Host without Hoster?

[bobcox- with the Lord]

what superior software????.
i have tried them all, and none compare to Hoster.
as far as karaoke making money, we have bought a lot of realastate off of karaoke.
if your good at it, have a great selection, and are willing to work.
you can make a very nice living at it. Bob

[scotobryan]

I dont mean to set anyone off on this forum but every karaoke company in my area are using illegal copies of karaoke discs. We started doing karaoke 10 years ago and purchased hundreds of discs. These other guys dont have near the investment that we have but have a selection that towers over ours. I cant compete. We will do some high end karaoke contests every once and a while and get upwards $1000 to $1500 per show. Other than that we do 4 shows a week on week nights for $150 a night. I pay the employees $100 a night so there is not alot left over after song updates and then most importantly profit.

We have to fight tooth and nail to keep the under bidders from taking our gigs. The only thing that keeps them out of our house is the fact that our KJs are entertainers first and KJs second.
In my opinion buying a $20,000 song colection to make $50 a night is not profitable compared to most of the other things we have going on.

I like the program just fine my problems are with the slow responses to emails. If I have a problem I want to get it fixed fast so i can move on and stay productive.

Im glad to hear that there are those who can make a good profit at doing karaoke.

[dcrog]

Where do your people play in Louisville?

I don't go to very many bars but my brother in law plays at a small VFW on weekends. Works a regular job at GE so he wouldn't want weeknights anyway. He does it as much for his own pleasure/entertainment value as he does the money. He's computer illiterate so I can't talk him into going electronic. But he did find a disc system to make it pretty simple to find and store the discs.

Oh and don't say that all KJ's in this area use illegal discs. I know better.

I also know of a lot who do just as you are saying too.

I'm not saying that he doesn't use burned copies at the shows but I beat him over the head after he started to make sure he has the originals of all the discs he plays. I know this because I have backed all of them up for him to use. 560 some right now.

[capnvic]

I have two computer systems ready to go if in the event of a catastrophic failure. Since I am a computer systems engineer as a profession, I tend to believe it is necessary to have redundant components ready to go. My customers live on data redundancy.

I also have my older, but still reliable JVC three tray CD-G player ready to be pulled. I check my systems every couple of days anyway, as I am always adding new discs to the my Hoster system, and I archive my disc every month.

[nanakate]

Hi guys,

I'm new to the forum and relatively new to kj/dj-ing (5 years)- but I would like to add my 2 cents worth, if ya don't mind. I know you all have more experience and knowledge about the equipment than I do. I started as a back-up dj for my partner. He's the expert - I'm in it for fun. The money is just a bonus for doing something that I love to do!

1st - to answer the original question, if I had a system failure as described, I would have to call in reinforcements. I would not be able to run the show myself. I have a partner and several other dj/kjs on call for emergencies like this. Luckily, I've never had a reason to call them (yet!),
but the show would go on without me.

I don't have the equipment to run without my computer. My partner and I bought all the discs and the players when we started, but sold the equipment several years ago when we bought Hoster. We kept all the discs, to be legal, but I couldn't haul them to every gig if I wanted to. We have all the music loaded onto external hard drives. We each have several laptops w/Hoster loaded, so the hard drives can be used on any of them. I implemented that when I started having problems with my old computer, and it has come in handy several times.

A question tho - I purchase karaoke songs from Tricerasoft and other internet sites regularly. When you buy the gift pkgs. you're paying under $1 for each song, and I find it more cost effective than buying entire discs for the occas. song they ask for that I don't have. If a customer asks for a song I don't have and I have an open internet connection, I can download it immediately and have it ready for them to sing in 10 minutes or so. I've been doing this for awhile - 1000s of songs and dollars. My question is - how would I prove that I bought these songs, if it ever became necessary? I don't want to be accused of being one of those kj/djs who have a library of pirated music!

Thanks for the help.
Kathi

[bryant]

Kathi,
Feel free to put a "NO" vote in.

Don't know how to prove ownership unless there is some kind of internet receipt for the discs, i imagine?

[bobcox- with the Lord]

use your printer, or save to computer, (your order.)
also credit card trail.