Karaoke Forums

I have to agree..Books and slips do give it more of a personal touch and some poeple like to sit down and skim though a book without be rushed

The singers standing in front of my kiosk are four feet from me. The kiosk and my rack are back to back so I can still say Hi and give them any help they need. I don't want to lose that personal touch.


Sorry Gemini, we did hijack your thread a bit.

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

Hence the reason I will keep a couple books on hand. Strictly for browsers that are looking for ideas and don't know what they want to sing.

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

Mine has that, request right from the smartphone. Others on this forum that have had a kiosk for a lot longer than me and with bigger crowds claim there is never waiting at their kiosk. If you know what you want to sing, the one I use (Compuhost kiosk) takes about ten seconds to submit if you already have a usercode and password and already know what song you want. That ten seconds includes logging in. I encourage my customers to make the password as simple as possible, you don't have to worry about people getting your ss number or anything. If you are a first time user, it may take a minute or even two if you are computer challenged.

Having said that, I did print a few slips out a couple weeks ago before I got my kiosk up and running. Lost my saved template and I was in a hurry and created from from excel.

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

And 3rdly so, yes, I most definitely agree. I’m still not abandoning my books & slips. I’ll just cut down to size, down from 11 to maybe 2 for those who prefer not to use the kiosk & not stand in front of a comp while perusing my song list. Transform my 2 book shelves cabinet with a freestanding kiosk. My regulars hardly use my books anyway. They collect their slips at the end of the night & reuse them. They only check the new song released pages & accumulate more slips from there.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

Thanks, TroyV. And thanks, guys. Great suggestions paying off already! Keep ‘em actionable kiosk building ideas coming (or a better alternate as Troy indicated above).

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

We still put out 4 books for those who want them. I do however encourage the use of our digital age system for them to sign up, browse, add to favorites, see the rotation and/or remove themselves from the rotation all via their smart phone, ipad, ipod etc. At our newest venue I will be setting up two old macbooks (by us stationed at a table) linked via wifi to our system for them to do the same.
Our show is very personable, it's all about the host & knowing your people, newcomers and old alike. Take the time to talk with everyone, make them feel "at home" and encourage them to make friends etc.
Song slips/kiosk etc. have nothing to do with a good show or personal interaction IMO.

I will always use slips, for anything to show someone - yes you did write this up. Antiquated - I don't care, my preference and it works, since I have not found a program that runs a rotation 'automatically' the way I want a rotation run, I will never be slipless.
I will always use books for the simple reason - I like them, I like to offer what i'd want to find at another show, and sitting down at a table looking through the books is what i'd like to see at other shows.
I do offer online books (have a couple people that bring in a laptop & tablet) and phone app books (a handful of people use their phones), these only get used on occasion, even though they are heavily advertised and ALWAYS updated - high majority of the people still ask for books even in this technological age.
I will be offering a kiosk when the club goes through their remodel - but will still keep books and slips & am willing to bet books will still be the preferred method for singers to look up songs.

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

Well I guess I'm old school as well I still use books and slips.
I like browsing the books when I go to a show so that is how I run my shows. I don't see myself changing to a kiosk just yet. My customers like my show so I guess thats what counts.

Perhaps cuz most of my singers are from the stone age just like me.... the average age must be approaching 94... (Perhaps a slight exaggeration)

Now Rip, look at your quote again. "if they don't know what it is." I could stick a kiosk in front of 90% of them and they wouldn't know what it is... and I'm not about to try to teach them... Hell, I've had my iPhone for a couple of weeks, and still haven't figured out how to make a call or text with it.

I don't think my not entering the electronic age more than I have already has hurt my shows at all... with 34 and 46 singers respectively last week.

Nah... I'll stick with my books and slips... I just look at them as a minor cost of doing business.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

The beauty about using slips is that when I am busy processing something, they can just come up and hand me a slip, and not have to say a word to me. At the beginning of the show, that is very critical advantage to slips vs verbal requests. Once I get the rotation established I have more time to interact, and I do. Also, like Lon says, I have written proof of what they requested.

In the past (a year ago) I had a couple of shows that my laptop locked up and required a reboot of the program. When the program rebooted I had lost all of my singer's cued songs, so the slips allowed me to easily rebuild the rotation.

My program if it locks up saves the info for me so when I go back the only thing I have to do is press play.

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

In an effort to get back on track... I've never used the free Request Slip Generator. I've created my song slips master (or PMT) in Microsoft Publisher... ten to a page... and have my local print shop copy, cut, and pack them neatly into little boxes.. Five thousand slips at a time.

And the price is very reasonable... compared to the time, effort and expense I'd have to expend to do it myself.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

I used to do it years ago; Microsoft Publisher song slips 6 to a page. Take it to a print shop & print 1,000 sheets on stock card #110 paper, cut to size, packed in small boxes. It’s 6,000 slips & costs: he started @ $120, 2 years later @ $150, until it got to $170. That’s when I bought my own Xerox copying machine. Toner cartridge cost $250 & will print approx 12k to 14k sheets.

Also bought a heavy duty paper cutter at Costco, now I do all my printing & cutting at my convenience.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

We haven't had to pay a cent on slips in 8 years or so. We have an advertiser who pays for the slips which are produced by a professional printer.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

now that's an interesting concept.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens