Karaoke Forums

I will play original manufacturer discs. But no one brings them in. In the two years I have had my downtown gig, which is by far the busiest gig that has seen the broadest diversity of singers, I have only been asked about discs 2, maybe 3 times and no one has ever brought discs with them.

Across all of the venues we do (and we have been at 21 shows a week since November of last year) there have been less than a dozen disc users and only a single memory stick user. No one has been offended by us not playing burns and memory sticks in part because we generally have most of not all of what they request anyway. It just isn't an issue to the generally younger karaoke folks that attend our shows.

Once you go north to Lynnwood, it changes a little bit, but even the hosts up north are seeing less in the way of singers bringing their own discs in these days.

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-Chris

I take my thumb drive in and the current host plays stuff from it no problem. Of course they have one of those drives so why do they care? Plus they know who I am and they know I buy my stuff. I don't know if they would do it for anyone else.
As for a thumb drive not being safe, it can be an issue but you can do things to minimize risk. Turning off Autoplay and only playing the music files will take care of most of the issues. Having a Virus protection program installed (and up to date) but not running resident can help with the rest. Right click on the thumb drive and do a scan..

For me it is less about the legality and more about the lack of necessity.

I have mentioned before that the folks that tend to bring their own music to shows are the 40+ crowd. The new generation of karaoke singers just expect you to have it or know you can get it easily enough. It is this group that tends to be at my shows. I know that if I worked venues with older crowds, I may have more people bring in discs/drives. But I don't have those people. I don't bother training my hosts on how to accommodate them either.

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-Chris

I'm surprised this turned in to a full blown rant about the small point I made with my flash drive. Back to the original topic, the host was fired last Wednesday and I found out later he was actually throwing things around in the bar in front of customers. Well, two days later he had replaced the show with another bar in town that used to do karaoke with another good host (Doc) and was running it Saturday night, so it will be interesting to see how that goes. Talk about a fast turn around. This guy is one hell of a smooth talker. Too bad he is crooked as hell.

My apologies for my part in hijacking your thread, Purple. Congratulations on securing this gig and ousting the dodgy host. Let's hope he doesn't keep his new gig for long if he's really as bad as you say.

Interestingly enough, I just learned that he booked a show at a locally owned restaurant. This is significant in that is is a restaurant owned my a family of restaurant people that have classier establishments and have always shunned booking karaoke because it would degrade their business. This guy is one hell of a salesman, I will say that. The sad thing is, people believe the crap coming out of his mouth, even AFTER they learn that he isn't always honest.

Purple... Where's your show? I'm in Michigan. I'd love to stop by if you're close enough.

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Birdofsong

He's in Muskegon.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Bummer.

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Birdofsong

Where are you in Michigan?

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Detroit area.

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Birdofsong

Detroit area.

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Birdofsong

Oops double post. 'supposed to be a pm, somehow it got posted here. duhh sorry

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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!

Been a while since I was on here. A side note to the story is, a bar I have been trying to book since before they were open made a post that they were looking for karaoke. Within five minutes of the posting, I was at the bar talking to the manager, as I was already on the road and going to pass by anyways. A week later, I find out they booked HIM. I'm sure he had a lot to say about me, and sold himself and his $9000 karafun software...

Maybe his gig won't endure at this place, and you'll bag it in the future.

Well, I found out that he offered to do it for FREE for a couple months. Now that they are paying him they are already talking about dropping him. When I talked to them and they asked the price, I told them $150 and they said that's what they were paying the guy they just dropped and they wanted something cheaper. Most likely a lost cause, but so is every bar in this town it seems...

Therein lies the problem. They need to raise the bar and dip into their pockets a bit more. You get what you pay for, and they can't complain if only monkeys are accepting their peanuts!

The bar I started at, I took the gig for $50 a night. I got two nights out of it. I figured, "Hell with it" at least I will get myself known. That lasted 6 months. The night bartender/manager was a (@$%&#!) of the highest order. She complained about everything.
One night I had a customer come up and give me a $2 dollar tip to play a Slayer song. In the middle of the song she started screaming, from across the bar to turn it off, NOW!! That "we don't play that kind of music here!!" I did. I gave the guy his money back, and I got in her face to NEVER embarrass me like that again.
A couple months later she said she wanted to add an open mic night on Saturdays. Once again it would be $50. I said I wasn't interested. She knew about my occasional fill in show, where I make $250. And I told her I didn't want to be locked in on Saturdays for $50. She hired a different guy, who gave her some package deal for the three nights, so she said. A month later I got a new show, making $125, took the old place's customer base with me. The guy that replaced me is only working Sunday afternoons there, now. He got a better Friday show elsewhere.
I ran into one of the bartenders from the old place. She said the owner wants me back. I told her to tell the woman that I would take no less than $125 for a week night. I won't be hearing from them. That bar is dead every night of the week, now.

Sorry that was so long.....................

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I took the same bar, from the same shoddy KJ, 3 times, under 3 different owners. Every time the shoddy
KJ convinced the new owner that he was the greatest and each time the new owners hired me back after a very short period of time (1-2 months). In every case I had left the bar because the new owner wanted it cheaper than my price. You get what you pay for.