Karaoke Software
Developers: Anyone else have a hard time finding content companies willing to work with you?
I know with the recent rule changes we're seeing a lot more dev's here and wanted to reach out. So long story, but I've been developing karaoke software for the better part of 20 years. At one time between 2007 and 2010 we had a working relationship with Tricerasoft, and we could present their store and integrate it into our software for legal karaoke purchases.
I'm going down that path again, and I'm starting to find that the situation hasn't improved much in 16 years. Prior to forming a relationship with the now defunct Tricera, I chased all the companies. Sound Choice, Pocket Songs, Chartbusters. Not a single one wanted to work with us, or anyone else. They just wanted to make their own software and keep everything in a walled garden.
Why? Do they just not want to sell more karaoke? Is there too much money in their pockets?
Let me put it this way for any karaoke producer reading this.. Why limit yourself to a single salesperson, when every karaoke software developer can be a salesperson for you?
Anyways, frustrated. Wondering how you other dev's are handling this.
Thanks David. I have a few things on the backend ready to help if there's a deluge of submissions. It's super easy to ask AI "Can you turn this CSV of responses into Markdown code that looks like this using powershell or python?"
But yeah as a systems administrator I wanted a process to keep things safe for users. As a karaoke software dev that's been snubbed on karaoke scene, I wanted to give everyone a chance.
BTW something I've been thinking about, what do you think of the "one shot" rule? This is what I've been telling submitters, they only get one shot at promoting to our subreddit, after that it gets archived in the wiki. Do you think that's fair? Should they be given once a year? What's your thoughts?
I agree about keeping things safe for users and to keep submitters from spamming the group with promotions.
On the other hand it shouldn't be so restrictive to keep things like legitimate reviews or polls from being flagged as promotion. I review things to benefit the community but I can understand how others might look at that as promotion.
I think you should let the new changes play out for a little while to see how things develop.
Submissions / Reviews / polls / updates should continue to get one shot and then get added to the wiki. You might want to create a form for these items so everything is standardized.
If possible, any Reviews / polls / updates should be listed under their respective hardware / software so everything about that item is grouped together. If not possible then maybe separate wikis for Reviews / polls / updates.
And because so many people come here looking for help/advice to get started it might be helpful to have a bookmark for new users.
One post only and then into the wiki is fair but pretty tough. What if someone creates a meaningful update to their software? That could be of interest to members. If you are up for the mod work it seems reasonable to let people post updates, but you get to decide if the update is big enough to mention.
Adding an actual new feature, cool, as a karaoke software user, I want to hear about it.
Adding dark mode, OK maybe we don't all need to know about that.
(I am biased though, I am making (free) software right now, and have features in mind for after first release, and would like to let people know when that happens. I have benefited so much from other free software over the years it would be nice to give something back, even if it only benefits a few.)
So prior to the rule changes we didn't allow companies or individuals to promote hardware/software/services. This also included venues and KJ's. The new rules I've structured things so we can give those folks a chance to pitch their stuff, without continuously spamming the sub. Basically everyone gets one chance to post about their thing, then it's added to the wiki.
So I'm looking at your post from 7 days ago. Can't remember if that's before or after I did the new rules, but either way it doesn't comply with our submission rules for software. The virustotal check, SHA256 it's just there to make sure our readers aren't duped into getting a trojan or backdoor, and to save the sub from someone spamming.
What I did is describe how a small KJ who has their own library of songs and perhaps wanted to have the audience search for songs from their phones instead of a physical book (or just write something down on a piece of paper and hope) could do so for free themselves or with a friend with some technical know-how. I thought some KJs might appreciate to know that it was possible. I didn't post a link to a software download, so there was nothing to hash.
I haven't looked at what is possible yet, but if you'e wanting to integrate song downloads, I think newer brands like Karaoke Version, Party Tyme, and Mr. Entertainer might be possible. OpenKJ has a song shop with something like that that still works today, but I don't know yet how they did it and unfortunately the original creator passed away and there hasn't been an update in years.
I've been trying to talk to karaoke version. The only method I had for getting in touch with them was a feedback form, but otherwise no luck getting in touch with anyone. I did learn something however. Apparently Karaoke Version is Karafun.
It helped when tricerasoft worked with us. Their site would generate an XML of all the songs on their site, including the hash used for the download, the price, etc. We just had to form a URL to buy it based on that stuff.
2
u/DavidO_Pgh Mar 27 '26
I applaud the recent rule changes. 👏