Hi Guys,
I'm thinking of adding Karaoke to my disco, my question is, which disks do I buy, there are so many to choose from, at the moment I'm thinking of Sunfly hot hits pack, plus most wanted, then a monthly subscribsion, would this be enough to start with, and the other question, can you have too many disks, if I have 5000 songs to choose from, people will spend all night reading the books instead of singng!
Please Help!
thanks
Darren

Hi there,

I have tried a few brands of Karaoke disc and to be honest I think Sunfly are not worth the money. I pretty much buy Mr. Entertainer. Discs which are usually around £11. Zoom do a launch pack which ahave a good starting selection. I think quality songs rather than quantity as people tend to sing the same sort of thing but saying that it is nice to be able to offer a selection of songs with some of the more obscure ones in there.

Good luck getting a collection together as it can be v pricey to get started. I did get some off e-bay once which were sweet georgia brown ones. Music is OK but alot of country and western songs on them. Beware of pirate copies also on e-bay!

The entertainer discs are cheaper, but you only get 12 songs per disk, with the sunfly ones you get a free most wanted disc with each new disc for around £20, so you get about 30 tracks for £20

Hi, Check out www.sunflykaraoke.co.uk - they have some great start up deals, including a player, from £145, with 10 discs, delivered next day. I bought this package and then sold the (unwanted) player for £100, therefore getting brand new genuine discs for £4.50 each! This latest purchase took my collection to just over 3000 songs, excluding duplicates, which is more than enough. Some people state that they have 12,000 songs or whatever, but my view is that it is quality, not quantity that counts. I started off (in Yates) with probably 1600-1700 songs and ran their Wannabe competition last year without any problems re. song choice.

You will find that people sing the same 200-300 songs, but if you're serious about it you need to be up-to-date, whether or not the songs ever get played. In my opinion, Sunfly is the best for this, because you also get the Most Wanted disc free (Cookies in Stoke-on-Trent do this for £20 delivered each month - www.cookies.co.uk).

In terms of which brands to get, it helps to mix it up a bit, with both UK and US sourced discs. As well as Sunfly, I reckon Zoom are the best in terms of quality, followed by Easy Karaoke and Legends. I have a few Mr. Entertainer discs, but have had some complaints with regards to the backing track and have ended up getting the Sunfly or Zoom versions of particular songs. Some of the best US discs are Supercore (have a look on eBay for some great starter pack deals), Music Maestro and Sweet Georgia Brown. Personally, I started off with the Hot Stuff packs 1-3, which I think you can get for about £100. Avoid Backstage discs if I were you.

If you want any further advice, feel free to PM or e-mail me.

Best of Luck, Ian

Brilliant Ian,
Thank you very much.
I wanted to stay with the same manufacturer to avoid dupications,
Have you got a preference with regards to players?
I thought two cheap players that play everything, (one for backup)

Is Karaoke still popular? As in, is there still a demand for a 100% Karaoke night anymore.

I'm not dissing use or purchase of Karaoke disks etc, but I see Karaoke advertised very little in the area's which I live and do shows. Those few Karaoke events that I have seen advertised tend to end up being about 50% of the night dedicated to Karaoke, and 50% of the night straight forward disco.

The last one I went to in fact did a Disco for 30~40 mins, during which time the DJ reminded and prompted the crowd to write down their selections ready for the first round of Karaoke at 9:30, then Karaoked with those 5 or 6 Karaoke-ers for 30 mins, then back to disco for 30~40 mins again prompting for the next batch of karaoke requests etc.

One thing that seemed to make the show dis-jointed and slow-going in places was that there seemed to be a lot of people writing out Karaoke requests for people who then bottled out, or indeed didn't even know that they'd been nominated - the result was that the DJ spent a fairly polite minute or so each time, calling up "Steve Edwards, with his rendition of - I did it my way", only to see Steve clinging onto his chair, the table and his pint (of course) shaking his head... shame, coz these "no shows" made the show especially dull when there were two or more in a row.

Track listing wise, 5000 tracks may seem a lot, and it certainly is if the books aren't split into genres or catergories eg: 60's, 70's, 80's, rock'n'roll, ballards & Love songs, Current Chart etc. But it you've got say 20 genres for punters to choose from, thats only 250 tracks in each section, maybe about 40 double-sided pages.

Theres no one advertising in my local paper, or the yellow pages in this area, so if I add karaoke to my advert anyone looking for karaoke should find me, there are a few karaokes about but none advertise, I have been asked about karaoke a couple of times.
There are a few pubs in the area that have a karaoke night so there must still be some demand for it.
My plan is to add karaoke to my advert just to see if I get any reaction, if I get a response I will take the plunge. I just don't want to spend ££££ on disks and find out I have bought the wrong brand of disk.

I guess I need to get out and visit one of these karaoke nights and have a look for myself at what people may expect.
As for a 100% karaoke night, well, I dont mind, its up to the costomer, I could do either.
Thanks for your help,

i do karaoke disco in liverpool and use various brands of discs.

i started doing karaoke 3 years ago and started with vcd's and cdg's and now keep using various makes mainly,sunfly,mr entertainer,easy karaoke and others.

i bought some discs in dvd form 18 months ago and the quality of the tracks are very good no electronic instruments (sounds like a computer)

i had a karaoke player rsq paid £200 excellent player but only cdg's.
bought a dvd player from asda for £30 called a pacific player (purple and silver black front) and it plays EVERYTHING cd,vcd,mp3,dvd,cd-r,dvd-r,wma,cdg,mpeg,jpeg the lot, only prob no echo on a dvd player so you have to make other arrangements.

Karoke seems to be as demographic as rates for DJs

Some areas - it's finished. Other areas - it's really popular.

I suppose like DJing, you can never have enough music for Karaoke but out of all the music you can acquire, the 'same old requests' will come out.

Another alternative to Sunfly discs is pro burn.

Proburn will allow you to record a minimum of 10 karaoke tracks to disc - totally legit and only what you require.
Prices can vary slightly but the essential price is around £23.50 per disc / £2.35 per song.

Upshot is you reduce the 'doubling-up' of tracks and can build a unique collection of karaoke music. Less to carry around. Quick to reference.

Downside is the price and the 'quality' of some of the tracks.

Whilst Sunfly do have a vast collection of music - some of the tracks are dire representations.

I'd hunt around a little, look at the EZ range and compare the track quality to that of Sunfly at random (if possible).

I find that 'singers' would rather have a 'true arrangement' to the original with slightly different instrument sound than an excellent sounding recording that is totally different in arrangement (different intros, shorter finish, etc.)

All seems like a lot of hastle for not much return to me..

Karaoke while still popular in pubs does not seem to be somthing people want at there wedding / birthday...

I suppose like anything it depends on the gig.

Very true Mark.

Apart from a couple of regular Karaoke/Disco venues I cover, most of the karaoke I get asked for is for Corporate functions and maybe the odd birthday bash with a request for a little Karaoke.

That said, I can charge more for karaoke than a Disco (for same hours) and I look at the service as 'another' string added to the bow' - as required!

"Another string"
Thats what I want, I plan to give up my full time job soon, and I just need a little extra push, I am doing realy well at the moment, Disco, Kids Disco, and Bouncy castles, I think Karaoke could give me a little extra work in the week, or maybe on Sundays. could be enough to make the difference.
If I get any response to my new advert I suppose I could hire karaoke and try before I buy.