Karaoke Forums

let's huddle up about this....

what are your thoughts / feelings / stories / teachable moments on posting videos of your karaoke singers on social media

here's my thoughts on it

so, like some of you, i highlight my karaoke nights on a social media websites. i post videos of folks singing or dancing. i haven't asked any folks for their permission beforehand which isn't polite i know. but i try to capture vids that don't embarrass anyone.

my vids are typically under 30 seconds long strictly by nature. i move the camera. though the singer is the main focus, i don't stay on them. and it's not obvious to the singer that i'm filming. often i'm behind them or filming them from the side. i film the room, i film the crowd reaction. but you can hear the singer the whole time even tho my camera isn't on them. i like the way i do it. it's cool. so far, i haven't had any complaints from anyone and personally, i feel like my vids are very watchable. i should work in hollywood

here's the slight problem. other folks on the same social media site are also posting their vids following my lead but theirs aren't as "cautious" as mine are. they're posting full vids of the entire 5-6 minute song. they aren't moving the camera. it's like watching paris hilton's sex video where the camera never moves.

i'd like to ask those folks to remove their vids yet i don't wanna sound like an azz. but their vids are like a gray cloud on our social media site. i welcome all vids. but now our site is becoming full of vids and i feel like it's a turn off watching every other vid that is a debbie downer. like, you don't have to post every single video of every single singer! i'm not. i'm picking their best moment--it may not be their signature song. this one girl had couples come up and start slow dancing along to her song. i'm filming that--but only 30 seconds and i'm moving the camera. i make you wonder how it ends and make you feel like coming out to our venue but cutting off vids after 30 seconds. i'll cut vids to the chorus so the song stays in your mind. but you get the point that the singer was good. seeing a bunch of short-cut videos with a full crowd in the background enjoying themselves makes you wonder how things turn out and where is this place because i keep you guessing. my peers aren't posting vids like that.

i can spend a whole afternoon (and have) re-watching my videos of folks singing because i like them so much. but the other vids on the site are a killjoy. i like variety. i want folks to post stuff. but let's try to help the venue, help the karaoke, make it watchable. make it enjoyable. make it put a smile on someone's face.

i know other kjs and i see some of their videos on their social media sites and i'm thinking "the video is (literally) so dark--the room doesn't have enough lights it's like you're filming in a cave." or they post up a video of two bad singers doing a duet. what's the point? i'm not trying to white-wash our karaoke nights and make it seems like it's all rainbows and puppies, i'm saying, i'm trying to show the best side of us. stop dragging it down.

what say you?

anyone out there got links to karaoke vids of folks performing. i guess i'll go on youtube to check out some more. haven't really dug deep into this...

and any thoughts on who not to film?

let's be honest. some folks up in karaoke have DUIs. and maybe their spouses don't want them there all the time. i gotta be careful when i'm filming. don't want folks to see them with a drink in their hand

also, young folks tend to wild out a little bit. but they're young and they have jobs. i don't want their employers finding my site and seeing them acting out. gotta watch out for that.

filming vids is a tricky game. but done right, it's a nice momento. it's a great heirloom. on the internets, i googled and found an old video someone posted of doing karaoke at our site and i forgot how much our venue changed over the years. i wasn't filming back then because i was against it at that time and didn't really much think of it. but i want that video now on our site just to point out look how different our venue used to look. look at my fat azz in the background using CDs. oh my god. when was i that fat?

any thoughts on hollering at folks on social media asking them to share their vids on your site? any best way to do it?

also, any thoughts on having the right 'sound' captured on video?

i see some of my fellow kjs vids on social media and it matters where you're standing when you're taping vids, sometimes because some captured vids, the singing sounds bad. and i'm not a sound-type guy. like if i come to your karaoke venue and you're sound is off, even way off, i'm not the type to criticize or even notice. i know very well my sound is never all that. i'd be hella nervous if any of you guys came to my show. but i gotta say in all the vids posted on our social media site, all the songs sound great. no muffling. no weird echoes. really clear. i'm really pleased with the sound. tho i may not like the video taped, the sound is good.

I just had a bride and groom post a 5 minute video of me leading their entire party in singing "bohemian rhapsody" and it was a hoot. One of the guests (who was lucky enough to get his hands on a microphone) actually reminded me of Cueball and another looked like "Rick from Pawn Stars"

But, I normally won't post videos of people singing.

videos can be so tricky

was watching a video on youtube earlier this year of this dude singing and you can clearly see the KJ in the background looking absolutely bored and annoyed. i know our job isn't the best but we've got to be aware at all times how we appear. i may not dress up to host a show, but i hope i'm not caught looking visibly annoyed while someone's singing or showing obvious body language that i don't care for a singer--that's on video!

gotta be like presidential candidates on televised debates. keep your head down looking at your notes or looking at the soundboard like you're doing something....ha

lemme gush real quick about 2 of my favorite videos* on the site

* = some information changed to protect identities; sorry; if you happened to ever discover the videos

i didn't do any of this on purpose or with forethought. it was spontaneous but after watching the videos so many times, i see why they work (maybe just for me) and wanted to share

video #1: four member girl-group is in the middle of singing but they all have their backs to me and they're facing the crowd. i'm just filming at random as i sometimes get the urge. for some reason i lean towards not showing the facial identities of my singers sometimes. i don't know why. but that's cool because it's really about the music, no? let their voices speak for them. so i'm briefly filming the backs of all 4 girls, so they're all anonymous while the crowd is facing me so i can see the crowd's faces and reaction encouraging them to sing. as if on cue, one of the 4 girls in the middle turns completely around and looks right into my camera and smiles--she's actually looking for the tv screen that's behind her and next to me that the crowd can see to follow along. there's a tv in front of her that the other 3 girls are facing--i have no idea why the one girl in the middle completely turned around spontaneously. everybody knows there are 2 tv screens, so.... but that moment she turns around, you see she's very attractive. and the crowd is animated. and then she quickly turns back around to face the crowd again and follow the words on the second tv, and like on cue, i cut the video. you don't see the other girls faces, but since one of them is fine, you imagine the rest are. and they all sounded great. then the video cuts short. whatever happens afterwards, the reaction, the applause, that's all private. you had to be there. so, i like this video. i still keep what actually occurred private. you get a glimpse of the performance midway. and with the girls, you get a glimpse of one of the singers, not all. and none of that was planned. but i liked the way it came out. and it's all under 30 seconds.

my other favorite video:

so this guy is singing. as i start filming in the middle of his song, you hear him but you don't see him yet because i start filming the crowd first. they're nodding, they're smiling, no one's looking at their phones. everyone is facing towards him. folks are swaying in the crowd. the whole time you can hear him in the video and i'm panning very slowly towards him, but you don't see him yet. judging by the song, i allow you to imagine first who he is or if i will even capture him on video. you don't know. the whole time you hear him tho, and he sounds great. you look at all the faces i'm showing and you see none of them have the mic, but they're all happy. finally i get to him as he's singing with the mic in hand. and he's probably not what you pictured. he's also not dressed how you pictured. i linger on him to let you get acquainted, soak it in, then i drift back the path that i came from and pan back over the same faces that you first saw and now you know who they're mesmerized by. and then i cut the video. you don't see the end, the applause, anything else. i'll keep that private. and this wasn't planned.

i'm trying to capture that one moment the singer has 'stage presence'. you know during a 5 minute song, they're maybe moments any karaoke singer loses that stage presence: they trip over a word, they go through the motions, they drop their animation, they're just limping to the end of the song, what have you. i seemed to capture those moments when their stage presence is on. and that's all you need.

just wanted to gush.

I'll say it before someone else gets to it:

Technically speaking, your terms of use for the karaoke track would not allow the commercial karaoke host to publish videos of singers singing the karaoke tracks. Of course, there are millions of those out on YouTube, and there don't seem to be any consequences, so proceed at your own risk, I guess.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Also be prepared to take down videos (and pics) if people ask you to.

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

Here where I'm at we have a closed facebook group dedicated to karaoke singers in our local area. this is where video's get shared. all members are hosts and singers and we post info about local shows date and times and just about anything karaoke.

no one is denied membership to the group unless you are out of the area and don't frequent local shows.

when posting video's we don't allow full clips from start to end, just a 30-45 second snippet. and pictures of karaoke shows.

that way no one is embarrassed of something that's posted because the singers in the group have already seen them live in person at the venue.

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It's all good!

What's recorded in public is fair game......maybe not even in public......just ask Trump...

i appreciate the feeback from everyone. thank-you.

i apologize for my long-winded text. always.

topher is so right. i hadn't immediately focused on the fact that the terms of use for the karaoke song do not including posting video of that song being sung by anyone. though it's in the far back corner of my mind. no wonder why i subconsciously avoid filming the faces of my singers directly etc...and why i avoided filming anyone at first for years.

yes, i'm very prepared to take down any video if asked. so far folks are asking me when i'm going to tape them? . also noticed some regulars dressing up now hoping to be caught on video. .