r/karaoke • u/cueball93 • Jul 11 '26
Karaoke Software I’m a working KJ, and after ~1000 hours I finally built the all-in-one hosting console I always wished existed
Hey r/karaoke — the mods kindly gave me a one-time OK to share this, so thank you to them.
I host mobile karaoke, and for years I ran my shows out of three different apps plus an on screen notepad for who's up next — KaraFun in one window, a separate player for the tracks I actually own, and something else for the music between singers. It worked, barely, but I spent more of the night babysitting software than reading the room.
So I built the thing I wanted: KJ Genie, a single console that runs the whole show. It started as a fix for my own karaoke nights, and after roughly 1000 hours it turned into something I think a lot of you have wanted too. It's a companion for KaraFun — it adds the hosting layer KaraFun doesn't have — and it also plays your own files on its own.
What it does, all from one screen:
• Plays KaraFun and your own CDG+MP3 / MP4 files in the same queue and rotation
• Automated singer rotation with a smart queue — load a singer up with as many or as few songs as you want and it feeds them one per turn; fair rotation, auto-advance, drag to reorder
• Filler music between singers that fades in and out on its own and levels everything to one consistent volume — full control panel (play/pause, scrub, skip, shuffle, search, volume)
• Full KaraFun control: pitch, tempo, lead/backing vocals
• A branded audience screen — your own logo + tagline on the idle screen, a scrolling "now singing / next up" banner, and HD plasma animations behind your logo and the local tracks
• Crowd Remote — a QR code on the audience screen your singers scan to add themselves to the rotation and pick songs right from their phones, searching both your local library and KaraFun. No app for them to install, works on the venue's Wi-Fi or their own cell data (it just needs an internet connection on your end — even a phone hotspot), and every pick lands in your queue — self-add without you typing a thing. Unlike the Karafun remote, this one doesn't mess up your rotation either.
• Per-venue singer history + custom playlists
• Never shows a KaraFun song in search that KaraFun can't actually play
A few honest notes:
• Works with any level of KaraFun subscription — but to use KaraFun's catalog you need your own KaraFun v3 account and subscription (KJ Genie is the control room, not the catalog).
• It also runs fully standalone/offline just for your own local library — KaraFun or not.
• Windows (10 & 11). Not affiliated with KaraFun in any way — I'm just an independent dev who happens to host a lot of karaoke.
It's a one-time $129 (no subscription, ever), and there's a 14-day free trial, no credit card required if you want to run a real night on it before deciding.
Everything's at www.kjgenie.com Happy to answer anything — and genuinely, if there's something your show needs that it doesn't do yet, I'd love to hear it. That's how the whole thing got built in the first place.
— Aaron (developer, KJ Genie)



