Karaoke Forums

So you want to get into the KJ business?   Yes it is a business and it requires some thought and preparation on your part before you can ask questions.  

What I can tell you to get started is this.  You can expect to gross between $125-$250 per night hosting a karaoke show depending on your area and night of week.  These estimates would be for a 4 hour standard “non private” karaoke show at a “bar, pub, club, restaurant or similar venue.”   From things I’ve read and personal experience making much more than that is very rare for non private gigs these days .  The real number is somewhere around $175-$225 for a 4 hour weekend gig.

Basic Pro- Audio System Configurations:

1) NON POWERED SPEAKERS, PRO AUDIO MIXER W/ EFFECTS* , AMPLIFIER
2) POWERED SPEAKERS, PRO AUDIO MIXER W/ EFFECTS*
3) NON POWERED SPEAKERS , POWERED MIXER/AMP UNIT

**DECIDE WHICH WAY YOU WANT GO FIRST, EACH WITH PROS AND CONS**

• Using units without effects require a component type effects unit(reverb echo etc.)
• Other units to consider to enhance your overall  sound are
• EQ / COMPRESSORS/LIMITERS / MAXIMIZERS /  
• In addition you will need microphones and all required cables for your equipment.
• Monitor and Stand
 
The type and size venues you want to be prepared to handle will determine your MINIMUM starting budget for equipment .

Are you interested in hosting at
1) Small to Medium  Venues
2) Medium to Large Venues
3) Huge and Outside Venues


Taking everything into consideration now, What do you want to do as a KJ?
How much do you want to budget JUST for pro-audio equipment?  
Let’s discuss equipment first and then MUSIC.

How much is a good music library?

Bigdog - are you just being a big azz again ?

But I'll answer your question with a question ...

What determines a GOOD music library?
It is not quanity of selections, although this is good PR when trying to land new gigs
It not having the most expensive library - bragging that a kj has a $50k music library means one thing ---YOU SPENT $50K

A good music library starts with a core set of all the standards and favorites from every genre of music.  Most companies offer such "starter" sets  and its is highly reccomended you purchase from one of the TOP producers for this core of your library.  Then most companies also produce SETS of the top songs for a given year and genre that are a must to get you up to date.   You also  need a few of the most current releases - These again are more for PR, than actual use as the most recent songs usually don't get sung that often ...usually ...unless its a top 10 chart maker.

Lastly you need a good selection of what YOUR crowd needs - COUNTRY  / ROCK / SHOWTUNES what ever.... offering those obscure songs that no one else offers is a BIG plus in how you are "perceived" as a good karaoke host.

Although there is a criteria for Karaoke producers don't get stuck thinking YOU HAVE TO BUY SOUNDCHOICE to have a good karaoke track.  There are very good renditions of certain songs on other makes besides Soundchoice and PHM.
Soundchoice will give you a quality track more consistant than everyone else.
Some singers and also KJ's I know prefer others on certain songs and tracks.

Quality - singable songs would determine a good music library, not how many.  You can have 40,000 songs listed, but if only 2-3,000 of them get used in a year, the rest is just there for bragging rights only.  I know people that go out and try to buy every disc there is available - WHY?  Chances are if they didn't open every disc out of the cellephane wrapping, 7 to 9/10ths of their library would remain in cellephane!  
I used to buy to have the disc first (way back when), quickly learned that these new 'flavor of the week' discs maybe got sung for a couple weeks then sat on the shelf ever since.  Now I buy for the customers, depending on the request & if I feel the disc would compliment my selection.  I just hit over the 10K mark this year, this is over 15 years of buying music.  Not a huge number comparatively to some of the bootleggers that buy the 50K hard drives, but people come to me all the time saying they are surprised that my 'small' book has what they want when the other companies 'huge' book don't.  Now we are starting to get hit by a couple of companies that have WiFi/wireless internet capability & downloading songs for their customers on demand - THIS could be the killer for ALL legit companies!  If I HAVE to become illegal to compete, then I will hang up the karaoke portion & focus on the rest of the entertainment field - glad i'm not locked into 1 specific genre of entertainment.

A good core set to me would be the Foundations & Bricks, the PHM Millenium sets, the Dangerous set & maybe a handful of carefully selected individual discs that aren't in any of the above mentioned sets.  This would give a good core of popular music that MOST people could find something they enjoyed singing - and not all crap versions.

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

To get the type of selection you describe, will cost at least $5,000.     And that will buy you about 22-2500 songs.

For a New Kj Starting out you can budget 1/2 of what the Bigdog thinks.

You can purchase a complete starter library with all the standard and popular songs plus party packs / Country Packs / Oldies /Rock etc Packs plus anything you need to be competetive for around $2500 or less - AGAIN this is to get started
As a KJ you'll learn you can never have every song that someone MIGHT ask to sing
and if you continued t o buy every new release disc you will be spending TOO much on your music and it wouldn't be a wise BUSINESS decision.

And realisticly, a good show does NOT have to have thousands of songs to be successful despite your guidelines.  I am willing to bet that ANY kj here could logistically run a show with about 1,000 carefully selected tunes.  So a good CORE set would be primary, then fill in as requested.

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

Good stuff the jamkaraoke and Lonman. One thing I would like to share my opinion on.

If you don't know what you are doing, the above mentioned can do more harm then good to a system.

I just did a quick survey of the Sound Choice Bricks.

120 songs per brick.    

5 Bricks =  600   songs

$650 =  5 Bricks

Songs That I have actually used in Brick #1    24-30    out of 120 songs.

If that is the average songs per Brick that get played, I'm not impressed with saying that 1000 songs will cover everyones needs.    I know what you mean about the 1000 figure but to get those choice 1000 will take a lot of money and buying discs  that have songs that you will not use.      


I'm sticking with $5,000.  


To get a decent library will take $5,000 with songs people sing more than once a year.       That will be a good starter library.

I got close to 65 that are regularly done at my shows in Brick 1 alone.

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

Living in the South, folks tend to lean towards country a bit more. So for me it's Chartbuster. I have the Essentials I and III and they get played more than anything else. I only have 45 Soundchoice disc, most of them country, some pop and rock and they rarely ever get played. But as an example let me list some of the tunes that I do and I'll tell you my preference.

Cross Eyed Mary/Jethro Tull-Soundchoice hands down
Love the One You're With/Stephen Stills-Chartbuster, the Soundchoice version is slower with no life to it at all
Learning to Fly/Pink Floyd-Soundchoice again hands down
Any David Bowie-either Legends or Sunfly
Lynyrd Skynyrd-Soundchoice
Johnny Cash-Soundchoice
Statesboro Blues-Soundchoice has the best Allman Brothers out in my book
All other Pink Floyd-Legends
T.Rex-Sunfly
Dust in the Wind-some off brand disc I bought at Walmart of all places, Soundchoice version is dropped down a full key, but some nights I still do it and folks like it because I do a whole different vocal arrangement

As for my guest, they prefer the Chartbuster versions of almost everything, especially country and oldies. So for me it pays to have a variety of disc from different vendors. I don't really think folks would like it, or at least the ones at my shows, if I only focused on one particular series. But yes even with my limited library, I could easily narrow it down to 500-1000 songs that have ever been played out of my books. So living in such a small town as I do, I don't have the advantage of having a deeply diverse audience that may vary from week to week. But I am lucky enough to have a pretty loyal following that go to each venue that I play, so I must be doing something right.

James

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I serve no man and am loyal to only one God.

Being critical of a person's success in any respect speaks volumes about the lack of your own.

Love as though you've never been hurt, Dance as though no one's watching, Sing as though God Himself were listening.

Cater to the crowd you want to attract.