OK....where do I start?????

Right...as the question says...where the hell do I start.

First off....I HATE karaoke, but I've lost 6 bookings in the past two weeks because I don't do it. Where there's money to be made.....I'm prepared to listen to a load of people screeching into mic's if it pays for the pension ;)

So....what do I need chaps? (and chapesses)


At the moment, I'm a mobile disco, and I know how to do that bit.

I've obviously got the amps, speakers, playout flaptop(s) etc.....I know I need telly's to show the words (one as a monitor for the singist(s) and one for the audience). ....What other gear do I need to be able to offer Croaky on a professional basis that's going to get me yet more bookings?

Can anyone suggest a good source of songs for starters? Is there any other gear I'm going to need? (i.e. do I need a special sound desk for this one?)

Really...any suggestions MORE than welcome

On the audio equipment side, can you give us a run down of what laptop, software and mixer/controller you've got at the moment as you might find you have everything you need already?

On the video side I picked up a 17" TFT panel off eBay for £30 (I'm sure you can get even better deals than that now) along with a Arriba bag which has done surprisingly well at protecting the screen to date (key thing when buying panels is to make sure that they have connections for whatever output your laptop has and you can take the stand off!) I then picked up a tripod ISO panel mount from the same auction site for about £15.00 and this allows me to mount the TFT panel onto any standard speaker stand or lighting tripod/bar. I then use a projector (£165 off eBay) for the audience with a projection screen that I was given by a colleague! I drive both off the VGA output from my laptop via a passive signal splitter (which works ok as long as you have a short cable run or high quality cables). If I did more Karaoke and video work though I'd be looking at buying a pair of 26" TFT panels and the mounts for my overhead bar and an active VGA splitter (about £40), but at present I'm not seeing much demand for Karaoke so I haven't bothered with the extra spend.

On the music side, I bought an external CD drive that can read CD+G disks (because not all CD drives can - £30 off eBay anyway), and a bit of software to rip CD+G to mp3 + CDG track (Tricerasoft's product if I remember right - £25). I then went onto eBay and bought about ten collections of the Karaoke classics on CD+G at about a tenner a collection which gives me reasonable coverage for the older stuff (Queen, Abba, etc) and I download anything I don't have on the fly at gigs from any of the many online services (usually for £1.99 a track) either using my phone as a wireless hotspot or a Vodafone 3G dongle.

There's lots of ways of achieving the same result here so I'm sure others will come along with advice soon enough (and tell me how I could have done it cheaper :D)

Julian

I hate karaoke too and won't get involved with it. Why do it if you hate it? I have also lost gigs who want karaoke but it doesn't matter because I will invariably fill the date with a standard disco. I would say focus on getting the disco work you want and don't get involved in something you will hate. I'm certainly busy enough without karaoke!

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Originally Posted by musicology

Why do it if you hate it?

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Exactly - I would put all the effort you would put into learning karaoke and redo the website or up the marketing. That way you could pass on 12 gigs a month and it would not matter at all. Why not find a decent karaoke DJ and multi op (basically take 10-20% and still manage the booking).

Nice website but I would make it a bit more more personal & friendly. For example put some decent photos of you on there in the section where you are talking about yourself etc. etc. With the money you would spend on new equipment spend that in a professional website designer and marketing expert. Also perhaps your also too cheap, so maybe some improvements and a price increase are in order :)


Good luck.

Points taken ;)

It was just a thought of a way of diversifying slightly and offering more services for if work does ever dry up a little bit. Also something my son can get into and run for me whilst I concentrate on the main disco stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hard up for work at the moment, in fact far from it considering I only restarted back in February this year (I'm fully booked 1-2 nights a week every week until the end of August at the moment, with stuff coming in for later in the year and weddings booked for next year already).

Agree about the website. The current one was thrown together in a hurry to get something out there (it was a quick and dirty template as I was concentrating more on getting the physical kit together). There is a new one in progress at the moment which I'm working on (despite the horrendous site I have at the moment....it's actually what I do for a living in real life)..another couple of weeks and it'll be better than yours ;)

As for the pricing....it's coming. I started off fairly low to get bookings in, and to be honest most of mine at the moment come from NaD and the budgets coming through from there aren't exactly huge at the moment. The ones I win (about 50% of the ones I quote on), I'm right in the top end of the client's budget. I am now starting to get referrals and direct calls though, and those ones ARE getting dearer ;)

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Originally Posted by Imagine

Points taken ;)

It was just a thought of a way of diversifying slightly and offering more services for if work does ever dry up a little bit. Also something my son can get into and run for me whilst I concentrate on the main disco stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hard up for work at the moment, in fact far from it considering I only restarted back in February this year (I'm fully booked 1-2 nights a week every week until the end of August at the moment, with stuff coming in for later in the year and weddings booked for next year already).

Agree about the website. The current one was thrown together in a hurry to get something out there (it was a quick and dirty template as I was concentrating more on getting the physical kit together). There is a new one in progress at the moment which I'm working on (despite the horrendous site I have at the moment....it's actually what I do for a living in real life)..another couple of weeks and it'll be better than yours ;)

As for the pricing....it's coming. I started off fairly low to get bookings in, and to be honest most of mine at the moment come from NaD and the budgets coming through from there aren't exactly huge at the moment. The ones I win (about 50% of the ones I quote on), I'm right in the top end of the client's budget. I am now starting to get referrals and direct calls though, and those ones ARE getting dearer ;)

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Nice coming along well then. I assume you have not been doing it long?
Definitely a 3 year process if thats the case especially if your busy all the time.
I upped mine about £45 per year at the start and i now sits quite comfortably amongst most other higher quotations, which suits me.
I need to up my game on the all day stuff and also up my price too!!

Good luck. Sure the website will be easy then. Mine is crap and needs redesigning, but it works so something is good with it??

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Originally Posted by yourdj

For example put some decent photos of you on there in the section where you are talking about yourself etc. etc. .

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Originally Posted by yourdj

I assume you have not been doing it long?

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And I thought you'd looked at the website :)

Used to be a mobile DJ back at the end of the '80s and gave up to get married/have kids. I only restarted back in Feb this year so although I've got/had the experience many moons ago (when Peter was just a lad :daft:), as far as I'm concerned it's all new and I'm starting from scratch.

Got to admit though...I'm chuffed at the way it's going so far. I started out with a 2 year plan to let the kit pay for itself and to hone what I needed on the job. To be honest, it'll pay for itself in the next 6-12 months (if I ever stop spending money :mad:)

:offtopic: now though.....thanks for the original advice on the Croaky setup everyone....it's certainly something to chew over and consider :beer1:

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Originally Posted by Imagine

And I thought you'd looked at the website :)

Used to be a mobile DJ back at the end of the '80s and gave up to get married/have kids. I only restarted back in Feb this year so although I've got/had the experience many moons ago (when Peter was just a lad :daft:), as far as I'm concerned it's all new and I'm starting from scratch.

Got to admit though...I'm chuffed at the way it's going so far. I started out with a 2 year plan to let the kit pay for itself and to hone what I needed on the job. To be honest, it'll pay for itself in the next 6-12 months (if I ever stop spending money :mad:)

:offtopic: now though.....thanks for the original advice on the Croaky setup everyone....it's certainly something to chew over and consider :beer1:

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I looked. Did not read it :p

Oi! Peter's still just a lad. ( In what passes for his mind, anyway )

Karaoke's like banging your head on a wall. It's lovely when you stop. I too started it when not doing it was losing me work. Simples.

I'm a bit of an exception round these parts in that I started doing karaoke as a hobby when it first hit these shores. Then I started DJing rock nights for a while. This ended and I had a break. Then I got offered a job as a KJ in 1999 and from here I progressed to discos where, after a few years doing pubs, I started doing weddings. Because of my experience, I'm pretty adept at combing karaoke and disco in to karaoke discos and keeping everyone happy!

But I enjoy doing karaoke so it's all smooth and slick for me. If you don't enjoy it you will struggle and this will have a knock-on effect for your audience. The best advice is, if you don't like it don't do it! Stick to what you're good at whatever that may be! :)

Besides, karaoke is a seriously expensive sideline. I've been collecting karaoke since day 1 and have spent a lot more on my karaoke library than my disco collection. I had a good job as a computer programmer and I used to spend a lot of my wages building my karaoke collection. I still have the old Pioneer Laserdiscs and video karaoke collection! I don't think amassing a decent, useable karaoke library now is a viable option without resorting to less than legal methods. I used to buy several discs a month to keep up with all the collections but now it's just 1 (the Sunfly collection) and sometimes the odd Mr Entertainer disc (since my local shop stopped stocking them).