Karaoke Forums

I am sure sure there are kiosk implementations that work perfectly well. My experience with the kiosk at the Ambassador was less than so for the reasons I have explained already. I admit to having an old school preference for song books, but I am also working on ways to accomodate the younger crowd that is purely digital. Having my song list available online or in an app is just as convenient if not more so that a book. I just draw the line at having an automatic submission process.

I am trying to keep an open mind about kiosks given that I have only seen the one implementation.

I gave this some thought last night and I can see where if I was in a well established venue and had been there for many years that having a kiosk would be very convenient for regulars. Possibly in very large venues having strategically placed kiosks might even promote more singers. One absolute positive I see if if the DJ booth is on stage or very close to it, having a kiosk AWAY from the stage so new singers aren't having to cross the stage or dance floor while singers are doing there thing is another upside.

When it comes down to it. Whatever implementation I use has to fit the following criteria -

Simple.
Easy.
Works.

Then I start looking at the rest of the negatives/positives.

-Chris

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-Chris

Fast. Reliable. Cheap. Pick two and we'll talk....

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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.

I see the need for a Computer for the customers to look up music/artists in. if I was to print my entire list of music it would take two 4" Binders for each listing style (2 Artist Books and 2 Title Books, 4 books total). Customers Hate lugging those things around the tables. I am currently using an online database for my song book that customers can log into from their laptops or Phone Browsers. I tried it last weekend and got an outstanding response. =)

I will be putting a Laptop (As soon as I get it in the mail) in for the customers to use, connected to the same database software.

They still have to submit a request in person, although I can take up to 10 requests at one time from a customer and my hosting software will keep the rotation accurate for me.

=)

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Sal "Kjmann" Esquivel
Karaoke With Sal - Website

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The poor ergo set up and light set up falls back on the host or venue, not the actual idea of a kiosk. All singers are different heights so I try to find a happy medium for height and I have a snake usb light that I plug into my laptop and it lights the keyboard. So bye bye to those two issues!

As far as talking to the host, now you don't have to wait in line and he will more likely have more time for you.

Any more questions? Truly, keep an open mind, don't just say it. My business is rapid good change, we call it kaizen. I'm always open to anything!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

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Forced? Why were you "forced'? Is it more work than writing on a song slip? Assuming you are one with good hand writing, fast at it, always have a pencil in hand with good lighting, then maybe hand writing song slips is easier for you and easy on the host's eyes. How long to type the password? Would you rather others could submit (intentionally or un) songs for you? My system allows the password to be one digit if one wants. The kiosk can be placed wherever it makes the most sense.

Oviously the kiosk isn't for your business at this time, but again keep an open mind.

I love my kiosk, just having trouble with my hosting laptop picking up the network consistently so it's going back to Dell today or tomorrow, whenever the box gets here that they are sending to me. My two backup computers have no issue so once my main is fixed, I will be fully changing over to my kiosk! Then I will implement the smart phone option for my singers as well. I will keep one or two books for those who may want to browse for ideas but I won't be updating them anymore.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

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May be novelty to you Kurt, to me it's the next level. I understand the book for you, I'm the same way, if I come to a show without a list of songs I MAY sing, I can't remember them. Hence, I keep a couple books for people to browse. They are welcome to turn in song slips but it's nice when a new song pops up in my que (I prefer to not have it go automatically in the rotation) and I can put it in the rotation and also see right away if it is a repeat. No one can turn in a song electronically that I don't have so no more running them down to let them know I don't have that song (yeah, people do that all the time, too lazy to look in the book) I currently keep my kiosk backed up against my rack, so the laptops are basically back to back. This may sound in the way but it's actually conveniently not covering or distracting from the singer in anyway and I can talk to the person at the kiosk easily. (I'm on a stage about 9" high) As far as a line, I've never had a line. But let's hear from someone who has 20-30 singers consistently. Oh, no drinks on my computer, my kiosk top is just big enough for the laptop, mouse is on a swing out platform beside it. Dust, yeah, just like books, oh wait that would be beer!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

That's like a wireless mic

Cheap
Quality
Wireless

You can have 2 of the above!

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

How do you you print your pages?
Double Sided
Dual column
Font size?

How many songs?

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

I have about 37,000 Song Titles.
Double Column/Sided
Font Size 12

Here is the Online Book I'm Using. CLICK HERE
Shawn Has done a great job with the software.
He will be adding some more features to narrow the search results based on some suggestions from my customers this last weekend.

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Sal "Kjmann" Esquivel
Karaoke With Sal - Website

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I KNEW I had heard that before, just couldn't quite place it!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

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WOW! I'm slowly creeping towards 11,000 unique titles! Totally jealous!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Well, I've been KJing since '96, but I'm sure there are still a lot of duplicates that I still haven't found. I'm working on it though (tedious).

There are some songs I always keep the old duplicates from for the preference of the singer. Like The Pioneer Set. I'll Never get rid of those. =)

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Sal "Kjmann" Esquivel
Karaoke With Sal - Website

I just hit 13K (unique titles) after 18 years.

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

I have no idea what my unique title count is and I don't see myself going down the path of figuring that out any time soon.

For my main system, I have 39,454 usable tracks including the most recent updates from PHM. I know there is significant duplication in my Stellar/Panorama/THM/PHM collection.

I am still verifying my collection for System #2, but I imagine it will be 50% or less of what System #1 has.

I generally leave duplicates in to provide variety and to accomodate those that want specific versions. I don't print books with version information and I strip out duplicate titles as well. For songs that have multiple versions I just ask the singer for a preference and then Karma keeps their history so I can pull up their preferred version.

-Chris

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-Chris

@Chris
I know what you mean. it's a lot of work. My Harddrive shows Over 51,000 Karaoke Files, But I'm guessing that I'm Closer to 30-35k for Unique Titles.

=)

@Lonman
That's a VERY Respectable Number. Nice Collection. I'd Love To See The Song Book Sometime. =)

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Sal "Kjmann" Esquivel
Karaoke With Sal - Website

Here is the online searchable http://www.inkaraoke.com/k/m/lonman this one is also searchable via phone. - also have an actual phone app via karaokeloop.
and the actual pdf like you'd see in the club. http://www.lonmanproductions.com/nodupart.pdf

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

Nice. That's a very nice search engine. You have a very well rounded collection. =)

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Sal "Kjmann" Esquivel
Karaoke With Sal - Website

Thanks. One of our members here , Mickey (mckyj57), created that one. I love it.

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

At my first gig I had less than 2,000 unique selections. For two years every penny I made went into upping my library. I bought tons of lots, some were huge lots of cdgs on ebay. Spent significant hours ripping them. Every week I was adding multiple pages to my books in order to keep up and changing out the pages about once a month. It got to a point where more of the songs I bought were dupes. Then I slowed down and concentrated on only new stuff. So my library hasn't grown much over the past year or so. I believe I have around 18,000 total songs counting dupes. I'm lucky, where I am at no one complains about the selection or the versions I have. Lately everything has been chartbuster but updates are slowing down, may have to go back to mp3s from PHM.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Chris,

Thank you for your nice words and for coming down to visit me! It was nice to see Kurt Swing Cat again and to catch up with him and to finaly meet otheres who are as active like me with getting certified and being legal! Keep up the great work and spread the great word of legal karaoke!

Big Mike