Karaoke Forums

The bar I do on Saturdays picked me up for Fridays.    That lasted 8 weeks.   He said he was only making $500 a night.   For the past 4 weeks he has had a DJ.   I get regular reports from the staff.   10 people total .... every Friday.   SO he is LOSING $500 a WEEK with them, plus what he has to pay out for everything else.   How much more can he take?????    LMAO    I tried to tell him it could only get better.   He would rather lose money every week than pay me.   I found another job.  He's hurting his wallet, not mine.    :whistle:

You brought him that significant a following ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

We were up to 15 singers.   And 15-20 non singers.    Not that good but better than the 80's DJs 10 people.     It was building every week.   Just not like he wanted.    He must want to get rich quick.   Me to, but when will that be?    :whistle:    A lot of them were spillovers from his Saturday karaoke.   So he was sucking on their wallets for two nights, not one.    It must be way more fun to lose money, than make it.      LMAO   Are we having fun yet?????  Yeah,.. yeah..  :hi5:

I have learned that you never ever let them know it hurt you in YOUR wallet.  You just very professionally say goodbye.  
You know you have the following.  Stay in the area.  You can get a job close by.
I have passed calendars out as I packed up.  And ran specials for 4 weeks, right next door.  I had no qualms about telling the new prospective owner what was going on.  I would have that following there in a matter of a couple weeks.  Funny as it may seem.  The only reason I wasn't working at that bar to begin with, was because they never figured they could draw the crowd.  Now they have!!!  And I can guarantee you,  you will be at the new place a long long time.  Because they aren't going to give that crowd back.  They had the pee poor nights, while the original bar owner was making money.  Heard of tough love, well this is tough business.  We need to make a living too.

 :hug:

And one more thing!  I give every bar owner whom I am trying to succeed with, a break.  I don't march into a bar to see a prospective job without first selling myself as a respectable individual who wants to make money for them.  Yes I want the job!  I am not stupid.  But if I don't make them think I am going to do everything in my power to make money for them, then I am wasting my time.  I, in no uncertain terms, let them know that in order to keep this job with them, I have to make them money.  Sure, I know they are stupid, done this for long enough to know that.  Just use the phrase " If I can't make you money, you won't make me money!"  
I know that as long as they are making the cash, I will have a job.

As the old addage states, (or however you might say)  "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine!"Forgive me in the last statement if it was wrong, but the saying still goes.

thanks for all the encouragement, y'all.  since mine is not a source of major income (not what i use to pay bills) it doens't mean as much that i'm losing the gig.  in fact, i'm little relieved to be able to have weekends free to go out of town on occasion now.  i will miss the singers and the fun everyone had, but if the gig next door gets going good, i'm sure they'll come to me there!

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All work and no play make Homer something something

so did you get the gig next door, steve? friday nights maybe? you guys can come up here more often, then, and kelly can move he show to town, and we will have one heckuva party!

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[glow=darkorchid]Musica delenit bestiam feram[/glow]

I read that you started your own business...That is so cool!!!!

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

Steve sells Amway now ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

actually started my own pest control company.  couldn't handle the way i was told to treat my customers while with terminix.  corporation bull-shiet.  they only care about their stockholders!  
on the other gig thing, i don't konw yet, as the bar hasn't opened.  wont open til next week probably and it'll be a weeknight gig.  i did get a call from the manager of my current gig tonight.  i offered to drop my show price (not much) until things pick up a bit.  i also offered to gig only a couple of weeks a month.  i explained about stopping altogether and then trying to get the clientel back would be worse than keeping it going only part time and they agreed.  pretty smart folks we have around these parts!   anyway, i don't mind doing it for less since i pretty much do it for fun anyway!  hell, what else would i do with my saturday nights?  spend it with my wife?     anyway, itpays for my beer for the weekend including the boat beer!  that's what's really important anyway!  by the way, here's a couple of pics ofthe friends Lieber has made so far this year!

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All work and no play make Homer something something

Just a little update ,So just talked to the guy tonight and he says he wants to try a couple more weeks w/out karaoke, we thanked him and told him that he had our # and if we're available  we'd be glad to come back. (didnt tell him the price would be higher)
But pretty much cutting our losses and back to the pavement is where we are now !! Good thing we have a few parties lined up in the meantime.  
Im relieved in a way though,  this guy is a little off his rocker. He told us tonight that the band that played ther on Sat charged him 40$ for the whole night.  We're thinkin to ourselves, couldnt he come up with something believable ???   Anyways we left it back in his court no bridges burned. Thanks for all of the comments and opinions
 :)

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Kelley
Star Sounds Karaoke & Mobile Recording Studio


[shadow=black][scroll]You have to respect your audience. Without them, you're essentially standing alone, singing to yourself....KD Lang[/scroll][/shadow]

A few more weeks without karaoke and the entire crowd will have found new places to sing.    It's already dead and gone.    It just needs buried.    Find a new place to play.    The hardest thing in the world is trying to get an old place hopping again, after the owner has killed it.    I'm doing it on Tuesdays.    We had the crowd up to 135 people, steady every week.    Undercutter/ DJ/KJ started Djing on Thursdays.   He wanted to take over my slot to prove something to himself.      So I think he cut a deal.    Well he killed the crowd over the next year or so.    Then he walked out on them.    Yeah, he's real good.    LMAO    The owner trying to save $25 a week, lost $25-30,000 a year.     His exwife called me back.    I got it back to 70-80.   The gas price deal is going to keep it from getting any bigger and it may reverse itself.      I thought that getting it up to 70-80 was pretty good.    But it took a little over a year to get that many.  Started out with 30-35.    Think about this.   That averages out to 1 new steady person a week.   That's a long uphill  :yes: road to travel.

When I grow up,  I want to live the life of lieber !

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

yeah, he's got it rough, doesn't he?!  we pay for his boat, we pay for the gas and the beer, we do all the work of trailering, launching, maintaining, but who do the chicks hang out with?  the good looking blonde!

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All work and no play make Homer something something

15-20 person rotation may be good, but it dosen't seem like that muh too me for a town of 25,000.

When I first try getting a new gig at a bar, I check out the bar for a few weeks when there is no entertainment, to see what numbers are actually there.  If I get the gig, I occasional stop by on an off nite to check out how many peeps are there.  It may actualy bee that you are not drawing a crowd.  I know I have worked at some bars, where the regulars loved Karaoke, but would be there anyway if the karaoke wasn't there.

Also it could be that the "regulars", that are in the bar day in and day out, want a break from it.  Personal If I owned a bar in the town I lived in, I would only have karaoke one nite every other week.

There could be so many different reasons that the bar owner want to change.  If he does, thank him/her for the business, and move on, and take your followers with you.  No reason to get upset/mad/angry, that's just life, it sucks sometimes.

15-20 around here is good.  there's a karaoke bar on virtually every corner in these parts.  folks dont like to wait much over half an hour between turns.  i offered to work everyother weekend for the owner, but that got nixed pretty quickly.  tha prat about the regulars being there anyway even if there wasn't karaoke is partly true, but they enjoy the karaoke, too.  many others come in specifically for karaoke.  part of the issue is that i work a beer and venue.  that means folks can bring in their own bottle and buy a coke for $2.  that coke will last 2 or 3 drinks, so the bar doesn't make much money on that.  it also doens't help that the bar has the lowest price on beer in the entire county!  $2 for a longneck is a great price, but it won't make the bar owner or manager rich!

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All work and no play make Homer something something

Beer and Venue means you could do the show totally nude.

Exactly!

The sheer problem with karaoke is if the show gets too popular, it makes the singers suffer by waiting too long, and they'll regretably find other venues, or competition may find it's way to your hood to bleed off folks that would rather sing more, and not be as happy with the sound, books, hosts etc.

Course, by the same token, there are great singers as customers that will wait their turn, and enjoy the show for what it is because they LOVE the show for what it is. Yes they wish it wasn't so busy.

But shows that aren't so busy, aren't making the bar as much as THEY would like.

It's a horrid catch 22!

Good point, knightshow. I have been guilty of going to places with a smaller rotation ignoring the fact that they are not always better.