar then LOSES THAT LIFELONG DRINK AND FOOD BUYING AND FRIEND BRINGING AND RECCOMENDATION MAKING EXTREMELY LOYAL CUSTOMER.

And thats what ITS REALLY ALL ABOUT.

Go past the techie, ego, convienecce of the DJ arguments. Its about attracting and KEEPING LONG-TERM LOYAL CUSTIES.

If your not willing to do extra things that will attract AND RETAIN that type of custie then youre DOING YOUR BAR A DISSERVICE.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Well if the other hosting programs are that inconvenient for this kind of a thing, then YES I would say so!


Guess i'm not sure what you are talking about either. I put the flash drive in, click a button on my program, it takes me to the flash drive, I pick the song, it adds to the playlist & hit play when the song comes up - it doesn't add to my database in any manner. No importing of any sort. It plays from the flash drive. When song is over, I pull the drive & give it back.
Now if I was using a customer disc via Hoster, then it would take less than a minute to import that to a temp file to play then deletes afterward. But I don't use Hoster for customer discs, I have a separate player for that.


I wouldn't care for a program like that. I don't want to import anyones music to my drive which sounds like what you are talking about. I just want to play the one particular track they want to sing FROM their drive - which I can. No importing of anything whatsoever. I click the song which adds it to the playlist only, then hit play.


Yeah I would just pick it off the customers drive - no muss no fuss. Hit play & go. No going through my database or anything else. None of their songs gets mixed in with mine, so that scenerio isn't an issue for me.


Well probably because the question of bringing in flashdrives came into question and kj's said it was too many steps involved, it's not if you have the right program - there is nothing to it. I just loaded up a flash drive just to be sure I wasn't thinking clearly and it's as simple as plugging in the flashdrive, picking the song which adds it to the playlist only & hit play, no importing of any kind whatsoever!
So I guess with all those other programs, I can see why a kj wouldn't want to go there if they have to import anything, that's rediculous.

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

"I get visiting fellow kj's all the time at my show. And yep, they sometimes bring their own discs. NOT a problem. I will happily play any disc for anyone. It's just good customer service. Whether they be regulars or visitors, makes no difference. If however a visitor becomes a regular, and brings their discs with them each time, I will make sure at a very soon point in time that I have bought the songs they like and add them to my collection. Also good customer service. Thats exactly how we built clientele and collections."


THANK YOU SO KINDLY!!! MR. SCOTT

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

"I DREAD the day when singers have to use the laptop screen to sing off of, share ONE microphone to perform duets, listen out of ONE speaker, and cant bring in their own songs to perform because a KJ is either too lazy, too cheap, or to blind to see that providing services to entice and KEEP their customers is HOW you become even MORE successful.

disclaimer- just my opinion, but it has some common sense to it. Very Happy

If you don't need to provide it regularly because there is no need for it like Dr. Fred's show, fine, but 99% of the shows i've ever attended accomodated discs and they STILL sell discs, so why wolud this service change? To benefit ONLY the KJ!!!!!?? RIDICULOUS!"


SALUTE!!!!

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Speaking of Customer Service..............................

The very first time I went to Lonnie's show at the T-Bird in Tacoma, i brought my discs with me. I wanted to sing "THE WALKING BLUES", a rather obscure swing song on AMS-1509 trac #7. Lonnie didnt have this, but he GLADLY took my own disc that I brought, put it up on rotatation, called me up and had an eye opening expereince with the song itself and the way I performed it. Consequently he went out and ordered the disc himself and now has it on his inventory. Next trip(last weekend) guess what disc I used.................LONNIES!! He pulled it right up, called me up and away we went.
As a result..............he now has a lifelong, loyal customer...........all the way from Portland(about 140 miles or so). So now anytime we take a weekender to Seattle or Mt. Rainier or Vanc BC or the Olympic Pennisula or Victoria BC we will stop on the way up in Tacoma at Lonnies show at the T-BIRD. Why???? Becuase he has the songs I want to sing or if he doesnt I can use my own discs!!!

(and the wifey is even willing to endure the CIGARETTE smoke--as its a Tribal operation that still allows smoking!
---and speaking of which she just sang her VERY FIRST karaoke song ever!!---all because Lonnie lets u bring your own discs
---and we dropped about 65$ on our food and booze tab for the night----WHY????.....Becuase Lonnie lets you bring your own discs!!)

ENOUGH SAID!!

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Well put Kurt!

I like to bring my Canadian discs especially when travelling outside the country to share our music with others. I daresay very few hosts outside Canada (with the exceptions of some Americans along the border) have or heard Canadian music other than Celine Dion, Shania Twain, and Paul Anka. If I said Chilliwack, Trooper, The Tragically Hip, or Blue Rodeo, the chances are you'd give me a strange look.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Well, how does that info help the OP if the shows he goes to are not using MTU Hoster? I was explaining why a singer might run into a problem expecting a KJ to use his flash drive. Did I say something the least bit inaccurate?

And according to the KJ's I have discussed hosting software with, Compuhost seems to have the most fans. Compuhost doesn't work like the other three programs I have used that have databases. Those databases define the "paths" which identify the folders where the desired (karaoke or MP3) file can be found.

Does anyone who is familiar with Compuhost know how it would "handle/access" a file on a flash drive?

I LOVE Tragically Hip. I tried to get that disc before the company went under. It was already sold out. I did manage to get the April Wine disc though which gets used on occasion.

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

I just assumed that all hosting programs were as easy to use in that respect, sorry I was wrong apparantly - sue me. I was going by the experience I have in that situation since you brought up the fact that most programs don't have an easy way to do this. If a program required you to actually import a flash drive to your computer before the program will play them, then yes I can understand the hesitation that the 'inconvenience to the kj' would cause, god forbid....ah never mind.

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

Shania is canadian?? GET OUT!! Really?
I had NO IDEA Tim, i thought she was from nashville!

Love BLUE RODEO! Love Chilliwack! Love Tragically Hip and Trooper. Does Blue Rodeo have karaoke?

So, if it got to the point that no matter where I went, I could not use my own personal disks or backing tracks on USB drive (flashdrive), well I might just be willing to set up my own karaoke hosting business, making sure to use software like MTU host that would allow me to offer the customers the ability to play their disks with minimal fuss to the host I hire.

Karen, a whole disc. Here's a link to buy.

http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=kara ... Lang=en-CA

Just type in Blue Rodeo in Artist. You get the whole Disc. Not sure why they show it that way.

Shania is a pure bred Canadian girl. Just waiting for her to meet me and take me away.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

VERY SIMPLE SOLUTION FOR YOU TOV

Geeez!!! Download winamp along with it's cdg plug in and key changer plugin. All of these are free. Download Sax & Dotty's Zip player to your PC. Plug in thumb drive to your USB port on laptop. Right click on any song on the thumb drive to load it into Sax & Dottys and you're all set. Double click the song in S&D to start playing the song.

If the customer brings their songs in and they are unzipped and in a folder with an mp3 file and a cdg file, just open the mp3 in winamp and you will get the same screen with the lyrics so you get with Sax & Dotty's zip player because it uses winamp and it's plug ins to play the files.

Oh silly. Of course Mutt isn't in her life anymore..>Maybe you have a chance! I loved scrolling through all the Canadian artists - I forget about the homies - Avril Lavigne, Michael Buble, BTO, etc., etc. Diana Krall is from Nanaimo, and of course married to Elvis Costello. I have some Diana Krall I'm working on. Thanks for the link, I made it a fave and will go through and find some Blue Rodeo. Believe it or not, I've had people ask for it....this is great!

I'm not sure if you can still find Sax N Dotty's zip player anymore, if you can great, if you can't you can use Debs Karaoke Zip Player, also free and almost identical to Sax N Dotty's --> http://www.debssoftware.com/

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

I don't think you can make the blanket statement that any KJ who doesn't play discs isn't interested in "customer service".

It's like Spock said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

What I've found in my experience is that singers who travel with their own discs are not only usually more persnickety and demanding - shouting at me on stage "turn up the treble, turn down the echo, bring the music level up..." - but more often than not they're singing some oddball song that's not especially entertaining to anyone except for the singer.

If I have 100 people in the bar and I'm not able to play a disc with some obscure Canadian blues song only the singer knows, or some track they custom rigged, I (and probably the entire bar and owner) won't be disappointed if they want to find another show.

Suffice to say - and sorry if I'm the only KJ with the cajones to say this because I'm not trying to impress anyone here - that prima donna customers who are inordinately demanding above and beyond reason are more trouble than the $20 they'll spend. (Actually in my experience more often than not those with their own discs just drink water.)

I'm happy to cater to any singer's needs - within the parameters of the show that I offer. The 99.9% of people who come to sing just for the fun of it are fine with choosing something from my t e n .. t h o u s a n d .. u n d u p l i c a t e d .. t r a c k s. The other .1%? I feel for you, but I'm happy to send you down the road.

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