Karaoke Forums

While some may frown upon the practice, digital downloads from Tricerasoft and karaoke version 'on the spot' can go a long way towards a KJ's rep. Knowing that you're willing to do this for the singer certainly impresses them.

_________________
Good music, good friends, howling good times!

I assume in order to download on the spot, you have to be on line while running your show. I have heard that using your karaoke computer for anything except karaoke is a bad thing. A chance of virus or other proplems. Is that true ?

_________________
My first choice IS Sound Choice.

Not if you limit yourself to that site. If you surf porn while someone is singing The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald, all bets are off.

Seriously though, that is way overblown as a problem. Just limit yourself to necessary sites, use Firefox instead of the constantly-compromised MSIE, and have a backup disk and computer. I have done this for a long time now with nary a problem.

_________________
[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

What do you have to order? Oh, probably a medium pepperoni pizza, preferably from Sound Cheese, or maybe from Pizza Maestro.

Hey you forgot about Belly Buster.

_________________
You can be strange but not a stranger

ha ha ha ha I can probably arrange it!

Try living in Colorado. That can happen in one day.

Try Nova Scotia. If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes, sun, rain, snow, rain, snow, sun, hail, +20C, -5C, and so on and so on and so on.

_________________
You can be strange but not a stranger

I usually don't post anything, although I do actively read these forums. Based on this thread however, I thought I'd chime in.

I've been working at a venue in a resort town this past summer on Saturday nights with a new owner of a bar trying to build up business with karaoke entertainment. He's never had it before.

Well, I went the extra mile trying to do the best job I could do for him to help him build up his business. Well, the people came. They loved the sound. They loved the song selection. And they loved me and the show I put on. The word started to spread and business started to get better and better each week.

On the fifth week, at the end of my show, the owner proceded to tell me that he's thinking of hiring someone else because he's got 75,000 songs and will do it a lot cheaper. Is that a kick in the teeth or what?

Anyway, I tried to explain to him that he's probably illegal and he said "well that has nothing to do with me". I tried to explain the ramifications of hiring someone using illegally obtained music files but just didn't get it.

So, he said will you at least do it for less. And I agreed and took a 20.00 cut. I did it for 3 more weeks and decided this is just not worth it, and said goodbye.

Yes, even doing a great show and even with the crowd loving you, pirates are making it difficult to get and hold on to jobs.

Peace,
Alan
http://www.firelightkaraoke.com

Alan

Thanks for your lucid and disturbing post.

Some of us having been suggesting for awhile that library size can become a competitive factor.

Why? If for no other reason than what you experienced - the thinking of an ignorant owner, an owner who was unconcerned even with the potential legal ramifications of dealing with a "pirate".

And... obviously the pirate has learned that the size of the library could be a selling point and that's why he brought it up when making his sales call!

But let's not ignore the fact that you were also undercut in price and that you kept the job by accepting $20 less. I can only imagine that you weren't getting enough in the first place to justify taking any cut. I would have to further imagine, therefore, that the pirate was willing to work real cheap?

I was getting $150 for that one Saturday a week. I dropped to $130. I think the pirate found out how much I was getting and offered to do it for $100. But what made it no longer feasable was that I had a 1 hour and 15 minute commute each way to this place.

So when you figure in 2 & 1/2 hours traveling time, at least an hour to set up (longer when I used lights), and an hour to break down plus the 4 hour show for a total of over 8 hours. Just didn't think is was no longer worth it for the non-appreciative owner.

Alan

Yeah,

I kinda figured it was something like that. IMHO, you did the right thing "ALL AROUND" by bailing.

I've decided to start another thread to get a feel for what value, if any, there is these days to informing venue owners/managers of the developing climate towards pirates!

Thanks for input Al