USE OF SLIPS IS SLIPPING

djBe · Post by **djBe** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 1:42 pm

Hi everybody, djBe from Coastal Carolina here. What are your thoughts on karaoke slips these days?

Lots of karaoke providers no longer require singers to fill out slips, or have slips but it's optional. Many of these same providers are also doing away with songbooks or nearly so. Some providers have only one or two books to work a room, apparently without too much complaint. I still put out 10 songbooks, half TITLE and half SONG.

And I still require my singers to fill out slips.

Recently I switched from cutting up free scrap paper for slips to using custom slips that have my logo and website thedjbeline.com across the top as well as the usual lines for NAME, SONG and NUMBER. It should help prompt singers to fill out slips completely and correctly. I gang 16 slips on a legal size sheet, they come out the size of business cards.

BUt if I run through $1.50 worth of slips a show, four shows a week, that's $300 - two $150 shows a year - just to pay for custom slips. Hope I get a gig or at least some site traffic for the money!

My slips also have a line that says EMAIL (optional) and everyone that fills it out gets a FREE emailed copy of my songbooks - a simple service that has become HUGELY popular with my regulars. This leaves more books available to new singers.

My system has worked well for me for years and has remained in place as I transitioned from discs to a hard-drive player. Lately, however, many new singers are surprised to learn they have to fill out a slip, because so-and-so "just lets me tell him the song and he types it in"

The problem, and I see this at alot of laptop shows, is patrons start asking the KJ, "Do you have such and such," and the KJ looks it up, maybe doesn't have it, so they ask "Howbout this and howbout that" and on it goes, and a line starts forming and pretty soon the KJs attention to the singer on stage is severely compromised.

When I get a slip without the song number I'll usually look it up myself but ask the singer to please include it the next time. But when a singer asks to "put me in for..." I direct him to the Red table - I always put a red tablecloth on the table I use to display songbooks, slips, and promo.

Pros of song slips are that they help separate people who want to sing from people who say "put me in for..." only to disappear and dead-air you. And if a guy is too drunk to fill out a slip, he's likely to be too drunk to sing. Slips are also great for picking prize winners, which I do frequently at my shows.

Cons of song slips are that they can be lost - though that's not a problem for laptop hosts who can discard the slips as they type in to the queue - and they require constant replenishment of pens or lottery pencils and more songbooks.

Thanks Karaoke-Tutor.com for a great site and forum!

Chris "djBe" Bifani

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 2:36 pm

In the old disc days....

Slips were a must. You needed the disc number and track to load the songs.

With a computer, disc number and track number are no longer necessary. My slip usage by customers is about 50-50 right now. That's OK with me. It's just as easy for me to look up a song for them because if they want to sing it just add it to the queue.

I fill out a slip for every singer with their name on it. It helps me with the rotation and they can come up and see exactly were they are by looking at my table. I save singers spots in the rotation so that helps me with that so I don't skip anyone.

At this time I see no need to stop using slips. I also save singers slips so my paper wasting is down some. They can just hand me a premade out slip that they filled out 3 years ago.

Many people still want to look at books. I know I would if I ever went to karaoke....

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 3:14 pm

I no longer use slips but that is because I have changed to a song request station using tricerasoft products, Super Remote Tool and JustKaraoke. A couple of cheap computers that I got off Craigslist that offer wifi and I'm good to go.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 11:04 pm

As a side note the Super Remote Tool can handle DJ music as well as Karaoke.
Just drag and drop from the super remote tool's server into your player's playlist. Means your guests can order their dance music the same way they can order their Karaoke songs. At Karaoke I set it up for Karaoke only so I don't get requests for dance music while I am doing karaoke and set it for Audio only for DJ gigs. I only accept DJ requests for DJ gigs so I don't confuse the two.

djBe · Post by **djBe** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 4:15 am

Dan, the hitech interfaces for singers is impressive. I've been thinking about picking up two cheap netbooks for myself and the "RED" songbook table, maybe tethering the little lapper to the table somehow so it doesn't take a walk. But they would just help me and the singers get to their song number more easily, they wouldn't be networked into my queue or pre-queue or whatever. Seems to me if patrons can punch in a DJ song they would then feel entitled to hear that song, just like when you punch in a song on the jukebox. Then, when you've got a bunch of requests and you can't - or won't - play them all, hell breaks loose. I prefer to take a request and say "Thank you, I'll try to work it in." Of course karaoke takes precedence.

Driving to my show tonight I was thinking that the easiest way for me to solve my dilemma (without switiching my current system for a laptop and Video Hoster 2.0, which I have) is keep a pad and write nonslip requests down and fillthem out as slips when I can.

Totally agree that songbooks are part of the karaoke experience.
God, how I commend KJs who hold onto slips for their regulars. The closest I can come to that service is to put the discard pile where the singers can get it, and they can go through it for their slips if they wish and some do. I also email songbooks to regulars who want them. That's anew service I offer that was a byproduct of hiring a service to load my discs onto my hard-drive.They emailed me songbook files with the new non-prefixed numbers and I just started forwarding the boos to my regulars.

Do you other KJs do this as well?

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 5:24 am

DanG2006 wrote:I no longer use slips but that is because I have changed to a song request station using tricerasoft products, Super Remote Tool and JustKaraoke. A couple of cheap computers that I got off Craigslist that offer wifi and I'm good to go.

What are you going to do when someone wants to be funny and slips in a virus?

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 9:07 am

there is no way that can happen. It is mouse driven, there is no way they can shut down the program to get to the main computer without knowing the password.

mr.dj · Post by **mr.dj** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:12 pm

Hi everyone, new to this forum.
After reading these posts I think I will use the idea to email songbooks to some of my regular singers, once they have the main song list I think I could just send them update sheets once a month.

I still use song slips for my shows although if somebody does just ask I usually jot it down on a pad myself along with their name then search for it in my own time. I do this as the old grey matter is not wot it used to be and I find I forget their name.
I recently ordered some pre printed sticky notes as song slips with my own contact details printed on, these so far seem very good as they don't disappear on to the floor or somewhere else if there is a draught from fans or doors open.

Also after you have entered the details from the slip they stick back together neatly if you want to keep them for future reference.

I did try a remote sign-up system where singers could search for their songs and it sent it to my computer but it seemed people kept asking me how to use it or filling in search info wrong and not finding what they wanted, then I had to leave my terminal and check that out so I found it more bother in the end.
I think a lot of people like browsing a songbook as they sometimes find songs that they wouldn't think of otherwise.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:03 pm

Never got the song request station up and running. For a number of reasons. One of them being that I kept getting my computers stolen by one of my roommates. I have since moved and am now trying to get it working again but am having issues with my host computer getting connected to my song station. has to be an issue with the host computer because it previously worked perfectly with my old host computer.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:48 pm

DanG2006 wrote:Never got the song request station up and running. For a number of reasons. One of them being that I kept getting my computers stolen by one of my roommates. I have since moved and am now trying to get it working again but am having issues with my host computer getting connected to my song station. has to be an issue with the host computer because it previously worked perfectly with my old host computer.

Okay got both kiosk programs working. Turned out while I upgraded the host computer, I forgot to upgrade the client. Once I upgraded the two communicated. But it is nice to know I have a backup program on my computer that if I had issues with one the other would work.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:56 pm

mr.dj wrote:Hi everyone, new to this forum.
After reading these posts I think I will use the idea to email songbooks to some of my regular singers, once they have the main song list I think I could just send them update sheets once a month.

I still use song slips for my shows although if somebody does just ask I usually jot it down on a pad myself along with their name then search for it in my own time. I do this as the old grey matter is not wot it used to be and I find I forget their name.
I recently ordered some pre printed sticky notes as song slips with my own contact details printed on, these so far seem very good as they don't disappear on to the floor or somewhere else if there is a draught from fans or doors open. Also after you have entered the details from the slip they stick back together neatly if you want to keep them for future reference.

I did try a remote sign-up system where singers could search for their songs and it sent it to my computer but it seemed people kept asking me how to use it or filling in search info wrong and not finding what they wanted, then I had to leave my terminal and check that out so I found it more bother in the end.
I think a lot of people like browsing a songbook as they sometimes find songs that they wouldn't think of otherwise.

will be trying to get my kiosk running next show which will happen next month. I don't mind helping my singers out if they have questions. It will take time for them to get used to the change but I don't doubt they will adjust. They adjusted when I had to resort to running discs due to theft of my show computer. Happily I only had to run one show with the discs. As to not finding what they want, it's either they were spelling it wrong or I don't have it. The nice thing is I can honestly say I have what is in my list and if I add songs it automatically updates the list to include my new songs. No more need for books. I am going to add a new hard drive next year as a birthday/ late Christmas gift to me. The Hard drive will allow me to add songs I didn't have previously as they get requested without having to be online.

mr.dj · Post by **mr.dj** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 5:07 pm

I purchased the Super Remote Tool from Tricerasoft last week, been playing around with it at home and am quite impressed with it.
Had a bit of messing around to get my own database.mdb into it but once that was sorted I can see the client screen is very straight forward and I don't think it would cause a lot of hassle and misunderstanding from the punters like I had on a previous type.
I tried the trial version first then thought $24.95 it wont break the bank so I'll take a chance and purchase it.
I don't know when I will start to use it at shows yet.
Have you tried it with the Iphone or android connection yet, if so what is the procedure as I don't see much info in the instructions apart from downloading an app.?

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:51 pm

When you turn on the feature from the kiosk computer, it will give you a message with the ip# for the phones to connect to. I chose Compuhost's because it doesn't require an Iphone or Android phone to utilize the kiosk and it connects with the server and not the kiosk so I can run it even if I don't have room for a kiosk.

djBe · Post by **djBe** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:10 am

Since I last posted on this thread ALOT of my singers have switched to smartphones obviously. I don't have a smartphone yet but i encourage singers to send me emails on theirs and when I get to my office computer I email them my songbooks TITLE & ARTIST and UPDATE LIST. They are the absolute shit at the shows and it it is catching on with regulars who are then forwarding the email to other regulars on the spot. I have been email regulars my songbooks for years and many have taken advantage by browsing and deciding their songs ahead of time, but its with the advent of the smartphones that the technology comes into the club so easy for everyone. Email attachments...product of the 90s...totally leapfrogs not just books but laptop "kiosks" as well.

djBe · Post by **djBe** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:18 am

by the way, i still encourage/appreciate slips and still use them for random giveaway drawings "the more you sing the more chances to win" people can just tell me but if they dont fillout a slip that song is not an entry. pretty soon most of them give me slips.

When i get home I post the first names or stage names on all the slips in alphabetical order along with the night's pics - gets their names out there along with their faces in a general way. I dont tag indiviudal pics tho, too time consuming, they can do that themselves and they often do.

Finally, when I am done with the slips they go into the catbox along with whatever recycled shredded newspaper is already in there LOL. I start out with recycled paper (very often old songbook paper cut up) and it gets three more uses - songslip, reference sheet, cat litter - before i never see it again };=D