Karaoke Forums

and while you are doing that, keep a sharp eye out for the anal retentive police.

I retired doing karaoke about seven years ago, as i am now 74years old. I never used filler music, as soon as the singer finished i shouted the next singer up, and within a few seconds of we went again, having cued up the next singers song.

What i do object to is the presenter who lets the filler music go on for a few minutes before he gets the next singer up. Lets face it when you like to sing, you want the rotation going as fast as possible so it will come round to your turn quickly. I definately don´t want to hear filler music going on, i want to hear the singers. The other night i went to a bar, and went early so as to be one of the first to get up.
He started at 9-30, and i was about the third on. I left at about 12-15, and only got two songs in, all because he insisted on playing filler music in between.

Also what i realise is you might get a bit of order when the singer is on, but as soon as they have finished the customers start talking and of course they are still at it while the next singers on. I know you can´t stop customers talking, but quite a lot of time it´s just downright noisy. Sometimes i think is it worth getting up, but if i didn´t i would only be cutting my nose of to spite my face, and who will bother if i don´t get up, nobody. Thanks for listning to my moan.

The KJ has to know their audience. I agree, in a venue full of hardcore karaoke singers, it's a bad idea to let the filler music linger.

In my bar, however, a typical night is about 100 non singers and 15-20 singers, 75% of whom are very casual singers. I play about 45 seconds of upbeat filler between all singers as well as 3-4 full dance songs every night. I do have hardcore singers that don't like this format come up to me and complain from time top time. They think my show should be all about the singers. Well, when the singers are about 15% of your overall audience, it definitely is not all about the singers. If I made it all about the singers, I'd lose a big chunk of my audience. I have hundreds of people that would never be caught dead at a karaoke show elsewhere that are regular attendees to my karaoke show even though they will never sing, just because they like my format that isn't all about the singer, but about everyone in the bar having a good time.

Anyway, this argument has been made many times on the forum, but once again, there is no black and white, it's about what's best for your venue!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I started to use the Jeopardy thyme song and not regular music between singers if they take too long to get to the stage.

There is a difference between 'filler' music & 'bumper' music IMO. Fill music is usually entire songs played between singers. Bumper music is just something playing long enough to get your next singer up, underlying to where you can still make announcements as needed and eliminates ALL dead air in case the singer comes up & wants to change their song at the last minute or other scenerios. So essentially current singer over, fade up bumper music & call for applause, call next singer, next singer gets up on stage, fade bumper music & start their song. Rinse & repeat. It takes absolutely no singing time away from anybody just something to keep the flow going between singers.
But on occasion (only by requests - and YES these requests are always by singers), we will play a dance song or two - usually line dances like the Wobble or Cupid Shuffle or the likes. The dance floor packs out by singers & non-singers alike.

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

I don't wait, if I hear they are outside or in the restroom, or someone yells, oh I'll run & get them, i'll bump them down one & get the next singer up. The names of the next 3 singers are always on screen so they have no excuse that they didn't know they were coming up.

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