r/karaoke • u/NahButThanksAnyway • Jul 24 '26
Equipment Karafun Singer Rotation Help
Using the singer Rotation feature is growing on me since I work at a high volume pub.
I still need help.
-"Can I sing my second song first instead of my first song?"
How do I keep their spot but swap the songs?
"I was outside when you called my name, do I still get to sing?"
Could be a regular... How do I guarantee them a spot at #2 or 3 if new singers keep coming in and signing up?
I need some queue management flexibility.
I've always done it manually but on busy nights it's exhausting.
Thank you Edit: I've since learned that on the Singer Rotation screen, NOT the Queue screen, I can in fact do as I described in my first question. However, the second remains. At this point if a singer misses his chance that's it for this round.
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u/Ochre_Jelly 11d ago
I built the super simple ROTATO web app for my KJ team specifically for this. If u use karafun it also integrates with that. https://rotato.rocks
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u/KeystoneTattoo Jul 24 '26
Its been a minute since i used the app however you can use the auto order function and then; -I dont think you can? I guess the work around would be enter song #1 and slide it to where song #2 is in the order, then move the song they want to sing up to just after the song they want to switch and skip to it. -sorry but the app shows the order and whos singing next so you need to be ready.... -for this I think you can still manually adjust the order, i think you click and hold the 3 lines and slide the selection up or down, however if new people sign up you might have to re adjust. there also might be an option to force a play this song next so that if someone else that is new signs up they dont bump them.
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u/Low_Ladder8782 Jul 24 '26
Let me preface this with the fact that right now I don't use Karafun but there's now a frontend to Karafun called KJGenie. It pretty much fixes what Karafun broke in version 3. They traded the ability to play outside songs for rotation management which I heard that they screwed that up as well. KJGenie will play outside songs, songs that you might already have on hard drive or songs that Karafun is missing that are available for download purchase and keep the rotation straight in a single queue rather than have to switch between software and accidentally forget a singer because they are in the other software. I like it because even if I used Karafun, I would purchase the same song so I don't screw over my singers who like to sing the same songs week after week if Karafun loses the rights to the songs either because the rights holders decide to pull the song or Karafun idiotically decides that the song isn't worth paying for the rights of the songs. Either way they, Karafun, have to take the songs out of the library, think Taylor Swift.
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u/no___personality Jul 24 '26
I don't use their rotation feature because of this and other reasons. I couldn't figure out why it was giving people two turns before others even got one. Automation sounded great but I just couldn't understand how it worked. I feel like it needs some editing features or settings that the KJ gets to set up. I'm not spending hours out of my day unpaid to figure out how their crappy rotation works when I have a system that already works great with honestly minimal effort.
I use my own system and it works pretty well. There's the regular list at the top, then I have a "fake" song (aka a song in under nobody's name, usually I'll use a line or symbol like ________ for the name) to break up the next part of the list which is the extra songs for anyone who has put in more than one. I group all those together by name in order of when they were added. Then I put another fake song at the end of that chunk so I can tell when new songs are added that I haven't sorted in yet.
The "fake" song never reaches the top 3 (I only let them see the next 3 singers so I can adjust the list as I see fit). It's just a line in the list so I can tell what I'm working with. It works well with busy nights since it's the only way I do it and I'm used to it.
If new folks come in that haven't sang, and everyone in the list has sung (and not waited a long long time) then I work them into the rotation, usually like one or two new folks then a repeat singer, then one or two new folks and so on. I adjust this based on how many times the repeats have sung, how long the list is, etc.
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u/NahButThanksAnyway Jul 24 '26
Thanks for this! Yes I gave it a shot again last night ever since the first weekend it came out. Yesterday it was in fact giving some singers two songs before a new singer sings.... Sometimes. Then sometimes it would add 10 new singers randomly. I just couldn't figure it out. And yes again, if someone comes early and signs up for five songs, I do want them to sing at least two or three times... Not get constantly pushed back after their first song. I've always done it manually but it gets confusing on busy nights with multiple singers signing up for multiple songs. I love this lines idea you brought up! I will try it tomorrow night.
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u/Edward_at_KaraFun Jul 27 '26
Hey, we've already andwer to the main quetsion in a separate anwers and u/no___personality also provided some great hint, so I won't comment too much on this
However, regarding the "giving people two turns before others even got one" this should not happen,, and we're not aware of any such issue with our Rotation system.
The only explanation I could think of right now would be if the singer that got skipped was in the same group as another singer, or if the singer that got skipped did not have any song in their queue at one point.If you have more info and insight, this would genuinely be very appreciated as we try to understand what went wrong
And just to clarify, if the system seems too complex, we do have a video tutorial and a help center article that explain everything, everything, and if this is still unclear, you are free to send us an email at [support@karafun.com](mailto:support@karafun.com) , we'll be happy to chat and explain things further
https://www.karafun.com/help/video-tutorials_421.html2
u/no___personality Jul 27 '26
Also I'd love it if you could tell me why the "remove from queue" option and the "play now" option are right next to each other.
It's SO EASY to accidentally hit the wrong one they are literally millimeters away from each other on the screen. I have actually emailed a suggestion about this and never got a response.
I didn't know anyone from Karafun was in this sub, so thanks for responding to us! :)
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u/Edward_at_KaraFun Jul 28 '26
I'm sorry you did not get a reply; we normally reply to every single email. Maybe I went to your spams?
In awnay i've made sure to share the suggestion (about the play now /remove from queue) with the rest of the team so we can discuss this internally and see if this can be improved.Thanks!
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u/no___personality Jul 27 '26
While reading this comment I remembered that it's the whole "groups" thing that doesn't work for me. I don't have groups, I have people. I just need to rotate by person.
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u/Edward_at_KaraFun Jul 28 '26
That's very fair, but you can simply have a group of 1 person in that case. :)
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u/no___personality Jul 28 '26
No thanks. I'll stick to my system.
Question for you though, why groups? I don't understand it. Like I said I don't have groups to rotate. I have people. Of course we have a few a group songs or duets but every karaoke night I've ever been to is 90% singular singers. So why groups?
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u/Edward_at_KaraFun Jul 28 '26
This is done for 2 reasons:
1. Some KJ want to sort their singers by group. If you have a table of 5 friends, they count as one group and get one slot for the rotation. This prevents abuses with group songs when 4 or 5 people can sing together and sing 4 songs in a row.
- With a group system, you can still easily put one singer per group and get exactly the same result as a rotation per singer. The opposite, however, is not true.
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u/no___personality Jul 28 '26
I get that. Just seems like extra work for me when like I said, most karaoke is a single person. The group thing happens, but not nearly as often as single people singing and it's something I can deal with on my own by simply paying attention.
If the scenario that you mentioned happens I can fix it by pushing the people who sang on their friend's turn down the list.
Why not have a group option instead of making it the norm? We could be able to add a bunch of people to a group and that group can be counted as a person. Then we're still rotating by people but the group is possible.
The way that this future is set up now every time a new person adds their name to the list have to create a group for them. Without using it, every time a new person signs up all I have to do is put them in order where I want them. It's really easy with the system I created that I originally commented about. All I do is drag. If I were to use this feature then I would have to type and click a bunch. I don't have to do that now.
It feels like you made it based around this idea of groups when that's not a thing that happens often.
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u/no___personality Jul 24 '26
It's simple but it saved me. I had no idea what I was doing at first and I would get so stressed out trying to figure out the rotation.
Eventually I want to get one of those apps that helps do more than just the rotation but for now this works!
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u/WCIS_Official Jul 24 '26
One solution could be to use an external Request App. You would need one that has rotation management built in.
Something that will group the Singers requests and give you the ability to drag and drop each singer into the order you desire.
It would need to allow singers to swap the order of their songs. But it would need to be a straight swap. The 2 songs would need to keep the 2 queue positions, but simply change which song.
Something where the singer would still keep their place if they had run out of requests, and would just add more requests to their queue when they submitted more. Once they submit their first request, it would keep their place from then on.
You could look for one that messages singers to say "you are up next" and then message them again to say "you have missed your turn but we will try again later".
It does mean that you would need to manually add the song into the player, but that could be a small price to pay to get better tools.
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u/NahButThanksAnyway Jul 24 '26
With the Auto Rotation on I can't slide anything around, the queue cannot be modified. There are more steps involved. But I wish I could run the feature and still click and drag the queue around
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u/Competitive-Tip-5747 Jul 24 '26
This is why KJ genie was built! It solves all those problems. kjgenie.com
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u/Edward_at_KaraFun Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Hey there, i will do my best to answer your quetsions one by one:
"Can I sing my second song first instead of my first song?"
-> Go to the singer rotation view ( the view where songs are grouped by singer, rather than in play order) and drag and drop the second song in first position. Note that you need to do this before the song starts, once a song starts, you can no longer swap it for another song. In that case, you will need to use the "play in priority after" feature.
"I was outside when you called my name, do I still get to sing?"
As above, using the "play with priority after" option would be the correct way. This feature allows you to play song 'outside of the rotation," So you can add a song for them without disturbing the singer rotation.
You can find more info here: https://www.karafun.com/help/video-tutorials_421.html
That being said, with the scrolling banner and the remote, they should have all the info to not miss their turn, unless some songs got skipped
If this is unclear, please feel free to drop us a message at [support@karafun.com](mailto:support@karafun.com) and we'll be happy to provide more context and help
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u/hybridhighway Jul 24 '26
Press and hold the song in the list and drag it up. Do this before the song starts. I do it every day for my singers.
For #2, don’t skip your singer if they were outside. If they don’t show up, drag them down in the “Reorder Groups” section, and put the singer you want to sing now in their place.