Karaoke Forums

There has been a lot of debate over this. I have even had my fair share of head butting with a few over having the capability to play discs at all. I am not posting this to stir the pot or start a back and forth over what is better or not. I am posting this to demonstrate an extreme example of what I do to accommodate my singers and ensure that my shows start and stay successful at any given location.

Last Tuesday, I delivered my 4th show at a new venue. I was told that a group of hard core singers would be coming in and that most of them brought their own discs and thumb dives to karaoke shows. This group came to this venue regularly up until they dropped their host 6 months ago.

I did NOT warn anyone against bringing discs.
I did NOT drop a disc player into the rig for them.

BTW - this is the first time anyone has brought a disc to one of my shows in well over a year. Maybe even two years now.

Most of their group arrived before the show and 3 of them walked right up to me with their discs and started asking me about playing them. I explained that I did not have the capability of playing discs at this location, but I was almost 100% positive I could accommodate their requests.

I announced over the mic so everyone could hear - "For those of you who brought discs, write down 6 tracks from your discs and bring them up so I can check for them and buy then download them if needed. That should take care of you for tonight."

The same 3 did as I instructed and I proceeded to buy and download the EXACT tracks they were using (all of them were Zoom, SBI and a couple Sunfly). All told I bought and downloaded 15 tracks for them. I already had the other tracks they had written down.

At the end of the night, the group collectively came up and thanks me for the great night. Then they thanked me for providing a service that would allow them to leave their discs at home. They didn't like having to burn discs. They didn't like having to order discs and wait for them to arrive. They didn't like bringing the discs to shows. No other hosts ever offered to buy discs or tracks for them.

I asked them to email me their song requests along with the brand they want and I would do my best to find their exact tracks for them.

As of right now, I have 52 song requests I need to buy and download for this group. I am taking my car to the shop shortly where they have WiFi and I am going to start buying and downloading the tracks. I can probably get all of them downloaded and renamed to my specs before my car is done.

I am going to spend the equivalent of one night of karaoke pay buying tracks for these folks and expect that will be more than enough to keep them coming back for more. They have already committed to organizing a Launch Party for the addition of our Saturday night show at the same venue that starts up on Jul 12th.

I am pretty sure of the response I will get when I email them back saying I have the exact tracks they want and they can leave their discs at home from now on. I am pretty sure that I am going to instantly build a solid base of core regulars. I am pretty sure this may lead to adding more nights at other venues in the area if I decide to expand into this area (this is a new geography for me to work in).

One final note - Every person in that group is older than 50.

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-Chris

Chris,

Good post. You will build a great customer base for a very low price. I can't believe people would want to haul CDs into a bar if they didn't have to. Interesting to note that they were partial to the UK brands instead of the US brands. Singers just want to sing the version they are most familiar with and you're giving them the ability to do that without the burden of bringing in discs.

Chris without playing the disc how did you know who the mfg was. Most of my singers don't have a clue. I will load their cd's and preview the song (I have a 3" lcd tv next to my player for preview only), then I check to see if I have the correct song, artist and mfg. If I do have the exact song I let them know and give them back their cd. Close to 90% of the time I have the correct one. I also have a rule of "no customers with cd's will follow each other" so I can play a computer file while loading the next cd. I also have a compressor on the cd player (same size as a RNC 1773) that not only helps normalize but lights up on the first note...then I hit pause.

I am pretty sure that if a Singer is going to come to your show with a burned disc or flash drive, he/she is going to know which Manufacturer the song track is from. I would be very surprised to see that a Singer who comes in with their own custom disc, doesn't know what Manufacturer produced it. As for how Chris would know, I'm sure he asked them.

Chris, I used to do something similar (without the on-the-spot ordering tho). When someone would ask me for a specific song (and sometimes even brand), and I didn't have it, I would tell them that I will look it up when I get home, and if it is available, I will try to have it by the next show. In most cases, I was able to come through with their requests, and I would inform them of such when they came to my show the next time. Also, I used to add in my e-mail announcements that if anyone wanted to look through my song lists (by Titles or Artists), I would gladly e-mail them a copy, and if they didn't see what they were looking for, they could write back to me so I could try to get it.

Skipping the legal junk that would get the thread moved, and my own junk regarxing the 2 different media :

First, I commend Chris on providing a service that makes his customers happy. I do hope that you also retain or think about adding disc playing / mixing capability - at least temporarily. Download availability may be more limited in the near future - at least for awhile. Good to have another option....

Second, we have differing experiences. I get a lot of folks who carry their own tracks to every show. I probably have the exact discs that they give me, but giving me theirs makes them comfortable, and saves me a minute amount of time.

One issue. I won't play from a portable drive. I can ( virtually all modern disc players are capable of this) but simply don't trust the content. Modern players are as virus susceptible as PCs.

I do have a question though. Why can't you ( and many other PC hosts ) play from a disc if you had to? No drive on the PC ( I just bought a brand new Innovo and it has one ) or an inability to mix properly due to a lack of proper software ( for instance, I know a host who will play a disc on the PC, but can't drop key except on the tracks on the hard drive)? I never understood that... No knock, Chris - it's a real question from my disc based Luddite self...

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

as do we all.


i just can't see someone bringing in their own drive because they will not sing any other version but theirs bringing me a virus. ust my opinion on it.


it may be hardware based (the drive can not read the CDG subchanel) or software (only a few can play discs on the fly. Siglos can, it htink Hoster can now as well) i know i can play them and change key or tempo through Siglos as if it was a ripped file.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Simple - There aren't any companies offering downloads in the US that have a comprehensive selection of music.

They were aware of KaraokeCloud but also knew they offered mostly the old CB library. I told them about KaraokeVersion, All-Star Karaoke, and CustomBurn.



Like I said, they have been around a while, and it appears most of then are somewhat tech savvy. They are buying specific brands through the Tricerasoft download site.

I took a look at one of the USB drives they brought in. I recognized the file name structure instantly. most downloaded files will still have a manufacturer ID of SF or SBI, etc in the file name.

These folks are long time karaoke singers and know their brands. I had folks asking for Sound Choice, Chartbuster, Priddis, etc. This is the only location I have ever worked at in 4 years where so many folks have gone to karaoke for so long. They even know about pitch/tempo changes without me offering it up. It was refreshing.




This particular laptop does not have a CD/DVD drive. The CD/DVD bay contains the 2nd hard drive where all the karaoke music is stored. Otherwise, most of our other locations do have CD/DVD drives and I do have software that will play discs. But as noted, is is very, very rare for anyone to bring discs to a show here. Practically all of my locations serve the 20-30 something crowd and they just don't own or buy karaoke discs. It is the older generation that MIGHT still be bringing discs.




One gentlemen did bring a USB drive and I did take a look at it so I could not the tracks he was looking for. I took a screenshot of his directory and used that for what I needed to download. I have no issue putting a USB drive in my PC because I have disabled AutoPlay, tweaked security settings, and run a quality anti-virus/anti-malware app. I am not playing their music, just taking a look at what they have.



I did buy a couple of copies of CAVS PlayCDG a couple years back. So long as you have a capable drive, the CAVS software can play the discs, do pitch and temp control, etc. I have never had to use the software.

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-Chris

Paradigm, keep in mind that players cannot be programmed with the antivirus protection that is routine for a PC - at least, not in general.

I find the lack of ability by higher priced pro hosting software to mix discs somewhat weird. I have have a free version of KaraFun that I use to test discs in my office that will even do it.

Either way, thanks for the answer.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Joe....It's extremely obvious why PC based karaoke software doesn't focus on being able to do anything with discs.

Virtually no one uses them in a live karaoke show any longer. The ones that do use dedicated disc players.

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-Chris

I get quite a few that bring their own discs. I have a player, so it is no problem. I am not big enough to be able to buy 15 songs a night, YET. I hope to get there one day. I am working on it. .

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I connect a backup laptop the the local wi-fi, and use it to search and download, if and when necessary. Singers love it when you can get their song that night. Rarely does anyone bring me a disk or thumb-drive anymore, those that did found there was no need.

BTW CompuHost V2 has a full built-In media player that supports playback of CDs, CD+Gs, Super CDGs, VCDs, and thumb-drives. With the media player you can add a song from a disk to the rotation and change the key but not the tempo.

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Karaoke that just sounds better!

CompuHost | KJ Media Pro | Karaoke Kiosk | Bose L1 Model II system | B2 bass | ToneMatch audio engine | Shure VHF SM58 wireless mics | Countryman E6 Earset with Shure UHF wireless beltpack

Speaking of, can you change the tempo when playing discs with a dedicated disc player? Just wondering.

I have never had a request to change tempo though I have had folks complain that a song is too slow ("At Last" - Etta James) or too fast ("Devil Went Down To Georgia").

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-Chris

You were able to provide the service of playing their songs without sacrificing your pay. Nothing wrong with that.

Except for possibly the Numark or or certain DJ players ( for which tempo control is a requirement - but only a very few can play CD+G ) that happen to play karaoke as well, the only players that can change tempo do it accidentally - the old ones with pitch control rather than digital keychange.

This is possibly the only function that PC can perform that most modern players can't.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

I just read an article in the NY Times this morning that says that download sales were down 6% (first decrease ever) for all of 2013, and already this year DL's have dropped 13%. Streaming has taken the music industry into a very non-profitable direction it appears. The top album of the year has been "Frozen" with sales of 2.7 million albums. Pharrell Williams' "Happy" has been DL'd 5.6 million times.

Youtube & Spotify seem to be leading the way, and the US listened to 70.3 billion songs last year using streaming services, most of them free of charge. And we think the karaoke world has problems! I can see BMI, ASCAP and SESAC going door to door in large numbers in the near future if we don't change our licensing rules soon.

If I were to get back into bar karaoke, I would forgo the player as well. The current host at the bar plays my USB drive, but I may be the only one they would do that for. They know I used to be the host there and they know I know what I am doing. They might for another regular, but I doubt any of the current regulars go as far as to get their own music.

I have a large number of customers that bring in their DL's (usually KV) and they give them to me because I am the only place that will play them from a thumb drive. I keep their history data unconfused by using 1st up (first letter each word capitalized) naming, and all my songs are all caps. I can tell real quick if it is their song or mine.

I don't get many flashdrives - a few, usually regulars or people visiting from out of the area that ask me before hand. Still get customer discs simply because I have always offered them - and not just older singers, although the under 50 disc owners do seem to be waning.

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

Incidentally (no intention to derail) I do that too from the singer’s database (karma). First letter caps for regulars, all lower cases for non-regs. Easy deletion identifier. 3-4 months later they don’t show up, they’re deleted from the database.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

Maybe its a regional thing, but in all my years I can count on one hand the number of times someone has brought is a CD-G/USB and asked if I could play it.