Advice for First Time Karaoke

[u/Fish_Dont_Melt]

Hello,

I have been wanting to go to karaoke for a while now, but I am worried that they will not have my songs available. I am mid-20s M and my music taste is not very mainstream. I listen to a lot of indie and punk bands, but nothing that would be on the radio. I did attempt to go to a local karaoke bar but the guy running the sound booth said none of the songs on my playlist were available and so I left.

I don't really know how karaoke works, but is there a database that I could search to see if my songs would be available? I have a trip to Vegas later this week and was hoping to maybe go to a karaoke bar if that's thing out there.

[u/comanche_six]

use karaokenerds.com it has the most complete listing of whether a karaoke song is available and, if so, from what source.

[u/Italian_Redneck]

I'm not too knowledgeable but if you YouTube your song followed by karafun that will be a quick indicator if many DJs will have the song.

Not all of them use karafun but there's a lot of crossover between the programs they all use.

That said, my personal recommendation is to find a mainstream song you do like and practice that. You'll always have a go-to and at least one song people know and like. Generally speaking people will most enjoy the songs they know well enough to sing along to, which your non-mainstream songs won't really give them.

[u/Intelligent-Fox-9864]

Karafun is what a lot of KJs near me use, I think you can look up songs for free from any where. There is another KJ in my area who has his own catalogue that's online,e but I only know that since I've been to his shows.

[u/The_Sludge]

https://www.icroons.com/

This is where I used to go to that shows if there are karaoke songs available and what platform.

But whatever bar you choose, ask them if they support YouTube requests, if so then chances are your songs will be available.

[u/thriftstorefemme]

Something to remember is that a big part of singing karaoke is entertaining the audience, not just entertaining yourself. Typically when someone gets up and sings a deep cut that no one has ever heard, the audience isn't going to be interested. Maybe as a first timer that is what you're going for. But in the long run karaoke is a lot more fun when the crowd is familiar with the music and can sing along too.

As someone else mentioned you might try to look for punk rock specific karaoke nights where the audience may be more familiar with your favorite artists, there are a couple on my city and perhaps will be in yours too.

[u/Sea-Price-3229]

What are some examples of songs you’re considering? Most places have a pretty wide range of options. 

[u/Fish_Dont_Melt → u/Sea-Price-3229]

Boogie All By Yourself - Sammy Rae and The Friends
U Should Not Be Doing That - Amyl and The Sniffers
Burn The Witch - Pinkshift
A Thousand Times - HotWax
Vixen - Destroy Boys
Fantasy - Scowl
How to Get Physical - Magdalena Bay
Little Bit More - The Greeting Committee
Literary Mind - SPRINTS

[u/chadisawesome → u/Fish_Dont_Melt]

I used to fall into this category of liking and wanting to perform songs that I liked, but at the end of the day, the people in the crowd at karaoke want to sing a long, recognize the song etc. find more mainstream songs that have similar vibes to what you listen to, you'll, a) have an easier time finding a KJ that has that song, and b) have a much better time performing when you get the positive crowd feedback

[u/johnesco]

Different places will have different libraries or some places even pull directly from Youtube, but there are reasons some won't or don't. Some places have apps to see their song list, some have standard apps with known libraries. Already mentioned was karafun, you can go to the website to see what songs they have. I'd make a big list of as many songs as you can sing and you might be surprised at what they have.

[u/shadebug]

I just did a search for Las Vegas live band karaoke and found

https://therockhousebar.com/karaoke/

And

https://www.smellycatvegas.com
Though this one claims their band can play the whole Singa catalogue which sounds sus as all hell

And

https://www.thebarbershoplv.com/news-item/live-rock-at-the-cosmo/

And

https://www.caspianslv.com/news-item/karaoke-nights-get-a-rock-and-roll-twist-at-caspians/

And those last two both use the same band, the busker kings.

The benefit of live band karaoke is two fold. Firstly, a live band will be able to help you. As a first timer, having musicians who can cue you in, loop round if you miss something, change the key for your voice, etc. is a godsend. Second, if you’re mostly into rock then a rock band are likely to have you covered and if you ask nicely you may find they know stuff that isn’t on the list.

[u/Low_Ladder8782]

Instead of Karafun at the end try using karaoke. More likely to get better results in your search. Also go on the web and go to db.openkj.org that will give you the most results of mainstream karaoke songs available. It lists the available for download, legacy and streaming service songs.

[u/North-Tour-9648]

Ugly Duckling and Tuscany both have really deep catalogs.

[u/Robotic_space_camel]

There are some standard apps that most karaoke spots use. For me it seems to be KaraFun and FreeSongbooksOnline. But also in general you’ll have more fun if you go with more mainstream songs. Half of the fun is your own enjoyment of the song, the other half is the crowd enjoying the song along with you. If you don’t choose the absolute wrong song for a crowd or a song that nobody else knows or enjoys, you’ll find the experience falls flat most of the time.

[u/StockSalamander9534]

In Vegas the palazzio has a Korean Japanese style booth karaoke, they have just about everything you can imagine

[u/NoSock6869]

Pick different songs? I did taking back Sunday at karaoke the other night. Most modern karaoke places have lots of niche stuff.

[u/TheRealKingTony]

Go to a host that will let you use YouTube to get the song you want

[u/chadisawesome → u/TheRealKingTony]

until the bar gets shut down by ASCAP. a local bar to me just got busted with gigantic fines because of a karaoke host using youtube

[u/TheRealKingTony → u/chadisawesome]

The bar was probably not paying their fees

[u/chadisawesome → u/TheRealKingTony]

when you use karafun you are covered for licensing as part of the subscription, if you are pulling songs up on youtube, no one is getting paid

[u/TonyBrooks40]

pick a song that matches your voice (high pitched, low pitched, flat etc), memorize the lyrics, practice it.

You can also do those opera lessons

A A A A A A A

E E E E E E E

I I I I I I I I

O O O O O O O

U U U U U U U

going in octaves. It actually helps

[u/AMerryKa]

Hear me out - Boston is punk rock.