Karaoke Forums

I recently started a gig at a small to medium size venue that has not had a regular Karaoke night in a couple of years, and they are doing there best to turn me into a DJ. I am really having trouble getting people to sing. The first night there I had four singers in four hours, and the second time about 6 singers. What I have tried so far is singing myself at least once an hour, heckling the crowd a little bit, and even offering free drinks to the next three people that sing. At this point I am getting more requests for non-karaoke songs, and people bringing me there own non karaoke CDs that anything else. The crowd is mostly a twenty something group with a few fifty somethings that are regulars. They do have a decent  size dance floor and that seems to be what the people want to do. I don't have enough filler music to keep this up every week but the owner continues to ask me back week after week. Any suggestions on how to get people to sing?  I start a new gig next week and fear the same, this venue has never had karaoke night.   Thanks

Whenever I start a new gig, I bring some of my following with me - usually 8-10 people for the first couple weeks.  This helps some of the non-singers to get more interested.  
Then ADVERTISE - in the entertainment section of your paper or if your area has a karaoke paper, flyers in the bar, banners for outside the bar (sometimes the bar can get these for free through their beer distributors).  It may cost you a little bit to get it going, but it will help bring people in the door.  In the ad mention a brief about the show - song selection, sound quality, any special perks that may set you aside from other karaoke in the area.  See if the bar may throw in something for giveaways then mention that - people love free stuff.  Does the bar have a stage or are you just set up handing a wireless out to people sitting at tables.  Set up a staging/singing area if the latter.  Also talk with people that do sing, although I hate doing it at other shows.  If you know singers, tell them to come on down.
If you can keep the crowd entertained, mix a good sound & treat people fairly rotation wise, they will come.  
If you don't have any of these traits or no one still comes out, be a dj as long as they pay you the same!

You mentioned this particular bar had karaoke before - why did they stop it before?  Was it working before?  If not, why?

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

In my opinion, you are better off trying to get the right crowd at your show rather than getting people who are there to sing. I don't advocate stealing crowd from other venues but try to go to other karaoke venues during the nights you are not working. At least in my area, there are 3-4 places holding karaoke every night of the week. My friend who hosts goes at least 3 nights a week and make many friends.

He doesn't tell people he is a host but during the normal conversation, the fact that he does the gig every Saturday night comes up. They get curious and show up on Saturday night to his show and he gets a lot of singers as a result.

It's a lot easy to have people you know to get up to sing than strangers. Go out and make many friends who sings and they may come to support you.

Just a thought.

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!

I am having similar problems with one of my bar gigs.  Some nites there were be a lot of singers, some nites only a couple.  In my area, it is just the time of the year that affects it.  It's the winter blahs.  As soon as the weather gets nicer people come out again.

Unless the owner gets pissy, do what the crowd wants.  If you are drawing a crowd DJing who cares, you are hired to make the bar more $$$$$$.

I did find two reasons the venue had quit karaoke for a couple of years: main reason was a larger bar within walking distance purchased a cavs jukebox in house system and advertise 30,000 songs, at the same time they added lighting and stage to the venue and pretty much had a monoply on that small towns karaoke business. However the bar owner that hired me feels that the newness of the cavs bar is wearing out and she had been asked several times if they were going to start karaoke again.  Second reason they stopped karaoke was the KJ, bar owner told me she refused to play music between singers as they had asked her to do, and the KJ would get wasted and sing more than she should.

Thanks for all the ideas, I'm going to get with the bar manager and see how serious they are about things before i spend money advertising, and i will see if they want to contribute prizes to the show!

As far as DJing goes I do see your point if it pays the same why not, but right now I cannot afford to keep both regular and karaoke libraries up to date, I'm just starting out.

Selection is a big part of peoples deciding factors to going to a show.  Some (like myself) prefer a stage to sing on & don't go to shows (or sing) that don't.  If the CAVS bar is still going & busy, then chances are, unless your show has comparible - ie selection, sound system, hosting skills/etiquette (sometimes this could be a major alluring factor), rotation skills, etc., that it's possible that the singing crowd may never return.  If they are offering the same type of show - no stage, lights (that lured the past customers away), that they did before & the cavs bar is still going with the large selection & stage - then i'd probably bag it.
Now by the way you described the previous karaoke, it sounds like they WANT more of a dj than karaoke & the previous kj was trying to 'keep it pure' karaoke, although the drinking probably didn't help either.  Very often, once a karaoke place quits, it's hard to get it hopping again without some major overhaulin'.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

You make some good points. Lots to think about.

   What Lon said. Right on the money- and you DO need those starter singers.....

_________________
"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Signage outside the bar  with a big KARAOKE HERE SIGN
Advertise in local paper
Flyers in the Bar
Word of mouth -
Try a little nightly contest - Not a SINGING competition but a raffel drawing
you enter by singing a song - request slip goes into a box pull out winner at end of night. small gifts nothing fancy --IT JUST MIGHT MAKE IT FUN FOR the 20 crowd.

Good luck !!

I play my show to a younger audience, and sometimes I have a later singing crowd on Wednesdays that is similar to your overall situation, and here's what I do.

If you are supposed to start karaoke at 9:00 p.m., then make sure you are set up by 8:30-8:45 EVERY WEEK and at 8:45 FIRST THING play a few filler songs. Not quite your hot dance songs yet, but uptempo top 40 of whatever is popular in your bar. Uptempo stuff is the key, as you are creating a MOOD throughout the bar. NEVER play a ballad even if it is requested, as there will be plenty of those from the karaoke singers. Remember, it is part of your job to CONTROL the audience and not let them CONTROL you, and once one smuck gets his ballad or deep cut from a band no one has ever heard of played, there will be 15 other smucks that want the same thing. I always just tell them that I make a playlist before I come to the bar and that is all I bring, and their song is not on my playlist.

When 9:00 rolls around and it is time to start karaoke, make an announcement that it is karaoke night at the bar, who you are, where the books are, and all of the relavant info, but keep the uptempo music rolling. Of course, after 9:00, whenever you get a few singers you should start, but if you don't have a few singers in, just roll with the filler. I firmly don't believe that the KJ singing is going to encourage anyone to sing that wasn't going to already, and will probably actually discourage more people than anything, so just roll with the filler and don't feel like you should sing to drum up interest, as it doesn't work!!

The uptempo music is still rolling. You are keeping the mood and general morale of the bar high without FORCING the karaoke on them. If you see a regular singer come in, immediately go say hi and give them a book. If you don't already, you should consider getting a few index card boxes and saving the songs that your regular singers put in. An index card box with alphabetical dividers cost about $4.00. It saves you paper and the regs like it when they walk in the door and you already have their favorite songs written down, ready for them to turn in (since we all know most karaoke singers sing the same 3-5 songs over and over again!!).

Keep the announcements coming every 30 minutes or so about it being karaoke night until you have a non-stop rotation of singers. There are lots of people who wouldn't do karaoke if their life depended on it at 9:00 when they are sober, but once they have 5-6 beers down they just can't stop!!

If it starts to get to be like 10:00 and you still have no singers, then step up the filler and start throwing in some dance numbers. Always keep your best dance songs for later, though. I find that most bars peak from about 11:30-12:30, so that is when you should play your best filler (even if it is only 30-45 seconds between singers!!).

I think the basic gist of it, like someone else said, is that you shouldn't feel like you HAVE to stick to karaoke and force the issue. You have to read the audience and keep your patrons entertained whether they are karaoke singers or not. Once you get rolling and get a few weeks under your belt, you'll get a table or two of regular karaoke singers that always show up around your starting time, and whenever they are there you will know that you can count on them to help you start on time and keep the karaoke rolling. Even when that happens, though, don't neglect your non-singing audience, throw in some of the filler that gets them dancing here and there and EVERYONE in the bar will stay entertained and keep coming back for more.

Hope some of that helps!!

_________________
C Mc
KJ, FL

If its Karaoke Night ---I feel the KJ should sing something ..maybe not continously but ..If the KJ is promoting KARAOKE NIGHT  then someone should sing ......
Classic Rock/ Sing Alongs / Standards / some songs to get the karaoke mood going.

I think if you stay too long JUST DJ'ing ...thats what the night will be ....  No one will get up to sing ...if NO one is singing .....The KJ must JUMP start the night.

Excellent suggestions TopherM! I do believe that sometimes the host should sing the first song to get them started. I had many shows where people wanted to sing, they just didn't want to be first. They'll just sit there with filled out request slips, waiting for someone else to sing first. Or they'll turn them in, but say "I don't have to be first. do I?"

Premiere Karaoke Ent. LLC
http://www.premiere-karaoke.com

Another good reason for the KJ to do a song or two to lead off the night, is to do a sound check. When you know your own voice best, it is easy to tweak the controls and get the system 'just right' before another singer comes up.

_________________
Let's Kick the Tires and Light the Fires!

do the song Tequila... to get the entire bar going into it!

That's the true success of karaoke, when you have a larger group of people interested in what you're doing... not just a select few in a corner!

That would actually be the true success & goal of ANY form of entertainment - to have more interested in what you are doing.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Some good ideas here! I had already made up a song index box and put the used song requests in there, but its starting to over flow...the index card is gonna be a go as of this week for the regulars, plus it'll save on the request slip usage. Thanks TopherM.

Flyers in the bar is next!

The nightly song winner is a good idea too, it can be implemented rather easily and a free drink and small gift could be easily done.

My pic idea is almost ready for implementation, just trying to find the lowest cost route for ink and paper...looks like I can do it much cheaper than previously thought.
Have to charge something though, otherwise EVERYONE will want their photo done   A free photo for nightly winner sounds good...can print duplicates and start my own wall of fame. Maybe have a Karaoke winners plaque with the photos taken in front of it. Whens it gonna stop...

One thing I'd like to add for the starter KJ gig (T-dogg). I just hooked up a second screen right above my booth for the crowd to be able to see the lyrics also. I was really stunned when I had no singers and was just using karaoke songs for filling, 2 tables behind me started singing the songs I was playing.  :yes:  They did'nt want to fill out the request slips for songs, but they wanted to sing while plowing themselves w/drinks. I'm all for it, it's all about them, keep them happy! If a singer comes up they jump right up front, but in the meantime, half of my bar is singing and having fun!  You may try a second screen (splitter) for additional crowd participation. It's working here. I hope to be going to a 3rd screen on the other side of bar for even greater crowd participation...just not enough hours in the day or $$$ in the bank to do everything I want, but it's starting to take root.

By the way...who sings tequilia?   I assume your talking karaoke version there, correct?

Thanks everyone,

                                                                                      bigjim56


                                                                                        bigjim56

Tequilla is by The Champs, and there is only ONE word in the entire song, so it doesn't really matter if you use the karaoke version or just play the actual song.

In case you have not guessed, the one lyric is TEQUILLA!!

_________________
C Mc
KJ, FL

Thanks for all the excellent ideas, last week went much better, as far as getting people to sing, and the bar owner is working on getting some freebies from their alcohol suppliers, to give away. The owner also put up flyers.  They absolutely do want a mix of singers and dance music which is fine by me as long as its not all DJ (not a large library yet).  
As far as the TV thing goes I always hook up to a TV above me as well as the singers' TV in front. However the bar where I have had some trouble getting singers doesn't have a single TV in  the place! go figure. But I'm working on that!


Ty