My focus is songwriting. And hopefully, I will record a CD in the next few months I can sell at gigs.

I have had this idea... a sign that you could trigger off and on. Ideally, it would be changeable. I had thought of having a sign that would display the name of the artist I was playing. Or name of song. THere are signs with those scrolling displays you can buy at Sam's Club but they are about $175.

But mainly, a sign that just displays "ORIGINAL SONG" or something like that. That I could trigger off and on with a footswitch or some kind of switch. So when I get to an original song, I flip it on. Might get more CD sales like that because if nothing else, it would showcase that, yep, you have CD's for sale.

If anyone has any ideas how this could be done, the cheaper, the better...

CHEAP... I guess you could trigger a spotlight off and on that would illuminate "ORIGINAL SONG" that is written in some kind of reflective material onto something. Hadn't thought of that but that might work, too.

This is currently very prevelant in the DJ field. They use DMX control using MIDI messages. Yes, you can trigger all kinds of effects through MIDI with DMX.

Check it out. There is also Video Syncing for syncronizing Videos to music.

If I'm doing a guitar/vocal gig, I wouldn't have midi. Something simpler would be better. Although, I'll look into what you said.

Or you could purchase one of these and edit and trigger it from you Laptop computer:
http://www.electronicdisplays.com/prodcat/default.asp?cstop=4&pcid=18

One more thing to consider, my Tyros has a video out jack which can be output to a TV. The Lyrics display from a MIDI file can be displayed on the TV screen.

Couldn't you edit a midi file and display it on a TV to accomplish your objective?