A karaoke host doesn’t need another living-room player. You need a booth that survives a packed Friday: who sings next, who just walked in, who is on a duet, and what happens when the bar router dies. That’s Auto-KJ.
I’m a KJ. Auto-KJ is the show-running stack I wanted after years of clipboard math and OpenKJ lists I had to babysit. Karaoke software in general can mean a catalog app. Karaoke host software is the narrower job: you are the operator, the room is paying, and the rotation has to be defensible at 11:30 PM.
The Fairness Engine (not “a queue”)
The product name is the Fairness Engine. It places late arrivals in the first slot that costs nobody a turn. Duets wait in a side queue, then fuse into one slot so on-deck times stay true. Pauses don’t eat the stage. You can still drag anyone — every rule is overridable — but the default is the rule you’d write on a napkin if you weren’t also running sound.
Read the cases in What the Fairness Engine actually means, then break it in the Rotation Simulator with two late arrivals and a duet before you install anything.
Duets, late arrivals, skips
- Late arrivals — first fair seat that pushes nobody back. Not “top of next round” as a house default that punishes the newcomer for showing up.
- Duets — partners don’t steal two mic turns while solos wait; the engine accounts for both names.
- Skips and no-shows — the list closes the gap instead of leaving a hole singers will argue about.
- Song changes — the singer keeps the seat; you don’t restart their wait because they swapped a title.
Cloud singer phones with the Social Engine
Full version adds cloud singer phones with our full Social Engine. Singers search your songbook, send a request, and watch their position — GPS, show code, or LAN, no app store. Free version is desk-entered only: you still get the Fairness Engine, you type the names. That’s the honest free karaoke host software tier, not a 15-minute demo.
Offline / LAN failover
Venue Wi-Fi is a coin flip. Full version fails over to a travel-router LAN mid-show: same rotation rules, local requests, music never stops. How we actually rig it is in Karaoke in a bar with terrible Wi-Fi. There is no separate “offline plan.” LAN is part of Full version.
What else is in the booth
Same stack as the rest of Auto-KJ: your MP3+G/ZIP library; Break-Wave (dual-deck DJ mixer with song-analyzing beat/key matching and automixing) for breaks; kiosk; phone remote; full library management on Full version. Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux. Ghost-Trax credits are $2 if you need a track that doesn’t exist on disk.
Free version funnel
| If you need… | Start here |
|---|---|
| A free KJ booth tonight | Free version — desk list, your files, $0 |
| Phones, Social Engine, LAN, kiosk | Full version — ~$10/mo, 60-day no-card trial |
| Pay once | Lifetime $500 |
| Stay on OpenKJ, add phones | $5/mo songbook, or included with Full / Lifetime — OpenKJ alternative |
Full version is one live show at a time; extra simultaneous shows are +$5/mo. That’s seats-at-once, not venues-total. A KJ with five weekly gigs still needs one Full version seat.
Karaoke host vs karaoke DJ software
“Karaoke DJ software” and “karaoke host software” overlap. If the pain is rotation fairness and singer requests, you’re shopping host tools. If the pain is break-music mixing, Break-Wave is already in the app — you don’t need a second DJ suite for the gap between singers. If the pain is “I don’t own tracks,” that’s a catalog rental, not this page.
Run the simulator, then take the 60-day trial
Free version downloads with no account. Full version trial is inside the app — no card, nothing auto-bills. Prove the rotation before you pay ~$10/mo.