Karaoke Forums

I'm sure Bruce won't jump to conclusions when he sees a tip jar any more than he would think hosts assume he is a whining diva when they see him with his own discs. I mean that's what bringing your own discs always means, doesn't it? Not.

Most of the places I gig I don't get payed by the "management" they are clubhouse parties at RV parks. I do alright with my tip gar $100 per night in season for 3 hours. I like private parties at $50 an hour + tips.

Bruce; Maybe it be a more fair assumption that a tip jar represents a KJ that will pick it up, shake it, and say money talks when the KJ actually picks up the tip jar, shakes it and says money talks. Most (all?) here that host are singers on other nights as well. I've never minded a tip jar when I go into another place. Hosts and veteran singers can keep a rotation in their head and can easily see when a host is messing with the rotation. THAT'S when I assume a host is taking bribes or favoring singers. Until then i simply assume they will run a fair show.

If a KJ won't or can't play KARAOKE discs, then he or she isn't doing their job very well. Unless you have every single karaoke song ever made, you should have the abillity to play a customer's disc. There will always be people who create their own karaoke tracks and your local KJ should be able to play them. They are, after all, in the service business. It would be like a gas station that didn't sell oil or transmission fluid.

I'm glad that there are companies out there like karaokeversion.com, i-tunes, amazon.com and many others that are in the business of providing backing tracks for all of the "divas" like me out there that don't sing the same 5 songs week after week. I'm also glad that there are STILL some KJs out there that STILL think that their customers STILL come first.

I don't care if they have every song ever made, sometimes I just don't feel like looking at their inventory.....please play my cdg starting with the first song, and then the next one, for as many turns I end up getting. Announce that it's my sh!tty disk if it makes you feel better, and as a former kj, I never thought that was too much to ask.......just make sure it's clean. Shame on somebody bringing in a nasty cdg, and expecting a major cleaning job by the kj.....I've told people to take their cds to the restroom & wash them off or I won't play them......seen ones that looked like somebody #@$% all over them......

I went to the movies last night and Tom Cruise was walking up and down the aisles with a tip jar. The guy selling the pop corn had a tip jar and the guy who took my ticket also had a tip jar.

Is it too late for April Fools?

Bruce - It sounds to me as if you are trying to change our minds about having a tip jar out. Good luck with that.

As for playing customer discs - I don't have the capability and I won't add it. Discs are dead. If you are buying songs from any of the online sites, I am happy to buy and download on the spot *at my expense*. If it is a song that only exists on discs and I don't have it, then I will go out of my way to locate and buy *at my expense* so it will be available for you at some point in the future. But I am not going to invest in a technology that is rapidly dying, for the 2 people a year that ask me to play their discs. That is just not good business sense for me in my area. This does not apply to all areas, but in mine it does. I haven't had anyone ask me to play a disc at my downtown gig in about 9 months now.

-Chris

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-Chris

I play customers discs, just to be clear. I wish more customers were so into karaoke that they collected their own discs. My point was that Bruce gets upset if hosts assume that anyonee who brings in a disc is a troublesome Diva. So he should understand that not all hosts with a tip jar feel it is fair to be lumped with beggers and bribe takers. Not that Bruce will ever show up out here.

I was watching a Bob Newhart rerun and Mr. Carlin reminded me of someone for some reason.

And will you play it off of a Singer's Thumb Drive? And, if yes, does that person also have to show you proof that he owns the track on an original disc by bringing in the disc as well? What about if the song doesn't exist in Karaoke format, and someone like Bruce comes in with his own home made tracks on a Thumb Drive?

Bruce shows up for a KingBing show, he will be a changed man when he walks out the door! There's a good man under all that ruff stuff!

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

In over 4 years of hosting, I've had exactly one customer want me to play their disk. Yes it is all about the customer but also to be profitable. Many businesses have dropped some of their products (manufacturers, wholesalers & retailers) drop products due to low sales and not wanting to keep inventory on hand. Do I want to put an investment in of a player to play one disk in 4 years? Not looking for debate, just making a point.

Having said that, I do have the tools to play customer disks now, but only because I bought updated software from Invicion that had this as part of the upgrade.

I'd be happy to gig with only customer disks, sell all mine and use theirs as long as they are clean and not pirated.

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

I advertise the fact that I can still play discs, don't know if people that bring discs have actually saw that I can or just know I can. I usually get at least one disc per night. Some nights i've had as much as 6 discs from customers at one time, flash drives as well - although I CANNOT play from a flashdrive at this time until I get my PC working again, my laptop USB ports are full and the hubs seem to screw up when I cue up a song from Flash Drive while a song is playing.
In Bruces situation, some of the songs he has are his homemade versions - which no karaoke host could ever get. But then whether you would play that would depend on your stance on playing an unlicensed song.

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

Yeah, those twenty dollar DVD players that also play karaoke discs can really kill a budget. You guys are really funny. How are you going to acquire the tracks that a customer makes for himself?

You guys spend thousands of dollars on sound equipment and some of you spend a pretty penny on lights and smoke machines but you think that a TWENTY DOLLAR karaoke disc player is considered a crazy expense to make your show a little bit more convenient for some of your customers. SC8486-11

I have and will always offer to play customers cdgs. Around here i get them weekly.

And the player also allows me to play music videos as well when needed.

Of course it doesn't make sense to offer a service that isn't/hasn't been requested.

Depends on where you are or the types of crowds you have.

I've never had someone under the age of 25 ever give me a cdg to play for them, they're usually in their 40's-50's.

But most kjs just kj and don't/can't dj music besides snippets of filler, let alone run music videos.

Budget is actually only a very small piece of it. I don't want another piece of equipment to manage. I don't want the extra weight in my rig. I don't want to add little used switches and signal adapters (which take it well past $20 btw). I don't want to have to train people that work for me on something they will probably never use.

But it ultimately comes down to just not being important in the downtown Seattle area. The singers there rarely carry discs to venues. If I were doing gigs 20 miles north, I would probably put TWO CD+G players in a rig because a LOT of people bring their own discs in. But it is a completely different kind of singer that comes in there. They are older and there are a lot more regulars. Where I play my gigs everyone is <30 and grew up in a world of digital distribution.

Know your customers.

As for your self-produced tracks....happy to play those from a USB capable device. But I will not play commercial tracks from USB.

To stay on topic - Bruce, if you tipped me $200, I would be happy to by a nice CD+G player, all the switched and signal adapters and then play your discs just for you.

-Chris

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-Chris

I get them from all ages, but probably the avg disc bringers are in their 30's to low 40's.

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

In the years I have been doing this, I have had maybe two or three people bring in a disc for me to play. A few years ago I removed the disc players from my laptops entirely and put additional hard drives in their bays. Oddly, I haven't had someone ask to play a disc since.

I rarely have someone bring in a disc, like maybe once or twice a month, and when they do, 9 times out of 10 I have the same version they are looking for already loaded into CompuHost.

If not, however, Virtual DJ Pro, which I use for my filler music (HD videos), will play a karaoke CDG straight from the computer's DVD drive and output the graphics, so I don't miss a beat

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C Mc
KJ, FL

That would be too much of a hassle for Chris. He would come up with some other EXCUSE for not being interested in providing some customer service....unless someone else buys the software for him. I'm just glad I don't have to deal with too many KJs with his attitude. Most KJs that I have dealt with don't seem to have a problem with playing a disc. The ones that do have a problem with playing discs are easy enough to avoid. Ther is one place very close to where I live that doesn't play discs at all. The place was practically empty the hannful of times I went there. The last time I was there, the KJ tried to comvince me that a demo track was really a track with Background singers and not the lead vocal. The guy has all of the bells and whistles when it comes to computers and lights and speakers but his library is crap. It is poorly maintained and he doesn't seem to know anything about karaoke tracks. I guess that's only some of the reasons that there never seem to be more than 2 or 3 singers at the place at any given time. It's a great place to go if you don't have your own karaoke system and you need a place to practice a lot of songs on any given night; if you don't mind while he DJs for 3 or 4 songs between singers.

A-B-C-D Switch on e-bay for 10 bucks. I'm sure that everyone has 3 RCA cables laying around, or they can get them for less that $5, so you'd be able to hook up your new DVD player for a GRAND total of $35.

Oh! But then You'll have to teach people how to hit a button on the switch and the play button on the DVD player. The employees are not smart enough to manage all of that because it's much harder than learning how karaoke software works. Okay! whatever you say.