Karaoke Forums

Some are just comfortable at a particular club too.

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Yup In a small town like Greeley some in a certain bar has known the bartender or the owner all their life .  They fell in love, got married and divorced there maybe more than once and it aint likely they are going to change unless the bar closes

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You cant save this guys business for him--which is what hes trying to get you to do. You can only do so much as a one or two night a week KJ. Put out a sign, make a couple flyers, maybe take out an add. Send emails to a mailing list. Thats about it. The OWNER has to generate a crowd that wants to come to and return to his bar. You can only do what you can do as ONE PERSON. At the shows YOU CAN do your best, provide a superior show, and keep the butts in the seats. Thats REALLY your TRUE Job. Not as entertainment promoter for HIS BUSINESS. But as show person keeping the crowd that walks through HIS DOOR and PAYS HIM MONEY for his venue, food, bar etc.

My take on all this---pack your stuff and go. Beat him to the punch. At best his line is a manipulation of you to get you to lower your price or spend more of YOUR MONEY and TIME for HIS benefit.  Tell him thanks but no thanks. You dont need that kind of aggravation, pressure and manipulation.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

And of course the bar owner forgot the old adage, "You have to spend money to make money".

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You can be strange but not a stranger

While I agree with all of the above comments I can see many of you don't travel that much because you left one form of advertising out.

If a venue is at all close to any hotels it doesn't hurt to approach their marketing rep.  Get your place advertised in the hotel in return for advertising theirs.  Also, hotels are a fair place to approach about a show during the tourist season.  A bar that also serves food past 9 PM has a good chance with a hotel just by offering a free drink or two a week to the night desk people.  They will be more prone to advise a karaoke junkie with a jones when they are asked where to go to sing.

You mentioned the main reason you have a small crowd is because the bar
down the street has drink specials and karaoke, so they go there. What if you
changed your night, so it doesn't conflict. If your on a Tuesday maybe move
to a Wed. night instead. Then see if you can get him to try a drink special for that
night as a temporary thing. Even if he is super cheap and you can only get him to do it for 2 weeks. He might see the difference and change his mind.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Dumb a** bar owners !!! The same thing happened to me at my last gig The bar/resturaunt owner was giving free soda refills to the soda drinkers & getting po'd that they wer "soaking up" the free entertainment ( his words) I said if you even just charge 75cent refills youd be making 80 or 90 % profit. He refused so they did "soak up" the entertainment & I dont blaim them Id do it too if I could !! Something as simple as that OR putting a 7 letter word (karaoke) on ONE SIDE of a marquee (sp?) youd thought Id killed him when I asked he do that !

Face it you as a karaoke host can do alot but if the bar owner isnt willing to lift a pinkie Id just forget it. & thats what we did.  he tried a one man band & another karaoke company in there since weve left STILL hasnt worked...Why ?...cause hes an idiot !! Simple.

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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]

There is one thing you could try if the bar owner is willing. You can advertise on this website for a very reasonable price.

They sell ads here. My dad checks this website when he goes out of town, to see if there is karaoke where he is going to. There are also websites in your area that will list the club for free most likely.

It's worth a shot.

that's a good idea, but the majority of the people that go karaokin' in a specific area don't often check the internet.

1. There are no smart bar owners, that know how to make money, period.

2.  How is his help?   Has anyone ever complained to you about not being able to get a drink?    A bad bartender can kill all of your good efforts.

3. Do you hand out your monthly calenders?    Personally give them to people.  Don't expect them to take them.

4.  "Karaoke" on the outside sign.    Most important.

5. Gasoline prices have hurt everyones business.

6.  Crowds travel in spurts.

7. The competition could be out doing you.   (You and the bars competition)

8. He pays you, so it's your fault.    (that's how they look at it)

9. Make some table tent ads.

10. Make flyers to hang in the bar.

11. Put ads in your song books with maps to all of your gigs.

12. I never do contests.    It has a negative return.      

That said, I know of a bar (not mine) that has a square contest.  Like a football pool 100 square deal.    Bar owners puts in $50 a week.    Everytime you sing you get a square.    New sheet every week.   If nobody wins it's $100 the next week, and so on.     Works pretty well, when the money gets around $400.    No judges, no hurt feeling, no P.O.ed singers.

13. Ask the closest bar, if they want a ready-made karaoke crowd.

14. Does your equipment or song selection need upgraded?    Be honest with yourself.

15. Are you killing the crowd with dance music?   Instead of karaoke music.

16.  What do your singers think of you.    What do the others think about your competition?    I hear about crappy KJs all the time, but they still get people to come see them.      One of the wonders of the modern world.l

17. How bad do you need this gig?   Making $25 less, is better than $0.

18. Bar owners are the unwilling, lead by the unknown, to a place call nowhere.

here we go again.

What works for one place won't for another.

Personally speaking, ONLY playing karaoke music is a killer! I use fade in music and my crowds love it. When it's dead air or the host yappin' in the mic unendingly, that will kill a show faster than anything.

When I go to a new venue, I don't guarentee that I will draw a crowd.  But I do tell the owner that id there are people there I will do my best to keep them there.  

As for contests, like others said NO NO NO.  If you already have small crowd, you will only alienate your base.

Instead of a karaoke contest, have a drawing for $$$$.  Each time a person sings a song their name goes in the hat.  At the end of the nite draw out a name from the hat.  And of course, you must be present to win!

so does sperm!  

 :rotflmao:  :rofl4:  :rotflmao:  :rofl4:  :rotflmao:  :rofl4:  :rotflmao:  :rofl4:  :rotflmao:  :rofl4:  :rotflmao:  :rofl4:

oh i am sooooo sorry, but i couldn't resist!!!

phil, please forgive me, but you KNOW everyone here thought it anyway!

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All work and no play make Homer something something

Or it could be you are in one of those areas that regular dance music is becoming the desires of the customers & pure karaoke is not a big attraction anymore.  

Anyway, have the bar get outside banners made from the beer distributors with karaoke (and or karaoke/dancing).  Bud makes some pretty nice ones & from what I understand they are relatively cheap to the bar if not free in some cases.

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[shadow=deepskyblue]I'm impressed, I've never met such a small mind inside such a big head before.[/shadow]

Bigdog--how does that square thing work?  How is a winner decided?  I'm always looking for something different to try!

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Spreading the karaoke gospel

I have to make a phone call and get the details.

Here's how the squares work:

You make a grid of squares, usually 10x10 meaning that there are 100 squares and predetermine a number from 00-99 as the winning number for the night (it would be a good marketing gimmic to have it be the same number every night, like call it the 69 squares).  Don't label the rows or columns YET!!

Once someone sings, they write their name in any square they want. Once the squares are full OR whenever you want to have the drawing, you put the numbers 0-9 in a hat and have someone draw them out one by one. You then put these random numbers as the headers for the rows then draw again for the random numbers for the columns. Now everyone who filled in a sqaure has a unique 2 digit number associated with their name.

Whoever owns the square that cooresponds with the winning number is your winner. If that square is blank, you would have to roll over the winnings or possibly randomly pick a new number.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

OK MIKE, here it is, the 100 square contest.   Go to places that sell bingo cards and strip tickets, that kind of thing.    The card is printed up with 100 numbered squares.   There is a number hidden under a star at the top of the page.     Every time someone sings, they sign under a square.   You will have around 60 squares filled at the end of the night.    Over 50 /50 chance to win.     At the end of the night the star is peeled off to reveal the winning number.    If nobody wins the bar wins.    (Not really)   Then the bar owners adds $50 or however much he wants to, for next week.    The pot will keep growing until someone wins.




Remember the one speaker girl.   The bar she works in does the contest this way.    Remember my newbies got the job there every other week.     Bartender says on the one speaker night, they take in around $500.   On my newbies night they take in over $800.    :O   Having a much better system and bigger selection, is going to make the bar owner a whole lot more money.    :yes:    He said they are real close to getting the job every week.   He still has a soft spot for the one speaker girl.   But she is definately hurting his wallet.        He has the contest every week, but it's not helping the one speaker girl.     My newbies are kicking her a**.      :worship:

This is the way it should be.   QUALITY, INVESTMENT, PROFESSIONALISM & REPUTATION RULES.  :dancin:  :hi5:

Moral of the story.    

Just do what it takes to get by, it's good enough for karaoke.      LMAO     Bring in more people or upgrade.    Play with crap, you won't work long.    Cream always rises, crap always sinks.   Are you a floater or a stinker?  :whistle:

The "mystery karaoke" sounds like fun!  If no one does the mystery song one week, and the song is still eligible for the following week, people have time to hear it (downloading it, buying it, whatever), decide if they want to sing it, and if they do, to firmly implant it in their brain for the next karaoke night.  

And BTW, Isis, I love "MS Squirrel Revival"--I've never heard anyone do it for karaoke.  I play the piano at a church, and we sometimes have problems with squirrels getting into our building, so once I searched for the lyrics to that song online and sent the link to everyone in the choir so they could read it!  They got a big kick out of it.

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