Karaoke Forums

Like I Posted In The Welcome Section. I Am New To The KJ World. (NOT THE DJ WORLD THOUGH ) And I Was Wanting To Take Up Some Format Suggestions On Compiling My Book For My Audience.

ex.      

Alphabetical Title
Alphabetical Artist
Genre Listings Then Sorted By Artist

etc... etc.....

Any suggestions and book setups that have worked for u, that u can recommend would be GREAT!! Thanks In Advance!

djbabylon

Particularly when you're starting, books tend to change rapidly as you expand your collection of music.  Which means you're always having to reprint the books.  Beware!  

I keep it simple.  Alphabetically by title in one column per page format in big print in the front with lines between the songs.  This takes up most of the book.  In the back, alphabetically by Artist in two columns.  Artist name listed once in large letters and songs listed below to save space.  The artist section gets the most use.  Since I started using kiosk however, only the newbies use the books.  Kiosk are a pain to lug around and set up but they sure save on printing costs and greatly increase my drinking time during the gig.

at the risk of sounding really stoopid...oh wait, I am what is a kiosk and what does it do?
btw hello weedy  :hug:

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Hi Morgan:  No, I didn't quit on the project just working out a few more kinks and a fairly serious hangover.

A kiosk is a remote computer(s) that has your song list and such junk running on it and it's networked to the main KJ computer (assuming you're computer based) and it inputs the songs and singers into rotation for you.  They pretty much but not completely, do away with books and slips.  This allows for certain dirty old KJs to drink and flirt more and actually work less.  I like it I like it!

flirtings good  LMAO  :dancin:

_________________
"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

For me I prefer sorted by Artist, and have found that most of my singers prefer sorted by Artist too.

Right now I have my books printed with Artist sorted section in the front and sorted my song in the back.  

I re-print my books about once every 12-14 months.  As for NEW songs that I add between printings, I have 2 separate books that I have with the NEW songs in them.  I add new songs every 3-4 weeks, so it would take quite a bit to keep 20 books updated, so I just update the 2 NEW SONGS books.


Forget the Genre Section, but it may be wise to have a listing of kids songs, Christmas Songs, and if you have any spanish songs you may want to list them separately.  You probably could do this in ONE book and have it available if someone asks.

Agree that most of my singers prefer by : Artist

I am in the process of reprinting all my books - I am painstakenly correcting any previous errors in spellings and or variations in song titles and artists.

ie: Allman Brothers / Allman Brothers Band / The Allman Brothers Band / Allman Brothers Band, The

You will find that when you eliminate errors and variations you will save some pages. ($$$)

I think a page of KIDS SINGS is a great Idea as well as HOLIDAY MUSIC (xmas / Halloween / St Pats Day / etc etc

You will need 1 maste book for yourself sorted by BOTH artist and title
And a good mix of both for your singers - I wouldn't combine them in one

I have 2 sets, 1 printed by artist, the other by title.  I used to have both in one book, but the cost actually got to be too much & the size of the books were getting to be about 4".  I used to print 15 complete books with both title/artist.  Now I only have to print 10 books & divide the artist/title into separate books for 20 total books in 2" binders.  I do see most tend to grab the artist book first, but I end up picking up more title books at the end of the night.

Books by genre, not a good idea IMO, unless you are doing specific type clubs that ONLY want certain music, there's no point.  It really ends up confusing people in the end & you'd really have to be on top of the 'crossover' songs.  Stick with either artist and title or both combined.

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A little bit off track.
I went to a pub last week where the host said.
I dont do books. If Its out, i've got it.

True enough... He did.

He had the most loaded drive I've ever seen.
I could tell by the track ID's displayed.
Thing is...
I was the only person there that was aware what was going on.
Dont know what host he was using.
That probably arrived P2P as well.

 I actually do all three. Normal books half of which I print by title, and half of which I print by artist.  Since country is so popular at my shoows, I print 2 country books as well...

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