Karaoke Forums

Another local establishment has decided to remove the KJ and purchase their own equipment & music. The guy they had doing it was a complete unprofessional and I loathed his show and the impression it gives the rest of us. But he was only charging $100 for 6-7 hours a night on the weekends. Completely Pirated show by the way. When I try to push the rate up for a quality show starting at $150 & going up, because of guys like this, it makes it extremely hard. Now the owners have gotten the bright idea that their son would be a great host and once they spend their initial set up fees they are money ahead. With the cloud at their disposal I fear more will try to follow suit.

Or are they planning on buying a drive?

If they are going with the Cloud they won't need a drive.

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

I was "told" they were going to purchase their library, but seen as how the KJ that was there was not legit, im sure following suite would not be an issue for them. This is my gut feeling

That's kinda what I thought. I think some people honestly think that buying the loaded drive is buying the music. Down the road the cloud may be able to replace a comprehensive library but not today. At least not the last time I did some simple searches on the cloud as I missed 6 out of 10 look ups.

ya its kind of sad, at the moment digitrax can't even use the complete chartbuster library that they bought.

-James

And 1 year from when they start karaoke on their own, they will be done, because the son will get too drunk at every gig, play favorites in the rotation, and totally screw the sound.

I agree but this is NOT typical of the regular posters here on KS.

MOST of the time we're very supportive and courteous of others

Please don't let this one episode make you judge everyone here harshly. Have a great day!

Yeah, whatever. Most bar owners that purchase their own equipment, etc. wind up quitting karaoke because of no success in drawing in people, etc. It needs to be a dedicated thing and most bar and restaurant owners don't have the time or energy needed to establish a "karaoke night" in their place. That's why most call a karaoke company, etc. to give themselves the best chance.
I've seen it done a few times down here and it was a big flop. The owners pay either an employee or family member who does karaoke at their own house or sings once in a while a pathetic hourly wage and their off to the races.
Keep in mind that the person running karaoke usually has no experience in mixing live sound, knowing exactly what music they need, has no clue how to communicate to a crowd of people, multi-tasking, etc.
Of course, the karaoke night usually fails miserably and now that venue owner/manager hates karaoke and no longer considers it a viable option.

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified

yeah whatever.....

Maybe it's a mainland thing...? Nope. lived there most of my life.

Just as YOU state you try to DO what's "BEST" for your business, WHY would you assume that every bar or restaurant owner is going to RUIN their livelihood?? That's just nonsense.

I've seen MANY owners hire their own people and made it work successfully because they knew what was needed, took it seriously, and learned the trade, just as YOU did.

It's funny how people label themselves as "pro's" but don't even realize there's NO certification for being a pro.

As long as they play by the rules, and do it legally.....what business is it of anybody's.

Now I may seem a bit confused here, but how can a KJ come into an establishment who is not a regular customer have a better knowledge of the establishments patrons than the managers, owners, bartenders or waitress's and know better of what they want or expect. To me it's the customer sitting at the bar or tables that have the say as to what music they prefer.

Some of the threads and comments from posters really have been troublesome to me as a newby for simply trying to bring entertainment to folks who really couldn't afford to hire a band at $1,000 per night by bringing them quality, friendly, cheerful and a fun night for pennies on the dollar by KJing.

I read on another post about "Professional KJ", and "Licensed KJ", how does one go about getting a license, or am I some kind of scab KJ or breaking the law by putting on my little show on Thursday nights ? I don't know! How do you get a license to legally perform as a KJ. Is there a school or classes that I may need to attend to become a Professional KJ ? Is there a law that says I must have a license, I don't know these things but by lurking on here for a year off and on I keep hearing this Professional and License thing and lawsuits over suspected trade infringement and illegal karaoke downloads and copywriting. Is there really Karaoke Police that travel the country checking on these things. All of my Karaoke is on disc and or downloaded and paid for, but do I have receipts, no, not for the downloads. Should I be concerned?(Rangerover)

Just my thoughts, fears, and comments and opinions and in no way intend to start any kind of flame war, I am sometimes intimidated by the pro's on this site who have been doing this for years but I need no instruction on how to be friendly and treat people who own establishments and their partrons with all respect due and on this site. You sure have aimed me in the right direction without even asking most of the time by searching for my query. Thanks for your patience with me! Jim (Rangerover)

No one who has spent thousands on a nice speaker system, legit music, and with all the labor involved along with the hours is going to work for that cheap for very long. People never learn... Don't worry it won't belo g and they will flop like noted above. Also yes they will probably do pirated music. Same tho g happened where I am at. That's where it is up to us legit dj's to spread the word of consequences when doing it illegal

Because 9 out of 10 times (at least in the places I've witnessed), the bars that buy their own are using a loaded drive or straight torrent sites and downloading. Saw one place actually searching for songs on Youtube & that WAS their music source. 1 place I know of (well that didn't get nabbed in the lawsuits) actually has and uses discs - I know this for fact because I sold them their library in 2004. It was just under 6000 songs then - their library has now grown to 'just over 6000 songs'. I knew all the hosts that have worked there. They have nothing current over 2004.

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

That would be true if they had customers returning regularly. Again I know the hosts - they often come out to my shows, sometimes after the bar shuts down early because no one is there.


Right, the fact they have nothing since 04 doesn't mean anything if they were attracting a crowd to sing those songs. However they list wasn't that great to begin with. When I had it, it was built on specific requests for 2 clubs I was working at the time - very genre specific and was built primarily on requests of MY customers. Loys of hard rock, metal, classic rock. Over 1000 spanish/latino tunes - which I understand they got rid of anyway. The core consisted of the SC Foundation 1 & 2, and all the Bricks. Several SC Spotlight discs, then a PHM Millenium pack to fill out some of the newer music of the day and a couple small packs like Dangerous. They have nothing new - not necessarily 'new' as in todays radio, but anything new in general.
As far as losing money, I believe they are. They own their system. They used to run it 7 nights. They now run it 4 nights. They pay their hosts $10 per hour. OFTEN shut the club down early if there are less then 10 people in there (again, their hosts go to my show after they close). I cannot imagine being successful and shutting the doors early being profitable at the same time.


I didn't mean this club. I meant they are the only club that I know that actually owns their own discs/music - other than those nabbed in the lawsuits that had to settle and buy the GEM and dump their drives.


Most of it was SC.
It didn't grow over a 1000 songs. I said it was just under 6000 songs, I just looked at the old database - 5985 to be exact. 1 of the original hosts bought and donated two SC Spotlight discs - bringing their total to 6015.

But all that aside, this was the 1 club I was defending in my original comment "1 place I know of (well that didn't get nabbed in the lawsuits) actually has and uses discs " meaning they weren't pirating and using illegal drives. I was just bringing up the total amount as a verification I knew they weren't pirating not to get into a debate as to whether they are successful or not.

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

After doing a bit of researching on Sound Choice I understand now and I would not be afraid of purchasing their disc's. I understand now more about all your concerns of piracy and feel like you do about stealing music by passing around a disc for your buddies to load in their computers. I would never consider doing such a thing. I have paid for all my disc's and downloads. I wouldn't be afraid of an audit but I certainly don't have any intention of paying SC or anybody else for doing an audit unless of course I was forced to by being threatened of a lawsuit. I would not for example, buy a loaded hard drive from a venue on eBay from a private seller, that really scares me. I really don't expect to expand on hosting KJ all over the place. Like I said I'm a band kind of man and enjoy doing live music. But doing Karaoke it's a lot of fun and I get to be personal with those I have met along the way. I love it all! I won't comment on this "off topic" on this thread any longer only to say I'm glad somebody out there is doing something about piracy and I can now see how an owner of an establishment might want to try to venture this on his own buying the cheapest music he can find and less than mediocre sound equipment to save a buck will backfire. Even drunks know the difference between good and bad music and hosting.

I too can see how such an owner might fail if they don't know how to mix music and mic and for each singer or even have an open mind about the type of music one prefers. I think you have to appreciate all kinds of music to be successful at KJing. Not just the sounds or types one might prefer and demand no other kind of music. We all know how much work goes on before we plug anything in and fire it up.

Jim (Rangerover)

This explained it clearer to me than anything I read on the net.

Our media-shifting policy requires you to maintain a "one-to-one" correspondence between your CD+Gs or MP3+G discs and the other medium. To determine one-to-one correspondence, we look at the other medium, usually a hard drive. For every Sound Choice� track on that hard drive, you must own an original Sound Choice CD+G or MP3+G disc that contains that track. The hard drive track and the CD+G or MP3+G track are assigned to each other. Once you've assigned a CD+G track to a hard drive track, you have to put that CD+G or MP3+G disc "on the shelf." It can't be used anywhere else, nor can it be sold, unless it is first removed from your hard drive.

I gotta agree with the "naysayers" on this one. Bar owners generally only care about the bottom line. If your $150, $500, or $5000 show is pulling it's weight and positive to the owner's bottom line, you won't hear a peep out of them. If the $150 show isn't boosting business, then the owner is going to shuffle things up. The quality of the show, equipment, your personality, song selection, pirate vs. non-pirate, etc. only matters to the point that it makes the bar money.

You can argue that karaoke in general can't succeed at the bar due to other issues limiting the bar, the I guarantee the owner didn't fire you for any reason other than pure economics. He may find the next show fails as well, but that's really his business, because it's HIS BUSINESS!

Sorry you lost your show, but if I were you I'd definitely have the attitude that things were not working out there (mutually) and you can find better!

The first show I had was a 6-month gig. I was devistated when they fired me, but I had a new gig the next weekend that I've now been at two nights a week for 8.5 years, and the bar I was fired from was out of business two months later. Getting fired from that gig was the best thing that ever happened to my KJ career.

Good luck!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I guess i'm a little surprised about just HOW INSECURE a few kjs and djs (new and old) can be here on KS.

I suppose a lot of what's being referenced here are DIVE BARS and not quality venues.

I have personally witnessed MANY DECENT QUALITY NON-DIVE bars ,restaurants, clubs, casinos, etc... that have more than succeeded in setting up their quality un-pirated karaoke systems with state-of-the-art sound systems, lights,..everything that is easily 5 times BETTER than a mobile dj could/would bring to perform a show. Quality permanent installs.

It may have sucked that i couldn't get a job hosting with my OWN equipment, or get a decent rate as just a host for them, but none of the places ran shi%ty equipment or had crappy hosts.

SO if you've only worked crappy dive bar places where owners don't care about their investment, employees, customers, contractors, equipment, etc.. and only care about just making enough money by the end of the month, then i guess i understand

But to lump every bar or restaurant owner into not caring about their livelihood and putting out crap as entertainment by not hiring a "pro" kj is silly. Alot of bar/restaurant owners i know have a background in music. They're not going to ruin their $500k-$2,000,000 restaurants on crappy anything.

It takes easily 1,000 times more SMARTS to successfully run a DECENT restaurant/ bar than it takes to run a simple karaoke business. Rocket Science it ain't folks!

I don't know if people are lumping but I think we have all seen it happen enough times to know that it does happen. Running a restaurant or a bar may be very complicated but it doesn't necessarily transfer to running a karaoke show and some owners get in their own way sometimes.

I know one local restaurant was determined to have the bartender run it and they have gone through a series of relatives, etc. and yet to have a show that sticks. I know one who hired their neighbor based on price and ended up with a temper tantrum host who threw TV sets. I also know of bartenders who have great people skills from behind the bar one on one but claim they would freeze if they had to address a crowd from a stage--at least as far as thinking up what to say in between songs rather than respond to people having conversations with thm.

We all had to start somewhere and it doesn't mean a bar couldn't be successful starting their own show. But there are some who decided to do it based solely on eliminating the middle man who found it didn't work out that easily. There is also that extra work that goes on before and after a show that many may not want added to the burden of what they are already doing running the bar.