Karaoke books

[bryant]

When I add new stuff, I try to keep it as one continuous section listed by title in alphabetical order. I do not like to continually add separate pages as I go along, so the welding thing might not be a good idea for those like me. Any other ideas?

[dbl_trbl]

3 ring binders are not the answer. Post binders last much longer.

[pelletmon]

I'd like some feedback on how many books you guys put out there for your audience on any givin night. Im sure it verys depending on the size of the club as it does for me. Where I play tuesday thru fri. seating cap. is about 170 (approx) I set out 8 books. Four are listed by artist and four by song. I use black binders for artist and white ones for song.That seems to take care of the demand for the most part,but sometimes i get singers asking where the books are and I haft to tell them they are all out on tables and they will haft to share.I've gone to other bars where the KJ will set out only 2 or 3 books and everyone has to fight over them.How do you guys do it?

[WDEWDAD7]

Your're right, it does depend on where. The place I have been doing karaoke regularly for the last 6 years ( Tuesday nights ), is actually the hardest on my books. I have toted up to 20 books in to try to keep everyone happy. Duh! When I started at another place on two other nights, I had 4 title and 2 artists. It worked there, and since I am continually adding new songs, it was getting expensive every time I reprinted new books. I used to have by title and by artist in the same book. Got way too big. I now carry in 5 title and 4 artist. I keep another 10 in the van in case I need to use more. I also use different color books for title and artist, so I can see where they are. But, they are never happy. There is always one table that seems to think THEY need all the books; so, when new people come in......I send the to that table. i hate the people who hang around the table and keep asking...do you have this? do you have that?? Even though I have Hoster, I will send them to find a book, and bring me a filled out slip. I tell them I need to concentrate on the person singing, they need my undivided attention, to make adjustments, and make them sound a good as possible, AND," I will give YOU the same attention when your turn to sing comes up". Works most of the time. I will search for songs for some regulars and an occassional hard to find song.

[pelletmon]

I could'nt agree more about the people hangin around the stage,buggin the hell out of you about "when is it MY turn"or"I need to sing right NOW cause I'm gettin ready to LEAVE"(then you notice an hour later that they are still there,don"t you just love that one?) We also must constantly watch for other (mostly really drunk)folks gettin in the singers faces in the middle of a song wanting to share the mike and sing with them.Thats always a hard one for me cause you rarely know if the singer came to the club with that person and they're cool with it ,or if they want you to come up and save them.Thats always a tricky one for me.P.S.I like your idea about keeping extra books in the van just in case.One question though.Do you keep those updated as well? It sounds like a lot of work.Thanks Billy.

[TKaraoke]

I believe to keep customers happy the need to be able to find the songs they are looking for so they don't have to come up and say "Do you have XXXX". As Host I update my books with New Song Pages whenever I get new discs, I never try to go beyond 3 new pages or set of pages, depending on the number of new songs, then I combine all the NEw Song Updates into one New Section. I have the Original Book, and then the New Update section. Having a year or two of updates one month at a time is a nightmare, too hard to find songs. Also my main book is in White by Title, Yellow by Artist, New Update Combined Section Artist & Title another color, and a max of the 3 neww pages in different colors til combined. Everyone knows where to look for the newest songs and don't have to ask. My pet peeve is to go to someone's show and they have books by Artist and seperate books by Title, I don't want to runaround all night looking for the "other" book that I will evevntually probably want, and I sure don't want my customers doing that, that's why they go to other KJ's show. I love the Laptop "Songbook" idea, but that's a whole new ballgame.
My humble belief:
1-People want a LOT of songs to choose from, and easy to find in a book.
2-Better singers, that will attract customers who will come, spend money, and bring other listeners, want a GREAT sounding system
3-People want a fair rotation
4-People want KJ/DJ's to START ON TIME
5- 1,2,3,4, and BE NICE, don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.
I have 14,000 plus songs, went to double columns which I don't like, but the people do, and they have said so, because they like the smaller lighter books!
Just my 2 Cents
TK

[alanross]

As long as there are drunk people, there will be problems with the karaoke books. This is a universal rule. There are no easy answers and as we continue to grow our businesses, we have to deal with ever expanding songbooks.

When I research other Karaoke shows, I, too, hate having to seek out separate binders for the artist list and the song title lists. We have kept both lists in one book for the 12 years I've been running Karaoke shows, but this year was the most difficult.

About seven years ago, I switched to the two column per page format and people love it. We have been able to use 1.5" ring binders every year, but probably should have bought 2" binders this year.

Automated or computer generated songbooks are so frightening a concept I shudder to think of it. Drunks with drinks in their hands accessing a computer to find their song? They can't even keep from spilling their drinks on themselves, what will protect the computer?

Keeping your songbooks clean is the healthiest thing you can do. I wipe off the books after every single show. Each page is in a sheet protector, so even the pages can be wiped down when they use the book as a coaster (argh!). Pages stuck together at the end of the night usually indicate where there is wetness. After each show, fan the pages to find where there is stickiness. Wipe those pages with a wet napkin and dry with a dry paper napkin. Don't use a bar rag. Bar rags often leave residue and do not remove as much moisture as a dry paper towel or napkin. Once the pages and exterior of the book have been wiped down, shake the pages down so that none of them are bunched up around the rings of the binder. This prevents the covers from tearing as quickly and the books will last longer.

We have a set of books we use at one of our locations 7 nights a week. By talking good care of them, we can make them last all year without having to replace the binders. We occasionally find that a page or two has fallen out of either the top ring or the bottom ring, but when you shake the pages down and fan them out, you can easily see which page has fallen off a ring and quickly hook it back in.

We put out a completely new set of books every year and throughout the year, we make additions to the song books in a separate "Additional Song List" section. Every year, we integrate those songs into the main body of the book and start fresh again. We do this every May because just after Memorial Day, our summer season begins and we like to have fresh books for the tourists.

About six years ago, I got the deal of a lifetime from Staples. I called them asking for 1.5" binders with the clear plastic insert covers so I could slip our company logo on the front and contact information in the back. The telephone sales rep told me they had a large quantity for a penny a piece.

I was a little taken aback and asked her to repeat that. She again said she had the binders I wanted for a penny each. Dumbfounded, I asked her how many she had available at this price. She said they had about 1500 of them in a warehouse. She surmised that they were some sort of overstock they were trying to get rid of.

Still in shock, I again asked for confirmation, "You mean to say that if I wanted to order all 1500 of those binders, it would cost me $15.00!?!

"That's right." she replied.

Quickly doing the math on my calculator, I discovered that 1500 binders, which normally sell for about $7.00 each minimum, would be worth $10,500!

I told her to ship them to me immediately.

She then told me that since I was ordering the entire inventory in bulk, she would give me free shipping on the order! I paid $15 and change (for tax) and in a few days, the UPS truck rolled into my yard with a hundred and twenty someodd boxes of 1.5" binders! The UPS driver was not exactly happy about it. Three of us spent the next twenty minutes unloading her truck.

Once UPS left, I opened a box to check out the binders and they were exactly what I had ordered. What I discovered was that they were all factory rejects that had a slight flaw in their plastic covers. The skin into which you can slide your covers did not meet factory specifications. These skins are supposed to cover the entire heighth of the binders, but ours came to about 3/8" from the top of the binder. The laminated cover sheets I made for them stick out about an 1/8" from the top, but it's so minor a problem no one has ever mentioned it. Nonetheless, these binders have served us well for a fraction of their actual value.

Although I had to rent a storage unit to house this huge inventory, I have been using these binders for the past several years and really don't want to have to buy any others. When a binder gets ripped, torn, broken, fails to close, whatever, I simply discard it and pull out another to replace it. It's nice because I always have really clean, professional looking books to offer.

Even after all these years of casually discarding used binders and giving boxes of them away to friends and family, I still have over twenty boxes left, each with a dozen binders in them. You can see why I'm reluctant to graduate up to 2" binders.

But this year our books are really at their limit. I will not be able to use them again next year.

Next year I will face having to purchase 50 new binders, run 50 copies of our 300 page book, purchase enough sheet protectors for every double-sided page in the book, host a "book stuffing party" (as we do every year) to get the pages into the sheet protectors and hire a psychiatrist to handle my nervous breakdown. However, all of this is simply the cost of doing business.

After twelve years in Karaoke, I've seen many many people try to get into the business only to close up shop in a couple of years because they couldn't keep up with the cost of doing business. Too many people think that if they buy the equipment, buy a bunch of disks and get a few gigs, the money they make after paying off their initial investment will just be profit. HA!

Anyone who's done this for any time will tell you that Karaoke is not a path to financial freedom. To remain in this business you either have to have a great love for it or several bricks missing from your load. I think I have both.

Songbooks will always be an irritant, but then again, so are the drunks and the inconsiderate "when am I up next?" people. All of these are what we pay for the ability to host our own Karaoke shows. It's the cost of doing business.

- Alan

[kedmison]

gotrich mentioned putting his cover sheet in upside down so it doesn't get wet.

What if,....we were to put all our song sheets in from the bottom of the protector sheets? I have had folks spill beer or drinks on an open book and because usually it is spilled from the top down; the liquid will run inside the protector sheet. Has anyone tried using their sheets upside down and has this helped?

Kelly

[bobcox- with the Lord]

I know how you feel Alan.
we have one Jack### who would come up every 5 mins and bug us about when am i up and why does he have to wait so long. and that is when we have a rotion of 25 or 30 singers. but he thinks he is the best out there and people want to hear him over the others.
So everytime he comes up i told him i would drop him down two in the list. and i did.
he dosnt bother us anymore. Bob

[Reda Lou]

I used to use the ring binders but the last time I made books I just didn't have time to go through that whole process. We had just bought a new cav's player and wanted to get the books out quickly. We stopped at an office place and had the books made with the ribbed binders and had a plastic cover put on the front. These books are a year and a half old and just now starting to look pretty bad. Now that I am looking at MPU I have decided to still go have it done in the office place because it was so much easier and the cost was worth my time. If you consider the cost of materials and the time you put into putting it together yourself it really isn't that much more.
We put our new additions in a separate little folder like the kids use for reports in school. Then when the yearly books are made we will incorporate those songs into the new book. (Yeah I know we went over our year).

By the way I love the light idea!!! What a way to add to your customers convinience.

[pelletmon]

So what your saying is your listing by title and song in the same book.14000 songs.That would be 28000 listings not counting new right? Wow,must be a big book.P.S.I've gotton my share of complants over different things over the years but having to scramble to find the "other book "has yet to be one of them.Thanks Billy.