posted
1) How do you as KJs feel about people bringing there own discs to your show? Seems to me that if enuf people did that we wouldn't need to spend so much $$$ updating our libraries. Alternativley if everybody did that the bars could set up a self sevre karaoke system & we'd be out of work.
2) How do you as singers feel about BYOD. Personally the Pony & I have six discs that we bring with us to a new venue when we go out to sing (never sure what the KJ will/wont have). We always sing at least one song from the house library first. We also have our 6-pac song list printed, and will usually offer to share with others at the show (with the KJs aproval).
3) Do your oppinions change if it is a coppied disc (realising that a singer bringing in there own IS for personal use)?
posted
1.) I am no longer a KJ, but when I was, using a singers personal disk always scared the bee-jeebers out of me. I hated to be responsible for them and would explain that if anything happened to them while in my possession, THEY (the singer) would have to bear any costs. I would reluctantly play them.
As far as KJ's updating their libraries, it seems fairly apparent to me that those that do (update on a continuing basis), tend to bring in a larger more diverse crowd, which begats increased social interaction between the sexes (which is why we all REALLY have anything to do with any of this) and this begats an increase in drink and food sales, then (in theory) begetting a happy, generous rewarding club owner for the KJ to hock his/her services and talents.
2.) As a singer, I think CD+G's are kind of a pain in the rear to tote around. I figure that even if the show I attend has a short song list, they will still have 3 or 4 of the several hundred songs I feel comfortable doing. And it seems like I am rarely able to get in more than that number of songs submitted in an evening anyway.
3.) Tough call, I wish the whole thing was a lot clearer. I guess if I were still a KJ, I would not play them. I think that I would not want to take the chance that I might jeopardize everthing I have on a singers personal home burnt CD+G. Sheez, paranoia might even suggest that it could be a sting operation... ok, maybe I'm going a little too far, point is, I wouldn't do it.
Posts: 79 | From: Portland, Oregon USA | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
I "BYOD" only to shows that I know don't have the songs I sing. Some places I don't need to bring anything. The KJ has too many songs and too many singers. I can surely find 2 or 3 songs to sing. Another show may very little Sound Choice female rock songs, and this is when I need to bring several of my own CDG's. When I go to a new place I never bring my disks the first time. I always ask the KJ if I can use my own disks for the next show.
Posts: 397 | From: Strongsville, OH | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I bring my own discs because I have stuff that I like, and pretty much no local KJ has it.
Posts: 1691 | From: USA | Registered: May 1999
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I don't care if they bring their own disc, even when most times I have the exact same song or disc from the manufacturer. Like SC Power Pick or Spotlight or Chartbuster Pro or 6+6 disc. I just take the disc and let them sing. If they want to lug them and take the chance that they may forget, drop, or lose them -it's their disc.
Posts: 542 | From: Mobile, Alabama, USA | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
There are only 2 bars that I take my growing collection of 120 discs to. One of the bars has a rather large selection, so I sometimes leave mine at home, but the other bar, which is my regular, couple times a weekend bar, has only about 50 CDGs, as well as all the Pioneer lasers. I take my collection there all the time.
There is one KJ that I used to go see regularly, but she all of a sudden decided she wouldn't play my discs. I guess it looked bad on her when I'd sing a song, then the next week, I wasn't there, and somebody else couldn't understand why they can't sing the song I did the week before. I don't go to her shows very much anymore.
posted
I have 85 CD+Gs and will usually lug them around with me when I'm out and about to the gigs that I know don't have the songs I really want to sing.
I personally don't mind when people give me thier own CDs when I'm running the gig as long as they realize that I'm not responsible for them if something happenes to them. I've have my own discs dropped by KJ friends and the like but so far every disc has played fine after the incident. If something did happen to them (broken/stolen) I would be ticked off but the ultimate responsibiliy for them is mine.
Posts: 1201 | From: Kansas City, MO USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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posted
No matter how many songs one has there are still songs one doesn't (and other manufacture's versions), so I have no problem playing original CD+G's/laserdiscs (I do not play VCDs) that people bring in if they are clean and have no stickers on them (if sticker is fine I will play it). If the jewel boxes are broken I will usually offer to replace it, too. I have storage in my SpeedRack for three customer CD+Gs. If they bring in the identical disc I will ask to use my own (Music Maestros have different versions, so I check to see if the writing matches too or I just use their disc). Most times I will announce that the singer brought in their own disc, especially if it is a song I do not have at all. I've only based the purchase of three discs off what discs people bring in, those three disc are awful (SGB 1, 2, 3 - puke). One woman brings her Power Picks before I get the Spotlights, I love the preview (now, if only I could get her to work for me).
Yes, I bring my own disc to other shows. I usually have two discs (one Sound Choice, one Music Maestro) in my purse - you never know. I will let others sing from my discs if I trust the KJ with them - usually I will give the discs to the KJ themselves and not the singer (fewer hands less likely to have a problem). I have others who let me sing songs from their discs too. Before I add some discs to my system I sometimes take them to other shows to get a feel for singing the songs in public.
I've never been to a karaoke show that didn't have something for me to sing - even at oriental venues (including in Japan). Down half a block from my house there is a Vietnamese karaoke club, and they had two English discs last time I went there. I still laugh at a show that claimed they "have a song for everyone" and they had 500 songs - sorry I thought it was a joke, at least double that for god sake.
Before I started KJing I was for a while taking 120 discs (in jewel boxes) with me to shows, with a printed out list.
posted
I will gladly play discs that have been brought in by the singers themselves. Usually it's because they want to sing a rare/unusual song. If it's copied, then I will not take that chance, as if the venue happens to get raided, I myself would not have the original.
Bose
Posts: 342 | From: Hull, England, Great Britain | Registered: May 2000
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posted
I forgot - I knew there was a reason I had tape players with both my rigs and I don't have tapes. Thanks Leigh for reminding me. Yes, I will play their audio cassettes - as long as the tape itself is in ok condition and cued.
posted
I will play discs tht people bring... no problems there... but this is a RARE event, as my collection is pretty good, and I guess no one feels that I'm lacking anything significant...
When I used to go out and sing, I would bring a couple of discs "just in case" ...
Posts: 575 | From: West Hartford, CT USA | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
A little humorous side note to this subject:
I had a customer Saturday night who apparently brought a case full of CDGs to the show (he apparently never broght them up to me to be used, so I had no knowledge they were there). Well, the guy and his wife left about 1 AM... about 10 minutes later, one of the waitresses comes over and tells me I have a phone call, and "ITS AN EMERGENCY"....
So naturally, all sorts of things race through my mind, and I'm thinking a loved one is hurt or something with my kids or something scary like that... so I rush over to the phone... and it's the idiot who brought in discs.. It seems he left his case there... THIS was the emergency... I could have killed him when he came back to get them...
If you bring discs to a show and forget them... its YOUR emergency... not the KJ hosts or the establishment.
[This message has been edited by cliffd64 (edited October 30, 2000).]
Posts: 575 | From: West Hartford, CT USA | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
Cliff: LOL, that is humorous. In four years, no matter how much I've had to drink at karaoke, I NEVER forgot my CDG's!
Posts: 397 | From: Strongsville, OH | Registered: May 1999
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posted
How very pretentious and callous of you Cliff.
If this person's collection of CDG's is more than 50 discs, it is a fairly large sum of money they stand to lose. I have at least $1200.00 sunk into my library, and I'd consider it a four alarm problem if I left it behind.
[This message has been edited by l'opera voce (edited October 30, 2000).]
posted
Well, I would have tried to contact the bartender, venue owner, or waitress to fix the problem, not the KJ.
Posts: 1487 | From: Irvine, CA, USA | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
1) I didn't like it at first... I thought the KJ should have every song everyone would like to sing. But by now I became familiar to that concept, up to the point that if someone requests a song that hasn't been requested before, I'll usually look up the Karaoke disc/discs it is on and tell him/her when I meet him/her next, but I won't buy that disc myself for that one request. However, I keep track of all the requests, and if a song is requested by different people, I start thinking about it. I believe that a Karaoke disc should be where it's used the most. If a KJ buys a disc whose songs are used mainly by one customer, maybe it'd be better if the customer has the disc and brings it, because then it can also be used at other shows, and for practice. But if a disc contains songs sung by many different people, it's probably better in the KJ's hands. If somebody brings in a disc and sings a song I don't have, fine. (I get a little angra if he/she sings a song off their own disc I do have, and theirs is a worse version than mine) Probably no one else will ever want to sing that song again. If they still do, I'll explain it wasn't my disc and add that request to my list.
2) Since I've experienced that the KJ's will mostly always buy the same discs, but never the ones with only a few songs I'm interested in, but no-one else is, I do bring my own discs to shows. However, at most good shows it isn't necessary to take them out of my bag, because they have more songs I want to sing than I have chances to sing that night, so I don't need my own discs. I only need them at lower-quality shows where there are few singers so I get to sing 5 songs or more during three hours, and at the same time there are only a few hundred songs in the book where I can't find enough ones I want to sing, so in these cases I'll sing off my discs. However, I only lend them to other singers if they approach me. Some years ago, I used to "fight" with the KJ's about who has the most attractive songs for the people to sing, giving printed song lists of my discs to all the people, but I found this is no use. Now discs I bring are primary for ME.
3) I can't tell in advance if it's a copied disc if it's given to me as a KJ. A self-burnt Karaoke disc can contain anything from a piano arrangement played at home by the singer to a copy of some Karaoke CD+G tracks to copies of obscure Karaoke tracks normally found on laser discs or cassettes. It's even possible to create own CD+G's nowadays... and usually people won't tell me if it's copied in some way or not, so basically I don't care.
posted
L'Op... being a KJ, I am not accustomed to getting phone calls while I am WORKING. If you were told by one of the club employee's that there was a phone call for you and "IT'S AN EMERGENCY"... what would YOU think?? I have elderly parents, and two small children... so excuse me if you find the fact that my first thought would go my faimly as being callous.
I don't know about you, but I don't think the loss of 10 or 20 or even 100 discs by one of my customers would be the first thing to come to mind as I was running to the phone. I was more concerned about my family or my dwelling or some other true "emergency".
If a person is so irresponsible with his own belongings, they don't deserve them. To call a KJ up in the middle of a show claiming it's an emergency without any explanation, is simply wrong.
[This message has been edited by cliffd64 (edited October 30, 2000).]
Posts: 575 | From: West Hartford, CT USA | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
I agree with Cliff. I'd be frantic if I left my binder at the bar, but I wouldn't bug the KJ about it, especially if I hadn't even let him know the discs were there. Now, if it is a bar that I know the KJ, and he knows what my discs look like, fine, I would ask him to have a look out for it. But I certainly wouldn't have him paged to the phone for an emergency.
A good idea is to have a sticker or something on the inside jacket of the binder, or whatever you carry your discs in, with contact info if you accidentally leave the discs somewhere.
posted
Cliff, with respect to your post about the DORK that left his discs at your show:
1) Tim is always right. You are pretentious and callous. How DARE you think so little of this poor guy who left his possessions at the bar (rolling eyes).
2) Actually Cliff, I totally agree with YOU. I would have been pretty ripped at the idiot that left his discs there, then called crying EMERGENCY.
BUT
3) Refer to #1. haha
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To answer the original post:
1) ppl bring discs to my shows frequently, until I go out and buy them. Hey, fattens my book.
2) God help me. I can't sing, therefore I don't bring my discs to other ppl's shows.
3) Never happened.
------------------ It's not just karaoke... It's Harry Karaoke!
Posts: 123 | From: Ocean County, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Hey Don, these are the same people who keep you and me employed. The customer is always right, even if they are a little bit overstated.
Their perception of an emergency may be different than yours. How would you feel if you lost $1200.00 worth of discs? How much of a chunk is that out of your library. Show a little respect for those who keep you in business.
Who is more likely to know a CDG case on first sight? a KJ, a bartender, or a cocktail waitress? Think about it for a second before you answer.
[This message has been edited by l'opera voce (edited October 30, 2000).]
posted
If I get a call when I am working, no matter if casual sounding or "emergency" I assume it is a customer. I would depend on the persons behavior about their left discs how I would treat it - ouch, they cost a lot of money. I am much more likely to be able to find them than the cocktail waitress and the bartender would not have a clue. I've had an "emergency" call because a singer could not play his cassette at home, said we busted it, his player was broken - next time he brought it in it played fine.
My books are fat enough as it is (447 pages and 13 page update, times two), more like I need to shrink them. I think some of the people who bring in their own disc to my show, do it just to "stump Larri".
posted
I usually bring my own discs, just because (a) I seem to have very different taste in music from most of the local KJs, and (b) most of the area KJs don't update their selections too terribly often. While I could certainly find plenty of songs to sing at virtually any karaoke venue, I enjoy being able to sing more unique selections from my private collection. I've created my own songbook (I have about 1500 songs), and I allow friends to sing off my discs.
Posts: 386 | From: Santa Rosa, CA, USA | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
Tim, I did think about it. It would initially scare the hell out of me, hearing the "emergency" cry. I'd still think he was highly irresponsible for leaving the disks then attempting to constitute an emergency on my part for lack of brainpower on his. He should be the one to be humbled, and be grateful he got his property back. I'm "employed" by a more responsible clientele, I guess.
And Keifer, Tim normally has a wonderful command of spelling, usage, punctuation, grammar and vocabulary, as far as I've seen. He's allowed a boo-boo.
God, did I just stick up for l'op? It must be late.
------------------ It's not just karaoke... It's Harry Karaoke!
Posts: 123 | From: Ocean County, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
You know, you'd also have to consider that your average non-karaoke bar worker may not know exactly what you are talking about if you used the term "CDG". I know if I lost my disc collection (which actually has been misplaced by a KJ on one occasion which gave me a heart attack) my brain would probably disconnect from my mouth. Give the poor shmuck a break, sheezuz! LOL
Posts: 1201 | From: Kansas City, MO USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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posted
You'd probably find that your average karaoke bar worker wouldn't know what a CDG is either. I usually just refer to them as karaoke discs. If I left my discs at my regular 2 bars, which are the only ones I take them to, I could phone the place up, tell them who I am, and that I left my karaoke discs there by mistake, almost all the staff would know what to look for.
posted
Thanks Dan Thats exactly my point. Having them summon the KJ by saying "ITS AN EMERGENCY" is ridiculous. He could have asked the waitress who answered the phone or maybe even paged the person who was sitting WITH him, but to have me informed that I had a call (no name provided) and it was an "EMERGENCY" was wrong. I can't imagine why he thought I would know anything about them anyways, seeing as how he never used any of them with me.
Unlike Larri... I don't encourage my customers to call me when I am working... to this day i have never received a call on the job. I only give out the club numbers to my family in case of a true emergency. Customers have my official number at home to call, where they can voice their concerns to my machine and I can get back to them.
And L'Op: Would you leave $1200 in bills lying on a table? Then why would you leave $1200 worth of anything behind? If it's such an emergency, then call a 911 operator and see what THEY tell you.
Posts: 575 | From: West Hartford, CT USA | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
No, L'op, you're clueless if you leave your discs at somebody else's show. GaryC
Posts: 426 | From: Oklahoma City, Ok | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
Thanx Folks… The "EMERGENCY" tangent has more than answered one of the questions. The next time I go out with the intention (or unintentioned possability) of getting "Drunk & Stupid" I will definatley not bring discs with me.
posted
Ya, the "emergency" bit got a bit harsh. I might p*ss and moan right there on the spot about how he thought it was an emergency, but in reality, I'd be happy to make sure his disks were returned, THEN come here and lambaste him for being an idiot. hehe
------------------ It's not just karaoke... It's Harry Karaoke!
Posts: 123 | From: Ocean County, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
L'op, I said discs, and no, I've never left my discs at someone else's show. GaryC
Posts: 426 | From: Oklahoma City, Ok | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
This reminds me of some of the people that call into me at my "paying" job:
"Operator! This is an emergency!" "What is the problem?" "I have to call my mother, it's her birthday and I need to wish her a happy birthday!"
Now, does this in anybody's mind constitute an "emergency"?? The answer is YES, the person who is making the request. I can imagine that fellow who lost the discs thinking that his situation is an emergency since it directly effects him. I'm not saying he's not a dumbbutt for leaving his discs behind, I'm just saying that he was probably so distraught the only person he could think of who has knowledge of things "karaoke" would be the KJ. I dunno...maybe it's a reflection of the colder, harder world we live in.
[This message has been edited by AnthonyT (edited October 31, 2000).]
Posts: 1201 | From: Kansas City, MO USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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The tangents around here can be more fun than the questions, 'specially when you introduce all the sarcasm, ignorance, condescenion (is that a word? from condescending. Don't have Webster's right in front of me), name calling, etc. I know I'm guilty of it too.
It's enough to drive ya ta sing all those angry songs on SC 2221 and 2241.
Posts: 123 | From: Ocean County, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
GOD do I hate misspelling, worse, getting caught at it, worse yet, getting caught at it by Tim!! (Tim is my favorite person to bust on, so I take it in stride when I get it back from him).
I was one written test away from going to Washington, DC for the Spelling Bee finals back in 4th grade. I think I misspelled mispell.
------------------ It's not just karaoke... It's Harry Karaoke!
Posts: 123 | From: Ocean County, NJ, USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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Thats exactly my point. Having them summon the KJ by saying "ITS AN EMERGENCY" is ridiculous. He could have asked the waitress who answered the phone or maybe even paged the person who was sitting WITH him, but to have me informed that I had a call (no name provided) and it was an "EMERGENCY" was wrong. I can't imagine why he thought I would know anything about them anyways, seeing as how he never used any of them with me. 
