Karaoke Forums

But then again, your examples are country.  Newer country music tends to last longer & get sung more than newer rock/pop.



True, but having 'been there, done that' with getting even the newer 'hits', those hits tend to fall off & die rather quickly - there are certain bands & songs that you know will be around & sung for awhile.  Nickelback is a hot ticket right now so I will buy accordingly.  Creed WAS a hot ticket for a while, bought most of their available songs & now I hear maybe one of those songs every  couple months.  Spice Girls WERE 'da bomb', I have a fine SG collection now collecting dust - got sung the first few months.  There are literally hundreds of examples.  Topher gave a top 10 list of THE top pop songs of '06, not ONE of them songs has EVER been sung at our show & I have most of them, or even have been requested (ok the James Blunt song was - and I got it, I can count on one hand the amount of times it's been sung).
Country does seem to be the 'in' thing right now &  like I said, I would tend to buy newer country before I bought newer pop/rock - it just don't last.  But will continue to buy newer stuff if it gets requested or I feel it's going to have a lasting run in the collection.

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The price of being a SUCCESSFUL business is having the sense not to throw big money at short-lived trends. Just like in my example about KJ #1 and KJ #2, if you are a store owner, you are not going to buy 20,000 units of the latest fashion if you know that fashion is only going to be around for a few weeks. If you do, chances are you end up selling a fraction of those units at a good profit then have to deeply discount the rest of them.

The same is true with the newest music. It is MUCH smarter financially to avoid the monthly trends (the "latest and greatest" music) and wait to see which songs will carry a LASTING demand. I take the middle ground. I don't buy music when it JUST comes out, because you can't tell which songs will be flashes in the pan and which will last, BUT at the same time, I don't wait a year to make for certain that the songs will be keepers. I see which songs last about 3 months and make it onto the seasonal compilation discs. In order to make it onto these discs, Soundchoice has really done all the work for me. They have CAREFULLY studied the music that has been on the charts for several weeks and arrange a compilation of songs that are not quite HOT HOT HOT hits, but they think will be big sellers for them due to their LASTING power over a few months. These seasonal compilations are their best sellers besides the end of year compilations, so they know what they are doing, and that makes me feel that I know what I am doing in waiting to buy THESE disks instead of the brand new release disks.

Now, what we can both agree on is that it is CERTAINLY better for the SINGER for you to have the latest songs as soon as they are released, but in this case I still FIRMLY believe that what is best for the singer just doesn't make financial sense for the KJ, and the BENEFIT that is provided to the singer by having the latest music would RARELY translate to extra $$$ for the KJ, so it amounts to a waste of money!! You have to manage the investment against the reward, and in the case of BRAND new music, it just doesn't translate to a net gain for the KJ!!

This is the balancing act all of us KJs have to manage in order to be successful on the BUSINESS side of our karaoke shows. Not everything that makes the singer more happy translates into real gains for the KJ, so you have to pick and choose options in what CDGs you purchase, what equipment you upgrade and when, etc. that are going to translate to real long-term financial gain, growth, or maintanance for our BUSINESS. Otherwise, we would all have $50,000 systems and every karaoke disk ever made, because that would certainly provide the optimal benefit for the singer!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Just a funny observation.  When I started out years ago it was with house parties. All I had was the SuperCore set ( Then 12 discs, now 38 ), and the SGB set of 66 discs.  Today, years later, with around 18,000 songs and 6 bar venues, at least 85% of my requests are from the original 12 disc SuperCore set ( and even though I have many of the same songs onSC,Chartbuster, etc....)  I now ALWAYS recommend the SuperCore ( incidentally,the original KJ Tools set is owned and is part of the SuperCore set) as part of any starter collection....

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

I guess that was my point. When push comes to shove..... isn't it ABOUT the singer, and what keeps THEM happy? I know if I were a full time KJ, running my own system vs. running someone else's.... my outlook would be "Okay, singers, what would YOU like?".  Using "business sense"..... I would think the first order of business would be to keep the singers pleased.  Seems to me this is a case of "you reap what you sew".... keep them happy, they come back. Keep thinking "What's in it for ME?".... and you'll not be as popular as the guy down the road who thinks of his singers first and foremost.

But that's just me:)

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Exactly, you buy what THEY want & not just something you think they might like because it's the newest available.  We would pretty much be out of business if I just bought discs all the time that no one wanted to sing.  I keep them happy & coming back by buying THEIR requests.

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Well, yeah. Buying ones that are "big hits" that people actually want to SING.

Gosh, read up again.... I didn't say "every new song on radio".... I said the hit ones, the ones people run out and buy the artist cd's and play to death, the ones the radio stations can't quit playing... Those ARE the ones people want to sing. I may not be a full time KJ, but I have alot of friends in the karaoke world, and have been around karaoke long enough to see what people like to find in KJ books. And "brand new hits" seem to make them happy. Sure, oldies do too.... that's what I mostly sing as well. But heck, look at SS for instance. It becomes a hit on the radio, and people are scrambling to get it subbed in a hurry. Then the next person subs it, then the next person subs it.....

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

And as soon as those new hits are requested, i'll pick them up.  That's what i'm getting at.  People go to a show for other reasons as well (sound, host personality, fairness, club, drinks, friends, etc), not just because they have the new 'hits'.  I may go out on a limb and get something new if I feel it has some staying power - but even those have backfired & never get used.  Point is, new hits are not needed unless you have someone that wants them, once I get interest in a song, that's when I consider it - I buy what is requested 90% of the time the rest may be impulse purchases or buy outs to fill in holes/gaps.

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