Auto-KJ is karaoke host software for the booth laptop, not a speaker package and not a song catalog. The Free version is $0: your files, a desk-entered rotation, and a second screen. No singer phones. The Full version is about $10 a month after a 60-day trial, no card, for one live show at a time. Lifetime access to the Full version is $500. Ghost-Trax credits are $2.
A bar searching for karaoke software is usually trying to fill a weeknight, not shop for a living-room app. Someone has to bring a computer, a screen, and a way to decide who sings next. That someone might be you, a bartender who got volunteered, or a host you hired. Auto-KJ is the program on that computer.
What the venue is actually buying
The software does not replace the television, the mixer, or the rights to play songs in public. You supply the tracks. Auto-KJ does not include a licensed catalog. If the night depends on renting someone else's songs, that is a different product. This page is for a room that already has files, or a host who brings them.
- Your library stays in the booth. MP3+G and ZIP tracks stay on the drive. Titles can be searched from phones on the Full version. The audio does not become a stream you lose when the subscription ends.
- The rotation has to survive the room. Late arrivals, duets, and skips are the arguments. The Fairness Engine is the default. You can still drag a name.
- The network is the venue's, and it may be bad. Song playback is local. Phone requests are optional, and the Full version can move those requests onto your own LAN.
Paper first, phones when you want them
Plenty of bars still run a clipboard. That works until the list is long and nobody can see it. The Free version is the desk version of the same idea: you type the names, the Fairness Engine orders them, and the rotation can go on a second screen. A printable karaoke sign-up sheet is there if the night still starts on paper.
The Full version adds cloud singer phones. Singers open a browser, search the songbook, and see their place. They do not install an app-store app. One live show at a time is included at about $10 a month. Another show at the same time is $5 a month more. A venue with one night a week still needs one Full version seat, not one seat per night.
When the bar Wi-Fi drops
Venue Wi-Fi is a coin flip on a busy Friday. The files are already on the laptop, so the music does not need the router. Requests are the part that needs a network. The Full version can fail over to a travel-router LAN in the middle of the show: same rotation, local requests. How that rig is set up is in karaoke in a bar with terrible Wi-Fi. There is no separate offline plan. LAN failover is part of the Full version. The Free version stays desk-entered, which also does not need the venue network.
Who runs it
If you hire a host, they usually bring the laptop and the library. You are buying a night, and they are choosing karaoke host software. If you run the night yourself, you are the host for those hours. The karaoke software page is the general product. This page is the bar version of the same job: a room, a list, and a computer you can point at the TV.
Installers are published for the machine you already own: karaoke software for Windows, Mac karaoke software, and karaoke software for Linux. The Free version download does not need an account. The 60-day Full version trial starts inside the app.
If you are still deciding what the booth software has to do, read how to choose karaoke host software. It is the criteria, not a ranked list.
Put the Free version on the booth laptop
No account for the Free version. The Full version trial is inside the app, with no card. The rotation simulator on the homepage is there if you want to see the list rules before you install.