Can anyone please help me. I have been a mobile dj for about 6 months now. Every time i do a gig i always send a feedback form to the person who had the gig. Now on the night everyone seems to be really enjoying themselves, the dance floor is always packed, and i cant keep up with the amount of karaoke request slips i get back. But when i recieve the feed back form they always say that i havent got a good selection of musc or my karaoke is . I carry rounghly 1000 karaoke songs and over 6000 tunes. I have got every single number one since 1956 right up to the present day. plus many of the most requested tracks posted on the lists in this forum. Has anyone any idea what my problem is. Any Advice would be fantastic.

Mail Me at: andy@vibezmusic.co.uk

The questions I would like to ask is:

Who are not dancing??? And what type of funtions are they???

Have you got all the youngsters going and the "oldies" feel left out??

I've done this, you get a heaving floor and the next thing you know, you've ignored the people not dancing, which at a "family funtion" is not the way to go.

Firstly, welcome to the forum...enjoy, read the rules, read the posts, enjoy (some more), learn from others, pass info/experiences onto others...and generally bask in the community spirit that IS DJs United.

If the dancefloor is always packed, then you cant be doing an awful lot wrong there, so these feedback forms could be aimed only at your karaoke selection.

If youve kept any/all of the feedback forms, with their exact wording on, then we might be able to help narrow it down for you... if you include the type of function(age groups) too, we might even come up with something even better.

Paula, is our Karaoke Queen on here (even though she cant spell Karaoke after 8 barcardi & cokes, judging by her signature at the moment). So maybe Paula can advise...

Looking at "the story so far" the only thing that I can suggest is to consider rearranging the "Songs directories" which you pass around, so it looks like youve got more songs thn you really have...for example... why not add half a dozen or so coloured pages spread throughout the directories by adding a "Popular songs of the 50s" or "60s" or "70s", or "80s" etc... "Rock & Roll favourites" etc.... ok so its only "padding" until you get a few hundred more discs, if it can help people find THE song that will keep them satisfied, then they wont get to the end of the book and think "nothing there that i liked...cant be me, must be a small selection..."

Also, try adding a comment in several places in the book like "Cant find a track that you're desparate to sing?...please request it as normal"... this way, if you keep getting requests for a song that you couldnt play, coz you didnt have it...you know to watch out for karaoke discs with that track on, asap.

I do this idea of keeping request slips of "didnt play" tunes for my normal disco tunes...Maybe I didnt have the track (buy it), maybe I couldnt find it (move it onto a compilation cd), maybe I didnt know the tune well enough to decide what part of the show to incorporate the song into(listen to it a couple of times in the car, between gigs...) or maybe I didnt think the audience would like it...(try it)....

As for your music collection, keep building it, dont stop at just the number ones. Think how many amazing tunes were kept off of the number one spot during the 30+ weeks that Whitney Houston, or Bryan Adams were number one!

I'm Here.........Hi Andy

Hello and welcome the only thing i can suggest is sort of what gary has already said and is what i still do today, i write down every request that i did not have and then i get it and now after nearlly 8 years of dj'ing i hardly ever have to say i have not got a song. I do understand this situation maybe different with Karaoke.

I tend to agree with Mikee, if for example you have a full dancefloor of 18-30 year old all night by playing club style music and you send the form to the person who booked you, 9 times out of 10 maybe the parents of the bride/groom/birthday girl/boy then they might not like the style of music played hence the negative feedback. Are you playing a wide range of music, especailly at wedding you need to please granny who won't dance but likes to tap her feet up to her great grandchildren, and everyone in between. The old saying that every professional DJ hates but need to put in place is the 'music from the 60's/70's/80's 90's and present day' is so true, as is 'music to suit all tastes'. In a VERY broad sense MOST of my wedding gigs the music goes something like this... Bearing in mind no two gigs are ever the same but very broadly...

8pm start and play some kids music to 'entertain' the children, or rather stop them running and doing skids towards you

9pm buffet so softer music, anything from slowies to Stereophonic depending on the crowd

9.30 first dance and straight into something every generation likes, something like Man I Feel Like A Woman or Kylie or Rock DJ this gets the older generation up and dancing because it is not 'thump thump thump' but the younger generation like it too !.

I think of the evening, not a 4 hours, but, and I am sure all other DJ's do too as 2 x 2hrs. or 4 x 30 minutes, giving each 'section' a type of music to suit a certain sytle. 30 minutes for older people, things like rock and roll, Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, another section for party tracks, Grease etc, another section for slowies and another for newer music, Beyonce, Timberland etc etc.

As I have said before each gig is different and this is only a very rough guide, but although as Gary has stated you cannot be doing too much wrong if you have the dancefloor full most of the evening, my only concern is is the dancefloor full with the same people or is there a mixture of older and younger people, It is OK have a dancefloor full playing a certain type of music, RnB, rock but you need to entertain all of the people all of the time and that as they say is entertainment !

I hope this helps in a small (or very big way) and I hope you have not be offended by me trying to tell you how to do your job, but as you make the effort to send out feedback forms, and join our forum, and ask question I feel sure you will take this information in the way it was intended, helpfully. And if you have been bothered to read down as far as this you are well on the way to suceeding, because you want to learn and listen from others, which is one of the best forms of learning, after experience.

I am sure others on this forum will add their little bit and indeed I will be reading these responses as every little bit of help helps and if I learn one thing and make my show or other businesses more successful than I have succeeded. And that little bit of information may come from you so please carry on on this forum and ask, and reply to any question.

Like I say I hope this helps you

Andy