Karaoke Forums

I have been doing this since the beginning of the year now as well. Selectkaraoke, Karaoke-Version & All-Star are my main gotos for on the fly. My phone was unlimited web data plan and is a hotspot for my dj computer.

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

I was adding that before XP support went away and I upgraded to vista but the program I wanted to use wouldn't work. I'm going to upgrade to 8.1 beginning of next month in the hope that I can go to that program will work so I can buy songs on the fly.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Thing is you don't need any specific program to buy on the fly. You just need internet capability & buy away. You are usually limited if you just rely on the stores the softwares provide.

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

Unless you're dealing with tricerasoft. With JustKaraoke you can download 73000+ songs and stream 53000+ songs.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

DING DING DING DING. Chris gets a prize.

This topic was meant to be a philosophical exercise. Imagine the world was different, and this is how it was. How would our business be different?

It took me a while to think that one up. There are ways of doing it, legally I think. Many different ways. Put a tariff on karaoke software. Maybe have 2 sets of prices, one for "Single PC" and one for "Multi PC". Maybe go after sound equipment manufacturers for a tariff (in Canada, they do charge extra for blank CD's to cover the cost of piracy)

In order for this to happen though, the prices have to come way down.

Example:
After a bulk credit buy and reseller discount, I get my tricerasoft songs for about $1.25 or so. I think that's a good price for a multirig license, but no so much for a single rig license. I'd like to see single rig license in the $0.25 to $0.50 range. I'd like to see single play (i.e. stream) for $0.10 a play.

I don't think these companies can cut any closer to the gums than they are now. An act of congress to overturn the ABKO case is probably what it'd take.

Excellent question. There used to be huge 1:1 multi-rigger in my area (the were also THE go to brick and mortar karaoke store in the area). No problem competing, and we were friendly competitors to boot. Though the owner finally retired a few years ago, both he and I (still am) were successful.

Many hosts still don't understand that anyone can have a library and equipment. What both sells the show and makes it successful is hosting skill. The one and only real difference between most hosts.

However, in answer to the OP, I would NOT want to be anything but the single op that I am. Just personal preferance.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

But again, if you only dealing with them, you are missing out on the others that have other songs they do not provide. Karaoke-Version & All Star have so much more to add to the plate than just Tricerasoft.
But again this was a hypothetical situation whether you'd take advantage of copying your existing library to use it in multiple shows - provided it was given the green light to do so by publishers & all involved.

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

No this wasn't about pay to sing at all. Just about different karaoke models, things that the karaoke producers might be able to do, etc. You wouldn't charge your singers, but at the end of the night you'd owe the streaming company $7 for streaming 70 songs.

$7 per "rig" after a 5 hour night at $50@hour would be a drop in the bucket for most of us.

Ahhh... I misunderstood. Thank you for that clarification.

I multi-rig (I also own 1:1 for each system in play) and I could compete as long as the field were level.
Now, if all the rules were suspended and the "wild west" took over it might be a different. At that point, the KJs that just build their business on price and have no talent (oh, and yes there are lots of those out there and I have seen my share over the years) it would hurt me but I think over time the quality (or lack of) of the price KJ will show through and the venues would want something more. Low price does not always win. Let me also add that there are some price point KJs that actually have talent but are afraid to ask for more money because they don't know how to sell their business.

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

My music cost directly affects the number of rigs I run at the same time. The largest expense I have is also my music. The cost of my music is possibly 2 to 3xs the cost of my gear. I perhaps bring as much as $5000 in gear (quick math) but I can assure my cost in music per rig exceeds $20000 (again quick math). Last year alone I spent in excess of $7000 on music alone. So when it comes to adding a rig the first consideration in my business plan is music. Equipment is cheap when compared to the music. I might try to cut corners on equipment but I have never cut corners on music.

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

Danny, I multi rig but I don't keep other out of the market place. I bid venues just like everyone else and usually I am at a price point above the average bid. It is not all about price. When asked how much I charge, my stock response is usually "if you are shopping for the cheapest price, I am not the one for you". At that point the conversation will continue or not. (It is hard to explain the process here and it is not as cut and dry as i have just presented it just now). There is some skill involved and I am a professional.

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

What program are you speaking of that did not work? I use compuhost and it has always worked flawlessly over all the above mentioned windows versions.

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

Multi-rigging is not for the faint of heart. At least not if you care about your sound and equipment. It costs me $4000 - $6000 to build a single rig depending on the size of the PA's and Lighting that goes with it. This is way more than most pirates would ever spend on a single rig, much less 3 or 4 or 5 or more. With this expense comes great sound and a great stage to go with it. The singers enjoy it. Again, most pirates I know of don't care about that. There are of course plenty of exceptions, but cheap is cheap.

I don't see an explosion in multi-rigging taking place if the threat of lawsuits were to go away. There is a lot more work involved with multi-rigging than I think most people realize. I just had a week from hell that actually made me wonder why in the world I do this. But after a night's sleep, I reset and it all settles down for me.

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-Chris

I am a very organized person, have enough music for 2 more rigs, resources to purchase needed QUALITY equipment, and I have zero desire to expand for the reasons Chris states. It is extremely difficult to stay on top of your game for an extended amount of time. If you can do it my hat is off to you. Over time the stress, exhaustion, and loss of desire will wear almost everyone down.

Hmm.....perhaps it's MY math...but WHY would it cost Rumbolt $20,000 PER Rig but Chris A
$4,000-$6,000 per rig?

I don't multi-rig, but i know that the cost of very good reliable professional equipment isn't as expensive as it used to be, and neither is the music...

I don't think Chris was factoring in the music cost. Just equipment while Rumbolt was counting estimated music cost as well which could easily bring the total to $20K provided he was buying the same library for each rig. I may be wrong. But Chris's numbers are closer to equipment only costs for a nice quality system.

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

Re read his post. I don't think included music cost into that.

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

It all depends on the brands and the level of professional equipement one choses to purchases. The average cost of the mixers alone is near $400 new (one of my mixers is a Soundcraft I purchased for about $600). 2 Yamaha speakers plus a sub alone exceeded $2000. 2 floor monitors at a cost of $350. Then add in tvs, sm58's, wireless mics (shure) and misc power and xlr cables adding up to several hundred dollars (xlrs average cost each $35 and it's the better brand not the 14.99 junk) speaker stands, equipment rack ........ I think you might get the idea. Oh sure i could have done it on the cheap but the sound experience I give my singers is one of the reasons they continue to return week after week and how I get good local reviews. Oh yea, I did not even add in the computers.

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

This is correct. I am not factoring in music. Music brings the cost up to $10,000 minimum and usually in the $12K - $14K range.

I budget $15K to start up any new show that requires gear and music. This covers everything including book printing, banners, any ads to announce the show....everything.

By year's end I am going to reduce the budget to $10K by refining the music purchases.

Even though Karma doesn't have any built-in means of telling me what the most popular music is, I have religiously saved singer lists across all of my shows and it is easy enough to import the XML data into Excel to get a basic idea of what is being performed.

I could reduce the up front music purchase cost to $2000 - $3000 and then do downloads to fill holes.

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-Chris