Karaoke Forums

I'm going to do a major update in my song books. What are some new songs that I shouldn't leave out of my book? I have a $1500 limit. The person who ran the Karaoke Shows, I'm now running, hasn't updated since January 2004. Since starting the shows, I started updating little by little but I'm not nowhere close to where I want to be with the books.

WHAT SONGS WOULD YOU BE IN DISBELIEF IF THEY WERE NOT IN A BOOK?

That is really TOO broad of a question. What are "must haves" in certain types of clubs & areas, would never get used in others. Someone told me they couldn't live without the Sound CHoice rap disc 8612 because it is a disc that gets used every single night from all races & ages - well that may be so in their club, I do have that disc & it has been opened up once, & that was when I unwrapped the shrink wrap from it.
What have people been asking for? This is what I would focus on first. If there hasn't been any updates since Jan '04, then I would probably pick up the latest Pop Hits Monthly Country, Rock & Pop through the year & maybe last year as well. The Urban stuff is really area & club dependant so if you get a lot of rap & heavy R&B, then you may need these as well. Buy quality & not a bunch of crap manufacturers. Also watch your duplicates as well. You don't want to be buying a ton of songs you may already have.

This is where I would start.

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You should make some request sheets, or a request book and go to a karaoke show and hand it out. THen you can see what people want and what they are looking for (especially if you do the same show at the same place and have regulars.)

I know for me, I like the PHM series, some SC, but I like to sing lots of girl songs. Also, look at your audience that you usually get at your shows? Do they sing lots of Christina and Britney, or would they rather sing the stuff from Fleetwood Mac and such? Do you have a lot of country singers or a lot of Pop singers? Plus, the songs that I like to sing are usually unknowns or not popular songs, so guaranteed that they will not be in the book (ie. Celine Dion-Falling Into You, Shania Twain-Whatever You Do, Don't, Madonna-Open your Heart). If a KJ went out of their way to get me one of those songs at a bar that I frequent, I would be the happiest girl in the world !

I think asking your karaoke goers would be the best That is my suggestion

I have those, except the Whatever You Do & it's on order so it should be in within the next week or 2, so if you make a trip from Canada................

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

if you have a limited budget, I agree with the philosophy of the request page. TELL your singers that you're in the process of updating your books and ask for the songs that THEY want.

That way you can find out the best discs that can meet most of your needs.

While I definitely agree that the type of popular songs is going to vary from area to area (or even bar to bar), one thing I would suggest is not stocking up on only current songs, but adding some well selected older stuff as well.

I recently bought Soundchoice 8678 and 8671 which contain a lot of cool new wave songs - Bronski Beat, Howard Jones, Psychedelic Furs, etc, stuff I never see in any karaoke book. Old 80's rap, such as soundchoice 8656 tends to go over really well in a lot of the places I go to. Nostalgia can be a great thing at karaoke, and if you get a thirtysomething crowd they'll probably love this kind of stuff.

Another suggestion is to broaden the catalog of songs by singers that are popular at the places you work - for example, every karaoke place has "Like a Virgin" and "Vogue" by Madonna, but how many of them have "Erotica" or "Impressive Instant"? The Sunfly Gold and Legends series are great for getting some lesser known songs on complete discs of one artist. I especially love the Sunfly discs, but they are a UK company and that definitely shows in thier choice of artists. The Depeche Mode and Eurythmics discs have been extrmemly popular among my friends.

Alot of the women singers.....only sing country. Some of the men are requesting modern rock.....Coldplay, Seether, Taking Back Sunday. Some of the other men are requesting Country....Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Josh Gracin....Stuff like that.

As for the Must Haves of the older generations....I have alot of them.

I guess my question should have been what are the new releases I should get??

I think you just answered your own question. If this is the case, the Pop Hits Monthly stuff from the last couple years.

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

Sigh. Fine. Get "Naughty Girl" by Beyonce.

I personally like books that have a lot of odd songs too. These are songs that aren't played as much for one reason or another (weird song, too high to sing, etc). I can usually sing these songs, so I really know that KJ's worth and dedication if they have them. Styx, Journey, Weird Al, etc.

Nonetheless, $1500 is a great limit. Even if you bought custom CD+G's at $5 a song you will have 300 new tunes.

If you want to start quick, then just get the monthly releases.

Other than that, I would need to know what is in your arsenal. If you have your book organized on a excel spreadsheet, I could look it over for you and make some suggestions.

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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"

Matt is right as usual. I've moved around a bit and have pretty much determined that "must haves" are local. My songbook was great in Michigan but, until very recently, lame in Pennsylvania. I didn't directly canvas as Matt suggested, but paid a lot of attention to what people were singing at all the local shows. I'm still filling the gaps as they show up.

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Jazz and Swing Live (as long as I do).

Exactly. Lonman hits the nail on the head.

Right now, you would only need 9 CDG's per genre (if you update from Jan. 04 to present).

So you'd be purchasing 27 CDG's at approx. $13.99 each if you get them from http://karaokesurplus.com/Wholesalesinglesindex.html

Your total would be $377.73 plus shipping. Since you'd still have over $1,100 left and a new kick a** selection, you can give Lonman and myself a commission.

Thanks Penn...

Understand that's not the way I got started. I wouldn't dream of limiting myself that way.

I signed up for karaoke.com's monthly mailing list. They have a TON of discs that go on sale every month. Last month, they had $1. $3 and $5 discs. Nothing that nice now... but you really learn to watch the specials.

I did that, and yes, I bought some klunkers. Nowadays, karaoke.com samples some of their discs, so you can hear ahead of time if you're gonna be buying midi or just plain junk.

I've been pretty lucky. Only about thirty or so discs were absolute junk. And as I've could ... I've gone back and replaced most of those.

As lonman suggested, keep an eye out for the Pop Hits Monthly... you can pick up some terrific deals that way! $10 a disc is pretty sweet!

Matt

I know what a limited budget is but the first thing I would get is something like Kj Pro and as you buy cd's you can check for duplicates before you buy certain cd's. And it is a good search engine for finding songs but you have to pay for updates to get the new listings.. I have bought package deals on ebay, doowop.com and acekaraoke etc.. As far as genres go I get all the Top Hits Monthly every month and the hiphop and even the rock for that matter I didnt have a clue who the singers were but you can be in any type of bar and if young people come in they go nuts. I have learned to appreciate a lot of it and sing it..

Anyway that's a couple more ideas......

Why don't you look at buying some custom discs? That way you won't have to worry about doubles and you can choose the stuff you want.

I know of a site that does custom discs from a number of different companies, and they'll do mixed discs of tracks, ie you can have a couple of SF track, along with some EK and some SC... you get the idea.

I don't know if I'm allowed to be posting the web address for the site, so just pm me if you want it......

Redneck woman-Gretchen Wilson

save a horse ride a cowboy