Karaoke Forums

Has anyone experimented with a regular family-oriented karaoke gig? I'd been thinking about for a while, and last night, out of the blue, the owner of the bar said that he had been thinking about starting a Sunday afternoon karaoke geared toward kids. (We don't do a Sunday night show, I was just hanging out.)

Between my brother and myself, we currently have 3 shows/week in the bar, and have a pretty large regular following (about 75% of our singers are there at least twice/week). It seems to me like the idea might flame out over time, so I'm thinking of doing it monthly. Besides, I surely don't want to give up every Sunday afternoon.

If anyone has done this, was it a good experience? Can you tell me what types of songs are most popular among the 4-15 year old demographic, besides Top 40 Pop?

Thanks all!

If your stuff is already set-up, I would give him a break on your price. They aren't going to make nearly as much as a regular karaoke night & it may turn into double the work for the staff. This gives you a little extra for a night you wouldn't normally be doing anything & shows that you are trying to work with the owner/manager.
Some will come in as families & purchase dinner for their selves, but many will come in & order soda all the time they are there. Don't expect to keep any kind of real rotation per se, kids will do songs & will often times get up in groups or they will repeat a song several times per evening, some by the same kid some will hear it & want to sing it as well. Don't say no, grin & bear it. Last thing you want is to tick off the parents by telling the kid they can't sing that because someone else did.
on the plus side, family shows are great, kids love it, parents love it, it can be fun & can build business on your regular nights. I have gotten several private parties from kid shows.

One thing you will need to be aware of are the songs that may have profanity or sexually explicit lyrics, or drug related lyrics. Many older kids like to do the songs on the radio along with the basic younger "kid" songs. Just make sure they understand those songs are not allowed, you would not be popular with parents. Also you may have to purchase many new songs geared for what the kids want to sing. Popular artists right now are Hilary Duff, Michelle Branch, Stacie Orrico, Aaron Carter, Jessica Simpson, - that's all can think of off the top of my head. There is a cd advertised on the TV called Kidz Bop. They don't list the orginal artist since they cover all the popular songs, but the track listings are what you would want to work on picking up. These songs are pretty popular. Make sure you still have standards like Twinkle Twinkle, Old McDonald, BINGO, ABC song, Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc.... you get the idea.

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Suggestions.....................Listen to Lonman and get some teeth/gum protectors like boxers wear. You'll be using them up much faster then what you can affort.


You'll soon realize no money is enough giving up your Sunday with your family!!!!!!!!!

Unless your family likes to sing & comes out with you. My kids come out to our family night every week & love it. They are 4 & 7. I even have them help make announcements as to great job, that was so & so, up next is....It's my job, so if I get a family show booked, I do it as long as I have other nights on either side of it so I don't have to set or tear JUST for the kids show.
I won't do a stand alone kids show, that is not worth it, but again, if you already have nights at the club, then you can work a deal into the weekly pay. Mine is set-up so I get a base pay & dinner & drinks - ie soda, lemonade, etc. for my family every week.

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Lonman, you have family values. Never, ever loose that.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>That's my respect for you growing!

Unless you're a single guy whose cat refuses to go to the bar with you.

I do have everything locked up at the bar (its semi-permanent home), so setup and teardown are about 15 minutes each, so that's not much of a concern.

I think if I do pursue the gig, I might try to couple it with the start of the NFL season. Good idea? A different bar in the area used have a kids' pool tournament during Nascar races, and got a pretty good turnout of families. Who'd have thunk that would ever happen in Michigan, eh? Of course, the people that really want to watch the game are going to be ticked off by the noise, and they're probably going to be the ones that would be spending the most money, but if it's not me then the juke box will be playing all day. Besides, Lions games tend to be over by halftime, anyway.

Lonman, you make a lot of your sense in your posts. Thanks kindly.

We took our kids to a karaoke show on my daughters 9th birthday (it was a kid-friendly set up near our town). She prefered to do that rather than a 'friend,sleepover party'. We all had to admit, it was the best time we ever had singing karaoke. The kids had so much fun and the KJ and 'regulars' were so welcoming and encouraging to them. Seeing the look on my kids faces that night was priceless! We will forever be grateful to all of them for making the evening so memorable. It sure is gonna be hard to top that next year!

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neverheardofher

I used to run a family karaoke gig. The sheer problem is, most of the money spent at a karaoke gig in a bar is on alcohol. It's hard, very very hard for a family to come in and WANT to spend money on food or drinks that would appromiate what you make at a bar.

It's what eventually doomed my gig. And I WAS giving them a break on my prices... not saying it wouldn't have worked... cause that Sunday afternoon thing was even busier than my Friday or Saturday nights (on average)... but it was very hard to get the people to spend money. Most thought if they came in with $5.00 for a pitcher of pop it would be enough. But when you have a family or group of about six to eight drinkng off that... and forty people in there, the gig only makes about $75.00 INCOME... not profit!

Drink specials... food specials... we tried them all. The success of it wasn't the problem... it was the inherant danger of kids hanging in the parking lot (so we had to police that), leaving and coming back (kids out smoking walking around the block... and we had to police that), or parents dropping their rugrats off... something we had to tell them that they needed adult supervision.

Be prepared for a tough tumble unless you have some die-hard cast rules in place. Best of luck to you!

Matt

My first 2 years were almost all kid friendly shows at local pizza parlors. Although I never made more than 100.00 for 3 hours it was a blast. My kids got the opportunity to sing in front of a live audience and I got the chance to date some hot single moms.......Ahh the good old days....

I've never really done any formal kiddie karaoke, just some family type events.....but a club I did in SLC used to have a very informal sunday afternoon when they encouraged regulars to bring their kids in for some free pool and video games. I used to set up in the afternoon for my Sunday night show and usually ended up powering up the system for a few kids to sing. I didn't get paid anything extra for it, but I built up a lot of good will.

Last Sunday, when I was setting up for my Sunday night show here in VA, the owner was there, along with an employee who is getting married soon. They were have a small pre-wedding party. The bride to be has a 9 year old daughter who was completely excited by the idea of singing karaoke. Even though my show doesn't start until 9 (the time her mother said she had to leave) I hustled through set up and let her sing several songs before the show started. Once again, I wasn't paid extra for it, but this girl had a blast (payment enough for me.....I like kids) but I also built up a lot of good will with everyone.

I really wish there were more options for kids to participate in karaoke. They are a hoot!! They might be shy to start, but once you warm them up, they lose all inhibitions, without alcohol.

Unfortuneately, most companies i've known that have done kids karaoke expect to get full pay for it & when they find out their packed houses are making less than what their regular fee is, they drop it like a hot potato. Kids/family shows generally won't make alot of money, but you CAN make good contacts & build up regular nights because of it.
Like I said, I won't do a single night family/kids show in a club, but if my stuff is already there, I will make a deal with the club that will benefit all & have got several good paying private shows out of them. These kind of shows are mainly based on how patient you are & if you are willing to sacrifice a little of your time to give something to a group that may not be able to sing for a few to quite a few years.
Get karaoke into the young minds now & they will want to do it later!

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I sponsored a kids-only karaoke contest last month (August). The hostess and I had been grumbling about the fact that in a lot of the contests here in Baltimore, kids were allowed to enter, but they alway got beaten out by the adults. We worried that it might turn some of these talented youngsters off.
The show was held at a place whose main fare was crabs. If you know Baltimore, you know crabs cost big bucks here. Regardless, the show was well attended, making loads of money for the restaurant, and the KJ hostess got her pay, so she even contributed some prize money.
It was so well received, we have another planned for around Valentines Day in 2005, and already have plans to do another next summer, at the venue we did this year.
From what I've read, it seems that as a regular gig, it doesn't pan out, so you'd have to be doing it for the love of hearing children sing I guess.
Hey, maybe one day, these kids will grow up and become KJs and they'll have an old farts only karaoke contest, and I can enter!

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Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans
~John Lennon~

Amazing... cause over here in Ohio, us Adults were getting tired of the darn kids entering and winning, especially when a contest is sponsored by the beer companies.

! Well, I hope they weren't giving free samples!

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Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans
~John Lennon~

I will be doing Children's and family karaoke at Mobile's big music festival BAY FEST the first weekend in October in the afternoon. I will use the unit 3 library, small but set up to be family friendly-edited for content.