Karaoke Forums

I was curious how you guys handle your rotations. We allow singers two songs at the start. Depending on the amount of singers and time we switch to one later around 12:30 to 1. Our gig goes from 9:30 to 2. We play DJ until 10 and start promptly. This allows time for greeting, collecting songs, and them pounding down some liquid courage...Our customers seem to like it...

Jon

Hope it's advertised that karaoke doesn't start until 10 and DJ music is played until then. That's a big turn off for me if I go to an advertised karaoke show with a start time, and have to wait for music to finish out or wait for dance breaks throughout the night.

We start at nine. Usually have several slips waiting on the counter, no time for music. No twofers, used to but some of the singers complained they didn't want to do two songs in a row - which wasn't required, but they didn't like to have to wait twice the time while others were singing their two songs. So we dropped that years ago.
First round is first come first serve, rotation usually caps at 10-15 depending or 9:30 whichever comes first. New singers get intermixed with the old with the first new singer usually waiting about 20 minutes from the time they put their slip in. Then it cascades down the list from there.

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

I do what Lonman does. We do a pure karaoke show. I run from 9p-1a. First come/First up until 10pm or 12-15 deep rotation then mix in first timers. The Karma software manages my rotation. Singers stay on the list and get bumped to bottom after they sing. I drop them from the list completely if I call them and no one responds.

I added a new rule recently that gets announced after every attempt someone makes at influencing the rotation. I will move you anywhere you want in the list for $1000. Just to shut up the folks that want to try to get me to change the rotation for any of the myriad of reasons that I have heard over the years.

-Chris

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-Chris

DITTO what Lon & Chris said.

But I do allow people to sing 2 in-a-row if it starts out slow, but once there is about 5 singers it goes back to 1 at a time.

And if you do advertise karaoke at 9:30, and someone hands in a slip at 9:29, they better be singing at 9:30, IMHO. It would pi$$ me off if it was advertised karaoke at 9:30, and it DJ music played till 10.

But most of all...Keep a fair, consistent rotation, and don't get into the habit of bumping ppl, and all will go well.

Pure karaoke as well. In my case it's first come, first serve- no intermixing. Come in at the start, and you sing more. Come in at the end, and you don't.

The only position where the previous singer changes is the anchorman, or first position, because new singers go at the end of the rotation. If a person sang before you the first round, he/she will always be the one before you.

In other words, if there are 20 in the rotation, and you come in while 20 is singing, you're next. If you come in when 1 is singing, you have a 20 singer wait.

Those who come in early and spend their money longest win. Show hoppers who come in hoping for an intermix so they can sing for the 5th time that night in the 5th venue without spending anyplace lose.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

I use to intermix new singers into the rotation about three or four songs down the line when I was disc based and could get away with it. Now that I use Compuhost, I have to place them at the end of the rotation before the marker place(usually me, unless I have too many singers then I take me out of the rotation and turn on the marker for the singer behind me).

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Our show is from 10 to 2. We like firing up the system early, never know what could happen when you have to move equipment in and out all the time. Down here its pretty much the norm to allow two songs out the gate. Like I said our people like it and if would change it, oh boy, I don't even want to think about that...

Jon

Which is why CH doesn't work for me, I like to run my show the way I have for 20 years - the way our customers prefer. Not to be forced by the software to say this is the way it is now because i'm limited by the software.

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

We run our rotation as such. If were up and running and you just arrived and give us song, you go in front of the person currently singing. Meaning you have to wait until everyone sings agian. Theres no top or bottom of the list. It's much like a clock. If you come in when singer 4 is singing then your now in the 3.5 spot. If there's 9 singers, then you wait until singer 3 is finished (eight singers)...Stops cold the guys who come in late to the show and think they get to sing right away...

Jon

I never liked that method either as a singer.
I know many people in this area that get off until late in the night (lots of swing & graveyard workers), it's not their fault they cannot be their earlier. As a singer I don't typically frequent shows that don't work with the newer singers. I expect it as singer, not all in a row, but interspaced between the older (that have already sang at least once) singers. It's still going to work out if you are there early (provided the host knows how to work in new singers properly), you are singing more.
It doesn't mean a singer can walk in at any point and expect to sing, I still have a cutoff point where I take no more slips from anyone - UNLESS they already have a slip up & want to swap it for their last song.
But Pyle, what I was getting at is 'do you advertise your karaoke show at the starting time of 9:30 and just play music until 10 before you get a singer up?" This is what I was getting at that would turn me off from coming back as a regular.

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

We don't advertize our Friday gig nor times. Everone knows we start at 10 and finish at 2, and packed every week. When we first started over 6 years ago it was 9:30 to 1:30. That was short lived, hardly anyone was there until 10, and everyone wanted us to keep playing untill 2. So we made the adjustment...Our Thursday gig is 9 to 1 and is advertised as such...

Jon

Lonnie things are real different down here. You have to remember I live in Occupied Mexico. Think I'm joking, search the Rio Grand Valley on Wiki and look at the demographics. We have fresh taco counters in 90% of the convience stores. It's 87% Hispanic in the County I live in. Hell, the imigration check point is sixty miles north of where I live...

Jon

I like to do things as I viewed them from a singer's standpoint:
The first rotation it is first come first serve. Generally, new singers go in behind the current singer. If Joe is singing when Sally puts in a request, Sally sings right before Joe's next song. Sometimes new singers get a very slight bump if there are too many new singers bunched up together in later rotations.

My philosophy is; nobody hears to you sing until you hear those who came before you (especially those who have been spending money longer than you). Singers tend to carry large egos and are usually keenly aware of their spot in the rotation. Any deviation tends to offend unless it has the appearance of fairness.

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KNOW THYSELF

We do as Joe does and sometimes get a complaint that a newcomer didn't have to wait long enough but it is usually from visiting hosts or ex-hosts and not the regulars themselves. I know some like to psych up for their turn and like the consistancy of knowing who they are after so it is a sort of trade off.

People who want a lot of songs in can come early. If there are enough there, we start early. If there are only a few early singers but we are set up, we have had "practice" where we will start early if each person agrees to try a song they have never done before.

I was always of the pure karaoke school but recently experienced a show where if I had DJ music I would have been a winner. We have a semi-regular place that brings us in as a special event here and there. Since the last time there, the leader of our regular pack had a falling out with the bar owner and the patrons had gone from 30 to 40 year old singers to 21 year olds who hated karaoke and let me know it. I had about 5 people who came especially to sing and the rest who wanted wild music and dancing and beer pong. At one point I put on the karaoke version of "Party Rock Anthem" out of desperation and they went for it. I did have some of the haters singing by the end but if I had been prepared to do a part DJ/part karaoke show it would have been the right thing for that crowd and the few singers wouldn't have minded the break as they were running out of songs. And I never thought I would ever say that.

I adopted my rotation strategy from a host that has been in the biz for a long time. He still uses an Excel spreadsheet with a custom macro to mix in the new singers. He gave me a copy of the spreadsheet which I used for over year until switching to Karma late last year. Now I manually replicate the process in Karma. I announce that I mix in new singers with repeat singers and have only had a few instances where anyone has ever complained (and usually they are pretty drunk so i take it in stride)

-Chris

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-Chris

@PyleDriver - As you can tell, there are many variations to how hosts manage their "rotation". There is no single absolute right way. It depends greatly on how you set expectations and how things have historically operated in your area.

I think the only universal no-no's that are heavily frowned upon are letting tips, drinks, boobs, or a bulge in the pants influence the rotation.

-Chris

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-Chris

My Rotation is like Joe's. When I start the 1st Rotation, whoever handed up a song request slip, sings in turn. Once I have no more New Singers, I start Rotation number 2 back at the top of the order. I keep your 1st slip as a place holder, so you keep your spot whether you hand up another slip or not. As I am getting close to your next approaching turn, if you did not hand anything up, I will check to see if you intend to. Even if you choose not to sing in that Rotation, you still have your spot saved for the next Rotation.

As for New Singers coming in, if you hand me a song request slip before I have finished any Rotation, you get to sing in that Rotation. If you happen to have handed up a song slip while the last person in the current Rotation is singing, you are next. If I have already started the next Rotation when you hand up a request slip, then you are at the end of the line for that Rotation.

As for Duets, I have to (pardon the pun) play it by ear. For the most part, the first name on the song request slip counts as that person's song regardless of whether he/she is singing alone or with others. Now, I have had it happen, where Sue has handed up a song request, and she sang with John. John happens to follow Sue in the Rotation, and he handed up a song request, and he wants to sing with Sue. I have allowed this as long as it didn't occur all night long with the 2 of them. I also make sure that I announce with each and every person that gets up on the stage, that (example) Sue has asked fro John to join her on HER TURN to sing, and then when John gets up for his turn, I say the same thing about John. Also, I do NOT penalize you a turn (as I feel some KJs have), just because you got up on the stage before YOUR turn to sing (as a result of doing a Duet with someone else. You still get YOUR turn when it is your turn. So, Sue could ask John to join in with her on her turn, and then John could still sing his SOLO song right after that (since his turn is after Sue's). When it gets to the point that there are too many requests from the same people (judgement call here), I try to convince them to sing Solo songs, or at least spread the songs out a little.

Also, I run a Disc-based show, so I am always announcing who will be up next, and the following person after that. I usually have up to 9 discs pulled and ready to load at any given time (once I have song slips getting handed up). I use a 3-tray JVC player, so I keep all 3 trays loaded. As soon as I announce the next person to come up on stage, I start the disc, and then pause it as soon as I see the title start to come up. The song is ready to start playing before the Singer has gotten to the stage and taken the Mic. My only lag time is the time it takes the Singer to get to the stage, not the time it takes to queue up the song.

If rotations are big (i.e. more than 12 singers) I only display the next four singers in the rotation display. This prevents the problem of having someone see themselves 5th one time then 7th the next time.

I like to stick newer singers in a little bit sooner, but I also don't want to enable people to show up late and still get in at the end of the first rotation. I stop that by capping the rotation at 10 singers or half-an-hour after show start time. In other words, if you get your request in by 0:30 after show start, then you are in the first rotation. Otherwise, we start over and you get interleaved in after that.

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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 clearly put in my book that new singers go in the dead middle. If there are 20 people in the rotation, the new singer is 10th. If there are 5 people in the rotation, the new singer is 3rd. If it is at the very end of the night, I'll work in 1-2 new singers if it means I go 10-15 minutes over, but I don't do charity karaoke all night long for people that show up after 1:00 a.m.

My show runs from 9:00-1:30, but the bar is open until 3:00. I'll get a few of my regulars in after hours, but beyond that, it's pay to play after 1:30, and first to pay, first to play, no more real organized rotation. The bar only pays me until 1:30, so once I'm off the clock, I'm either going home or accepting tips to play a little longer.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I don't understand this. I can place a new singer anywhere in the list I desire. I don't have any fictitious "software limitations" at all with Compuhost.

Now, when I add a new singer, if I DON'T want them at the bottom, I have to click and drag them where I want them. Is that the limitation? It takes 2 seconds.