Karaoke Forums

Knightshow said:This is very true. I do need a new computer, badly. I just don't have the money right now. However, I'm not hosting any karaoke shows at the moment, and the computer I have is fine for what i do. I have dsl service so that helps speed things up a bit. If I decide to be a KJ again, I'l use the extra money I make to get a newer and faster cpu. My dj equipment is high quality, and I never used anything but original cd+g's, vcd's and laser discs when I was hosting shows.

Metalgod said:Good idea. I might look into that.


Well, that, and Karaoke Scene's Karaoke Forums

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[highlight=purple]The Truth is out there. ... Way, way out there![/highlight]

We're back to this again.    What is illegal.   If you have one burnt copy,  ten,  500, 1000.    If you have your entire library backed up to a hard drive.  If you are on the black market?   Where do [highlight=crimson]you[/highlight] put this magical line between legal & illegal?   Everybody out there is going to draw the line in a different place.    The amount of risk they feel comfortable with.     My point was if you are going to turn someone in you better be clean.    Who's walking on water?    If you turn them in anonymously how will they know it wasn't [highlight=crimson]you[/highlight] they were going after?    Worry about stopping something really important like drug smuggling.    The goverment spends billions on that each year.    Did it help?    Everybody you know that uses dope didn't quit or even slow down, did they?    Unfortunately, you, I or us are not going to stop piracy.     Think about this.    There are probably less than a hundred professional KJs on this site.   There are probably a hundred wannabes here.    There are a couple thousand more pros out there and several thousand more wannabes.   Each of those has never seen or heard about this site and never will.  That's just in the USA.   How many don't have clue if they are legal or illegal, don't care and never will.    OJ got off with a good legal team.    If you end up in court it's going to be a matter of interpretation (how illegal [highlight=crimson]they[/highlight] think you are) and how much you want to spend to defend and each case will be different.    Somebody that has 50,000 "illegal" songs and sounds like crap is not a worry to me.    Cream always rises.    They only get the jobs that I don't want.    Some dive that doesn't want to pay for quality, full of screaming drunks and drug addicts.   Not my idea of a job I need.    It keeps them busy so I can get the quality jobs, I deserve.   Spend your money on a good system with less songs, you'll go further.

These are EXACTLY the ones that are taking jobs...GOOD jobs in this area for $75 a night or less.  The bars don't care if they are legal or not as long as they are paying their ASCAP/BMI fees...btw ascap/bmi don't give a damn about legit discs or not, their job is to get the royalties to the artists...they don't give a damn HOW they are being played, it's not THEIR responsibility.  If you are that good NOT to worry about these thiefs, I commend you!

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[shadow=deepskyblue]I'm impressed, I've never met such a small mind inside such a big head before.[/shadow]

I get $175 cash every night.     Like you, I can't get what I feel I'm worth because of the wannabes.    I would like to get and deserve to get $300 a night.      I'm doing 5 nights a week.     Could have 6 but I don't want it.    When we had people working for us, we paid them $75 cash every night.   Now think about my gas, my vehicle & equipment repair costs, insurance, etc.   They were making more than me.     I have had bar owners call and beg me to play at their bar.      I have had bar owners call and beg after I quit their place because they were A**holes.    I have always had steady work.     Most of my competition makes less and works less.    It's reputation & presentation.   That covers me, the system and they way I do karaoke.    I chose to do my business this way.   Professional all the way.    It obviously pays to do it that way.    I don't act like all the rest.    You have to put yourself above the wannabes.   If you knew me and saw what I put into this you would understand.    I'm not messing around.    This is very serious to me.    I just did my taxes.   I spent $15,000 on my business last year and that is what I have been averaging every year.    New machines, new mikes, new office computer, new song books, vehicle repairs, gasoline, insurance.     It's not a hobby I go to, it's a full time fun job.     I haul in 800 pounds of equipment.    People that have never seen me think a band is playing.    I get to the job 1 hour before.   It takes almost the entire hour to get in and hooked up.    It looks professional.    At the end of the night that bar owner is never going to be able to say that I screwed him or boy did he rip me off or that really sucked or he's hurting my reputation.   Think about the reputation of the bars you want to play in.    If it's a dive or a trouble spot the wannabes are going to play them, not me.    You may have to drive a little further to get into some of the nicer places.     Around here the wannabes are like flies.    They P**s me off.   They do screw things up, but you have to best them.    They have to keep playing for less money because they suck.    Soon even they won't be making enough money to be worth their time.    If Shmucko's bar wants them he can have them, he is only killing his reputation.   I've seen them come and I've seen them go.     They all want to put me out of business.

It's good to be King aint it

You could only imagine...

And where would that be?

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[shadow=deepskyblue]I'm impressed, I've never met such a small mind inside such a big head before.[/shadow]

On the right coast.   5 nights a week.   I don't go out for less.   Unless it is a new gig.  I give them a discount to build the crowd.   Skeptic.   Tell me how to import a file into this thing and I'll enlighten you beyond belief.   It's on my desktop.

Import a file?  What do you mean upload an image?  No other file can be uploaded here.  Do upload a file you go down under this section to the section that says "Add an attachment".  Then you browse your computer & find the file you want to upload.  Then put in a file comment if so desired.  Then click "Add File".  Then "Submit" your post.  Make sure you click on the "Allowed extensions and sizes"  http://www.karaoke-forum.com/attach_rules.php?f=2  Thought i'd help you there.  

K, ENLIGHTEN US!!!!

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[shadow=deepskyblue]I'm impressed, I've never met such a small mind inside such a big head before.[/shadow]

I don't know if this is doing what I want, so bare with me.   I'll have to submit it & check it out then, I'll post my coments regarding it.   It didn't work.

My upload quota has maxed, it won't send it.  Now what?   What is the smallest (most compact) file type I can send it in?   Jpeg, bitmap, Etc?

If you are uploading an image file, it can't be bigger than 2 mb.  Anything more will give you the exceeds message.  gif or jpg files are the most common.

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

It all depends on the file. In general, if the files is a photo with a log of different colors, you will get better quality with smaller file size with JPG than GIF. If you have line drawing with limited colors, you are better off with GIF than JPG.

I'll have to send it in two parts.

Cool!  A 5 year old calander!  I'm enlightened!

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[shadow=deepskyblue]I'm impressed, I've never met such a small mind inside such a big head before.[/shadow]

It would have been much easier to fake this thing, after all I had to go through to get it in here.    I know this will be way over your head.

[highlight=crimson]This post has been revised.   To include an explanation of the following. [/highlight]

[highlight=darkblue]The post before this was removed by the powers that be.  I didn't think about the advertising thing until I saw it had been removed.    It contained my monthly karaoke calender from March 2001.   It was posted for demonstration purposes and not to advertise any of my venues.    My name and phone number were not included on the calender before it was posted.    It contained 59 gigs. [/highlight]    The following post is in reference to that calender.

This is from when I ran 3 systems, each system was equal equipment wise.   This was also before 9/11 slowed things down a little.

You will notice that there are 59 gigs listed.    Each one really paid  $175 per night.  That equals $10,325 per month, gross.   I personally did 5 of these nights each week at $175 each.   I kept the full money from those. $3850.   We paid our guys $75 each night.    That's $2775. (paid out) for the rest of the jobs they did.    They brought me back the van keys and $100 each night.    $3700.    [highlight=crimson]My[/highlight] take for the month after paying the guys was $7550, before income tax and other expenses.    Did I mention this was all cash?

Now for all of you KJ's and wannabe KJs, listen up.

HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL KJ. (Or anything else)

Chapter One;

[highlight=crimson]LESSON NUMBER ONE, :[/highlight]     Never, ever ask for.... or take advice from...anybody... about "How To Make Money" unless that person is making (and can prove it) the amount of money you want to make.    You wouldn't ask the guy flipping burgers at McDonalds, to tell you how to make a million dollars a year, would you?    If he isn't making it, he doesn't know how and therefore he can't tell you how to do it.    Would you ask a homeless man to co-sign for a mortgage?   Keep reading this until you completely understand it.

[highlight=crimson]News Flash: [/highlight]    I can't tell my sister or my kid or anybody else how to make a million a year, because I haven't.   A person making half a million can't tell you how to make a million.

But if you want to make $10,000 a month doing karaoke, I can show you how to do that.    

[highlight=crimson]WARNING:[/highlight]   IF you want to make more than that, then you must find someone that is making more and get your advice from them.

[highlight=darkblue]Moral to lesson number one:[/highlight]   Watch who you take advice from.    Talk to people that know the right answers to the questions you ask, about everthing in your life.    If you want to be somewhere (be it a certain income level, position of authority in a corporation, or political office, or a successful KJ with a great sounding system, or to stop smoking, etc.) in your life, talk to the ones that are living it, not the ones that wannabe, or wish they were, or think they are already.   They're not qualified and they can not and will not be able to help you.

Now if anyone wants to work for $75 cash, a night doing karaoke with my equipment, my gas and my van, I'll put together all the systems I can.   You just have to show up regularly and not be a jerk.

[highlight=crimson]LESSON NUMBER TWO:[/highlight]    SET GOALS for yourself.   Write them down and visualize them daily.   Picture yourself as you want to be.   The goal I set for myself when I started doing karaoke, was $2000 a month.   Within 6-9 months, I never made less than that.    Why did I pick that figure?    I wanted to match my monthly take home pay from my real job, the steel mill.    

[highlight=darkblue]Moral to lesson number two:[/highlight]    Dream big.   You might be pleasantly surprised.     I have consistantly made way over my mill pay.   At $10,000 a month my karaoke pay was 3 times bigger than my gross mill pay.

I should have warned everyone to sit down before reading this.    If this was to much info at one time, take a break and sing two songs and call me in the morning.  

OK skeptics, let me have it.   I'm not bragging or making fun or showing off or fantasizing.   This is just what I did.   This is all meant as creative business building suggestions and to show you what is possible.    One more thing, making and spending all that dough, sure is fun.   Any disbelievers or people that think I made this up or even better, I'm lying about it?    It's all fact.   Take it or leave it.    I don't need to lie to anyone here, about anything.    You don't know me and I don't know you.   And all of my fantasies involve sex, anyway.

Triple T, where is your snappy reply?    Cat got your tongue?   Or did some of this make sense?

instead of making bigger plans, he was probably out WORKING last night.

I'm glad you have enjoyed such success, if indeed the stats you posted are true. There are folks like that in Portland, who have turned what I enjoy as a form of entertainment into a cookie-cutter type of enterprise that make a profit while turning the very form I love into a sham of a show.

How is your $75 a night dj / kj going to treat the public? Since he or she isn'tt making good money, they'll take bribes to bump up, provide crappy service due to the fact that they don't care what they're doing... if bossman turns it into a mcdonalds, then why go the extra mile to make your customers happy. You'll have a rapid turover rate in kjs, and probably in gigs too... but that's okay, because there's other marks down the road.

We had an outfit (several of them in fact) in Portland, and what they DO is corrupt the venue owners/managers into thinking ALL karaoke is ran this way, and they get burnt out, and it's harder on the rest of us to do what we do best, which is provide the best show we can.

Do you truly think you're the first that has come up with this concept? Most kj/owners I know pay their help that way too. You're just lucky that the competition you have described in your area doesn't have their act together.

Tig was working for me, and I gave him the majority of the money I made, despite all the expert advice that surrounds folks like us. But Tig is the BEST kj I've ever seen. He knows the hardware. He knows the software. He's knows rotation, mix music, and had the personality to keep the crowd enthused and having a blast. I paid him what he was worth, and no less. And I never had any complaints from his shows.

THAT's my secret to my success. Am I as successful as other kjs? Certainly not. But my gigs were long standing, and folks liked what I and Tig did. That's all the comparison I EVER needed to have.

Nope don't need one, you are obviously the best kj in the land that puts everyone else here to shame.  Almost to the point to why should we even bother, yours are the shows we should set all standards to.  I don't even know why you bother ASKING us little peons questions due to the fact that you already know the answers, guess you are just trying to test us all to see if everyone might be even remotely as smart as you.  Pay no never mind that you post info that's over 5 years old, still no actual location...the "right" coast, it's a pretty big coast.
So you have opened my eyes, you should come up here & take over all the clubs here as well, you should go nationwide & put us peons out of work since we all suck.  You talk about the $$ figures enough so it shouldn't be that hard to start getting systems left & right to accomplish that feat.  You are doing small potatoes with the 5 year old calendar you posted, thnk (are dare I say DREAM) bigger, take over the world super KJ!

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[shadow=deepskyblue]I'm impressed, I've never met such a small mind inside such a big head before.[/shadow]

All this talk about piracy is moot. Let's all face it it's out there and we all have to deal with it. In my city they are everywhere and I've been working steadily for the past 10 years. I've based my shows on quality sound and great selections. I've refused to drop my prices I average $200- $300. Pre night for a weekly gig. Private shows I always charge more depending on how many people are there. The pirates have come to my shows and told me bosses they could do the same show for cheaper and ALL my bosses laugh in their faces. So just forget about pirates leave them on their ships choking their parrots and do a pro job and the work will remain. The pirated shows usually go away after a while cause most of them are unprofessional slobs anyway.

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