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I've been in the business for 8 years now, and I monitored the local market for about five years before I jumped on board. Sadly, shortly after I started seems to be when we started seeing a major drop off.
When I started, there were about 20 active karaoke businesses, all of which had regular shows, and some were multi-riggers with several shows. Today, there are about a dozen active businesses, and I am the only active multi-rigger in my immediate market with just two systems and the most shows. (basically everybody else has one or two shows, and a lot of the other guys pretty much hate me for "stealing" all the business.)
However, I am actually down from a year ago where I had ten active shows to only six now. Over the years I have noticed a DRAMATIC drop in attendance at not only my shows, but all local shows. Gone are the days of rotations of 30 - 60 people. I now average 10 - 20. Many local bars have dropped entertainment all together. It is also basically impossible to book a show anymore for the $150 rate that has been around for the last 15 years without increase, due largely in part to the drop in bar attendance and the proliferation of pirate hosts, of which we have three locally willing to do a show for $40 - $50 and a couple more that do shows for $75.
To make matters worse, these bars refuse to do ANY form of advertising, including FREE advertising like placing it on their marque or facebook page. The excuse for some of these bars is that they will do anything to avoid paying ascap fees, among other excuses aside form sheer laziness. Basically, they want to undercut pay and expect the entertainment to do the marketing. This is not exclusive to karaoke - this is any form of entertainment. I feel sad for bands who used to be able to pull $600 a night ten years ago who now have to fight to even get a $300 gig.
I realize that part of the problem is my market. I am in West Michigan, where the economy has lagged for the last 15 years. Eventually I will move, but only after I finish my college degree, for which I currently will only be able to attend part time as I will be paying for it out of my pocket. So no, the immediate solution is not to "just move". Moving also places me into a new market, where there are already established hosts and my current pull means nothing. No real big deal, as I was once the "new guy" in town, but I question whether or not I want to start all over again. If I do move, considering the market, I may get out of the business all together.
Why? Because this is much bigger than a "local" problem. On a national scale, karaoke has taken a tremendous hit. We have lost all the big players in the game. My staple manufacturers are all gone. Chartbuster, Sound Choice, and Pop Hits...done. The new DigitTrax service barely puts out any new music. Our options for new tracks has become SEVERELY limited. American manufacturers have all but become extinct with the exception of a couple digital download services and "Party Tyme" available at Walmart.
It is great that we have services like karaoke-version that put out new tracks, but at $3 a pop it is nearly impossible to compete with the pirates when buying new music. On the bright side, the days of buying discs and ending up with multiple versions of songs are in the past with the ability to hand pick tracks from pay-per-song sites, but that is also time consuming.
I have gone head to head with several pirates who love to tout their 150,000 song catalog that shames my 25,000 unique tracks. They are so proud of their $250 purchase and truly believe that they are better than my several hundreds of hours of specific song choice and download purchases that have taken me 8 years to build up. There is no point in even trying to argue with them, because bigger is superior in their mind, period. They refuse to get it through their thick skulls that my music selection is actually about twice as good as theirs. In the end, they still win, because they have no problem with undercutting on price. And yes, they do get the shows. One of these semi-local pirates (in the metro area 30 miles away) has a pretty good set-up with three rigs and Bose PA systems.
It has gotten to the point where I am about through with chasing after bars to book shows where they refuse to pay a decent rate or refuse to help market in any way or even attempt to accommodate their entertainment (no place to set up; things moved around every week; stage area a disaster and having to clean up before even setting up, etc.)
At this point, I would love to take everything I have learned over the years and put my collective effort into finding a business partner across the pond and producing my own karaoke music or opening a full time karaoke bar that has everything a karaoke aficionado could possibly wish for. At the rate things are currently going, I know I won't be able to continue the business the way it has been traditionally done. It's time to adapt or risk going extinct.
There is actually a perfect bar/restaurant for sale locally that would make a great karaoke bar, and eventually I hope to look into hopping the pond to seek out the option of producing new karaoke music. The only thing I lack at this point is capital. Will I ever get rich from either venture? Absolutely not. But to me it seems like a better option than continuing this rat race, and a decent way of making a living. At this point, all I need to do it put together a business plan and seek out investors if I want to venture into these new territories.
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