Karaoke Forums

DRUM ROLL PLEASE.......

Once again the KING OF KARAOKE, is proven right!!!!

My in-laws, who use to work with the wife and I, just lost their bi-weekly karaoke gig.  The thing is that the guy, who suxs as a kj (bad equip, bad sound, no new songs), kept his bi-weekly gig at the same place.  They would trade off Saturday nites.

Now for the why.....
The guy that suxs actually draws a better crowd, than the in-laws do.  Why you ask?  Becasue.......DRUM ROLL AGAIN....
he tosses in some DJ/DANCE/HEAD BANGING music in his shows.  My in-laws, who are Karaoke purists, refused to play any type of music, except for karaoke.  Their crowds kept gettin smaller and smaller, and now that they lost the gig.

Now the disclaimer......
If you can get a great crowd with 100% karaoke, I am glad for you.  I wish I had that at all my gigs.  But if you refuse to change and adapt, when it is necessary, you will lose your gig to someone who will give the crowd what they want.  Again you are hired by the bar to make the bar more $$$$.  DOn't make the bar enough money to have you there, and you are out the door.

yep, what works for one place... for one company, won't work for another. The best we can offer on here is ADVICE ONLY. Take it or leave it. If what you're doing isn't working, hey, ASK! but by no means is ANYBODY on here the EXPERT of exactly HOW TO SUCCEED.

I too am a karaoke purist. I totally dislike playing a dance song, or a regular song for the other crowd. HOWEVER, if the venue requires it, take a gamble, and try to be open-minded!

Just remember, there are about 65 singing slots in a 4 hour show if you're on the ball, assuming you don't have a lot of the "one bourbon, one scotch" and "Stairway to Heaven" singers... those that love to sing really long-ash songs!

Most venues I've seen support 50-200 people... a venue the size of Lonnie's is easily twice that!

Not everyone there wants to hear nothing but karaoke! That's a given!

It's one reason I play mix music between singers... to change the pace a little. and that's not half a song, or most of a song, just enough to kill a dead air thing, and change the pace. For me, it works, and works well... for others, maybe not!

And that is my oint to, it may work, for you, it may not.  

Like a TRUE buisness man that you are...

You are willing to change if the situation requires it.  I am glad you don't have to change, like I said I would love tyo have 100% karaoke all the time, but it my case, and many others, it is not possible, or you will lose the gig.

Do you remember when MTV was all music, all the time?

In a larger town where you have different singers that sing more of a variety and sing the newer ones when they come out then it works...After years of the same crap over and over I got burned out.... Anymore when I go to a karaoke bar I like to do other things beside hurray up and sing and then sit there impatiently waiting to sing again...

To me its no different playing Folsom Prison with Mike singing it or Johnny himself although mikes might be better..  The secret is keeping the energy entertainment level up and there are as many ways of doing it as there is karaoke hosts in the world. Each one has to find his personal methods of hosting and to try to interject someboys personality into somebody elses show is rediculous. If you want to be in a rut then stay in it but dont expect me to hang around

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I was talking to another host I know that was at my show last night.  They run several shows in the area & also go out to other shows to visit, no they aren't trying to steal gigs.  He came in and asked if i've noticed a drop in singers lately that he's been seeing the trend at all of their shows & the shows they visit that are/were normally packed, aren't as packed as they once were - even the good shows.  
It has alot to do with DUI laws & now our smoking ban in bars in which our law also states that anyone smoking outside must be 25 feet away from ANY window or door - open or closed.  Gas prices haven't helped things along either, our summer was probably one of the worst i've seen since I started there & talking to many of the regs that used to come in directly admitted that gas prices has stopped them going out as often as they used to.

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Yup alot of garage bars around everybody staying home. Karaoke singers in this area is 10-20% what they were 2 years ago...

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Totally agree ..with everything

My thoughts that you can find the "KARAOKE NIGHT" Monday - Thursdays and Sunday Nights - These are the nights when THE TRUE SINGERS go out to do nothing but SING!!!. ( now don't get on me if you go out on Friday or Saturdays)

But the weekends at MOST real BARS are for the party crowd ..SURE they want to SING TOO..but the girls want to DANCE and the Biker dudes want to listen to some HEAVIER rock music and they are playing pool,  shooting darts and all other entertainments that is going on Including KARAOKE SINGING.  

Now if you can keep all that going on while running a sound system , maintaining a rotation , mixing it up with the crowd, taking requests, singing some duets, policing some of the drunks .....NOW YOUR ARE A ....P R O F F E S I O N A L   KJ

I too long for the gig when I can just announce singer after singer  for 4 hours and get paid $400 to do so ...Thats EASY

I think thoes days are long gone, unlees you live in a major city where there is enough of a base of people to get a karaoke only crowd.

Hmmm...I only do karaoke on Fridays, and we never play filler music.  Last week, in 4 hours, we only got through the rotation twice.  I guess I'm lucky in that respect, though I've done karaoke before at bars where I had to mix in some dance music.  My partner and I kind of put on a good show too.  We have a great rapport with everyone.

Our weekend crowds are still very strong, avverage 25-40 singers usually either Fri or Sat.
The karaoke pay was never that high around here, when I started, $250-350 was the norm., not anymore!

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I feel fortunate in deed. I'm 3 nights a week pure karaoke. I
do think it is because I am in a highly populated area where we do not have a smoking ban and people don't have to drive far. Taxis are cheap for a quick ride home. There are at least 5 bars with in a 10 mile radious of me who still have all
karaoke.

Lon - I am surprised you said the smoking ban has kept people out of the bars.
According to the so called experts it has not hurt businesses, but increased business.
This has always been a surprise to me. I think in the long run it will show non smoking in bars has either put people out of business or hurt them significantly.

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Google bars closing.....

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I think in the long run it won't affect business & may in fact help, but this law is still less than a year old & people haven't completely opened their mind to it & accepted it.  It hasn't helped our club much at all being that we are on reservation & still CAN smoke.  We haven't seen a dramatic increase like we thought we would.
They did a county wide ban in our area a few years back & that DID hurt the bars & we were SLAMMED every night, until they overturned it.  Now it's a statewide ban.

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I am still very interested in what happens in other areas with smoking bans.
We probably won't see it here for a while, but I am sure we will be forced to do it
when it starts closing in on us. I actually did a little investigating to see what our local government is going to do about it. The local health department was very snotty about it. They said they are not planning to change anything in the near future, but when it does it shouldn't hurt business.  I also talked to some local officials and they told me they were against going nonsmoking. The mayor actually comes into our bar.

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Last statistics I read or heard, 4 out of 5 adults(USA) do not smoke. I know so many people that say they haven't gone out in years, or at least not that much, due to the smoke. That was one reason why I quit doing bars, that, and the fact that I hate people...muhhahah......seriously, not if, but when the smoking ban takes place, you have to coax this other 80% back into having some fun......

The ones that I know that quit smoking also quit drinking as well as they would only smoke while they drank hence don't go into the bars just because they can't drink anymore & don't want to be tempted.

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I've always wondered, if indeed there are a majority of non-smokers out there, why hasn't a smart entrepaneur (sp) hasn't opened a bunch of non-smoking bars and raking in a fortune.  I could never understand that.  I guess the old cliche of supply and demand doesn't exist in this context.

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Now they are all home on the couch gettng fat and wait till all the fattie laws start passing....  They used to have everything a strip in town where it could be controlled They found out they could generate more revenue by making things illegal then fining and filling prisons..Then they give all the money to foreign dictators that squeal....

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You should see how many KARAOKERs smoke vs those that don't. In my experience, it's easily 70% smokers!