Karaoke Forums

This is a spinoff from another thead, but when it comes to buying discs, "I wish I knew then what I know now!"

If I were a new KJ starting out with the knowledge I have now, I'd do the following.

~Start with the Sound choice foundations.  You can pick them up on ebay for a lot less than anywhere else.  These will give you a good base of songs for almost any type of venue.

~Get hip to custom burns!  Fast!  Customs are great because there are no "wasted tracks"  I can't say how many discs I bought for one or two tracks getting 8 others in the deal.  Not saying this is the case in all situation, but the guy with 20000 songs may not be better than my 5-6000 since I have done my best to avoid the crap filler that no one will sing but makes the songbook real fat.

~Don't be in a huge rush to get the hot new song playing on the radio.  Sure, it might get sung heavy for a couple weeks, but then it will sit and gather dust!  

Anyone hear Stacy's Mom lately?

That's it for me for now.  If I think of anything I'll ad on...

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Spreading the karaoke gospel

I think the best thing to do to keep your collection up to date after you have a good core set is purchace the year-end compilation discs. I like the ones Chartbuster releases every year at the end of January/early February that always contain pretty much every real popular track from the year before (usually 6 disks of country, 6 disks of pop/rock)

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C Mc
KJ, FL

One thing I would suggest is as KJ'ing is a business to keep an eye on some DEALS out there.  Sign up to as many webites & mailers as you can to get their specials and close outs. Over the years I bought many great discs at discount price as low as $1 per disc.  It's good to have a FAVORITE place to buy your cdgs but if  you don't look around you will MISS out big time.

2nd thing concerning disc selection is that one mans dog might be another ones most requested song...You just never know .... 20.000 songs doesn't mean you're a better KJ then someone with 5,000 songs  but sometimes it's good to have that obscure song that no one else has...

I'll be the FIRST to say "Yay, verily Yay!" on the obscure bit...

BUT in today's business, the consumers like "Swingcat" know what they want, and don't leave it to the aspiring Karaoke Host to have "everything"... they buy their own customs or regular cdgs with the songs that they specifically want.

The specific karaoke host may not WANT to cater to a certain crowd, but doesn't necessarily mean that they would not allow a certain song to come in.

I know I have several urban discs since I've started to get the Top Hits Monthly Six Packs... now I don't PERSONALLY want that type of crowd to come in. BUT if someone DOES want to come in and sing it, if the venue says it's okay, then I have no trouble playing it.

I have bought a ton of GOOD discs over the years off of karaoke.com's monthly specials. They clear a ton of stuff out at $1-$5 all the time!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

With regard to obscure trax, that is where the beauty of customs comes in.  If a customer of mine wants a song (obscure or not) I usually try to get it for them on a custom disc so I don't wind up spending $25 for a disc with just one usable track on it

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Spreading the karaoke gospel