Quote:
Originally Posted by Lonman
When I started buying music, cdg's weren't prevelant up here yet, still laserdiscs - those ran 120-150 PER disc for 28 songs.
DK, SC, MM were the first ones in this are and those discs ran approx $45-50 per disc for 15-18 songs - depending on brand. Even the 'cheaper' brands of today ran around $30 each disc. This was back in 93-95.
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I came into the industry a couple of years after the laserdiscs, but the first karaoke shows I saw ( too shy to try in those days ) used them, and I can remember all the background video, and remembered commenting to my girlfriend that the video made it distracting from the lyrics for the singer, but entertained the rest of the audience (especially those that weren't singing).
I ran a bowling center in a small town on the Arizona/Mexico border, that needed some entertainment in a small underused lounge, and remembered Karaoke that I had seen a couple of years earlier, and checked into several formats for Karaoke entertainment for this small venue... I do remember the cost of a Karaoke jukebox that included 25 laserdiscs, directly from Japan, that could be leased or bought. If you bought the turn key version the retail price was a cool $20,000 smackers... my owner didn't go for it...lol. So I hired a KJ from a nearby town, and paid him $200 / night... more than I should have paid( but still made a meager profit in the beginning ), but he was good ( and the profit margin increased quite a bit ), and tought me alot about the business, indirectly, as I am a quick study, and loved to sing... he left for a town farther away, after a couple of months, and I decided that maybe I could KJ, along with the other 3 or 4 hats I wore at this bowling alley (sic), and convinced the owner to lend me $2000 and I would purchase the Karaoke equipment, and do the shows for free for two years, in order to pay off the loan... I'm still Hosting after 15 years, and still have the original gear in storage, including the JVC cdg player that I originally bought, and also a Hitachi player that I bought as a backup, since JVC discontinued their cdg player, and I needed a backup, for my home studio, and show, in case the JVC died...
I have some original receipts for the DK, and Sound choice discs I purchased ( on sale ) for $32.95 in 1996. My original cdg start up set in 1995 was included in the purchase of a turnkey setup, that included a new player(JVC), new mixing amp, and 4 used Pioneer speakers and stands, and 3 corded mics, and cables for every piece of gear. Plus 25 various cdg's of my choosing, and I think they retailed at $39.95 for the ones that I selected... All for the cool price of $1,850.00 delivered from Chicago...
I didn't quite know what I was getting into, once all the new manufacturers started producing the same songs, so I experimented with different manus, and after a lot of trial and error, and duplication, I eventually stuck with Sound Choice as my manu of preference, and didn't deviate, until Pop Hits Monthly started producing new songs faster than Sound Choice, and I bought quite a lot of new songs that my clients were requesting, even though I would have rather waited for the Sound Choice cdg, the timeliness of their releasing new music, was putting me in a bind with my regulars, that started wondering why they could sing those new songs, on their visits to Karaoke shows in the bigger towns, but I was always waiting to purchase the Sound Choice version... it was because I could count on the quality, and not duplicate too many songs in the process.
Ah! The good ol' days...
