Karaoke Forums

My former partner is a long time KJ and has had a 7 day a week show at a resort for about 5 years. One of his advantages was his extensive library of legal music, which he used to his advantage with all the legal activity swirling around. Seems the resort GM was looking to cut costs and looked into purchasing the GEM series but was shocked at the price, especially when he compared the list to the songs that had been sung over the past couple of years.

$5000 was just too steep a price to pay when less than 200 of the songs had been used. Thanks Sound Choice, my buddy resigned his contract for another year.

Sounds like the GM should take a look again.

GEM 5000/365=$13.70 per show
get pa/computer $5000= $13.70 per show
hire employee to host $75/nite
and use the www to download missing songs on the fly=$10 per show max???

The first year will cost you $112.40 per show

The 2nd year only have to pay the host and maybe 1 song per show...GRAVY!

GM obviously didn't run his numbers, good for your friend.

Oh yeah, one other point....
Ever been to The Cat's Meow in New Orleans....They have a selection of about 1000 songs now (even less when I was there) and they are busy all the time.

So forget gem set and downloading on the fly, just download (buy) The Cat's Meow's songs ($2000 max), buy equipment, and hire and employee.

Completely different scenerio than most bars would be able to make work. Since that is a HIGH profile tourist area, they don't need to establish a 'regular'/nightly crowd - they get different crowds nightly/weekly. They're are going to be busy regardless of whether karaoke is there or not, and they put it in under their rules that they only list higher energy upbeat songs only.

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I’d rather have all kinds of songs in my library & maybe not need it than when somebody requested for it & not have it! No diss or knock here! Just one old school vet kj's way of thinking.

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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!

The Cat's Meow also actively denies certain song choices. (at least they did when I went there years ago).

-Chris

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-Chris

I couldn't agree more. As a matter of fact, it's another reason why I by Mfrs.' discs instead of customs- I can't tell you how many times songs I thought of as "disc filler" or fluff became patron favorites.

I also know a guy who carries less than 1000 songs and has been successful for many years.

It really IS about that top 300-500 songs, I guess....

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Agree and not. I agree that I have had discs I bought for 1 song have other songs on them being sung, however this is not the norm in most scenerios. Customs allow you to get exactly what singers ask for, and if you keep a running request database (mine dates back to 99 - which includes songs never available to karaoke to date) and let people know they can request, that one song on that one disc may just be requested for you to get as well, then you can either pick up the disc or get the song on a custom. I haven't bought a 'new' manu disc in probably 5 years now (not counting auto release of 'todays songs' for CB/PHM that I was subscribed to for the last 5 years). Yes I pick them up used on occasion, provided I get a good deal.

Also agree that one could theoretically get away with having a 1000 songs or so, however I like to offer a greater selection. Worth it? Maybe, maybe not, however I had 3,578 individual song titles sang last year - that is a little over 1/3rd of my entire library.

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

I agree it is possible to run a successful karaoke program with a limited number of the right karaoke songs. But I would say to run an EXCEPTIONAL karaoke program, you have to have the songs that people want to sing, even if they may only get performed once in a blue moon.

Same with gear. lots of great karaoke shows using run of the mill equipment and lights. but the exceptional ones uses quality gear and leverage the lights.

I don't want to just be successful. I want to be exceptional.

-Chris


I encourage new songs and my singers and venues appreciate it. It is also a selfish pursuit of diversity. I

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-Chris

Just drives me bonkers I can’t handle hearing: “that kj down the street got that song, how come you don’t have it?” I prefer to hear: “man, you practically have everything; I can’t find these songs from that kj down the street”.

I have a song request clipboard hanging on the wall with a sign that sez: “Do you have a favorite song or songs you want to sing but not listed in my book? Write it down & if it’s available on karaoke I’ll get it”.

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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!

I added a laminated page to my song books on this last run -



-Chris

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-Chris

This makes no sense. He only wants 200 core songs, so he prices a Cadillac 6000 song set? Something tells me neither he nor you actually went to the GEM price grid. You don't have to get ALL nine editions of the GEM series...it's not all or nothing. He could only get the ones he needs such as the CORE sets, much like the old Foundations.

http://www.soundchoicestore.com/skin1/i ... Matrix.pdf

the problem is those "core" songs are split between all sets. you cant build the most used song set with just the diamond. to get the songs everyone wants as a core set requires getting all of the sets.

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

Bazza, I think you're confusing what rickgood wrote. He didn't say that the General Manager (GM) of the resort wanted to just get a core set of 200 songs. I believe he was saying that the GM was looking at the GEM set (of 6000 songs), and only noticed that about 200 out of 6000 of those songs were sung at his establishment, thus making him feel the investment in that set wasn't worth the money.

As for the rest of post, rickgood wasn't expressing an interest in buying the GEM series. I think he was expressing how lucky his friend is, that this GM decided not to get it (for the reason stated above). And somehow, I don't think he (or his friend/fellow KJ) wishes to say anything to the GM that might change his mind (and thus put his friend out of a show).

I'm doing a comparison as to what was sang last year at my show alone, so far i'm up to the G's and i'm at around 50% what was sang and what was not (although many of the songs NOT sang were regulars in the past couple years).

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

Chris, being exceptional is my definition of success....

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

The OP said it was KJ friend, that has a gig at a resort, so probably not many regulars, a somewhat similar to NOLA's Cat's Meow. So a limited library of "CORE" songs would suffice.

IMHO....The resort's GM is not looking at the BIG picture.