Karaoke Forums

Had a recent experience that I thought I'd share.

I've been working at a local bar on Saturday nights for about a year now. When I first started working there, there were about 4 people in the bar on a Saturday, but in a short time, people started filtering in, and many of my regulars found me.

Furthermore, I gave the owner the number of a barmaid that I worked with, whom he wanted to hire. Needless to say, she came to work on Saturdays, bringing her people with her as well. She and I had a great rapour, as I was the first KJ to get her up and sing... and she was really good, with Joan Jett, pours some sugar on me and the (@$%&#!) cat song, we quickly got a nice following going on sats and packed it just about every night.

Things were going so well, and the owner made a deal with the owner of a closed down bar just down the street to remodel it, and get it going again under a new name. The NEW bar would be three times the size, have a full kitchen, and much nicer atmosphere.

Now, I was only taking $150 for the nights at the time, since we were "building it up" and as the time came for the move, I really promoted it at with my following, and letting everyone know it was coming.

Soooo.... finally it place opened.... and it was a big success. the place was PACKED, and I went from 12 - 15 singers a night to 30+. In addition, a KJ frind of mine contacted me about wednesdays there as he was having problems with another bar he was working at... and he's well established with a large following. My thought was, to introduce those people to the new bar, and benefit from "bleed over" of his people on my saturday, so I eagerly gave his number to the Owner, and he got hired.

Once again, success! the Wednesday nights were a big hit, and I showed up, sang some songs, and promoted the Saturday night, and BAM, many of those people showed up as well, and had a great time.

Soooo, now comes the hammer, and sorry for the long build up. I call up the owner, and considering all that had been done I felt it reasonable to ask for $50 more a night. He bulked. Not only did he bulk, but he down played my role in the bar's success, and said he felt the new location was primarily responsible for the increase in the crowd! He said he wanted to wait a month or so before saying yes to my raise.

Needless to say I was insensed, but i decided to tough it out and see. This is a guy that graduated from my high school class, and in the interest of friendship and good will, i wanted to make it work. The following Saturday i get there, and find out that he had fired the Barmaid friend of mine... an hour before she was suposed to come into work... no warning just gone.

Now, I'm not going to judge his decisions on these types of things, and I certainly don't know the whole story, but even if she WAS undercharging for certain drinks to friends or over serving as has been said, she brought in a LOT of people, and was well established in the local area. A talking too, and maybe taking some tips would have been as effective... etc.

Regardless, I'm getting offers from other bars wanting me, and willing to pay me what I want... so i gave it another shot, and of course he said no. So I left. I was friendly, and as amicable I could be, he was a complete jerk about it, saying he didn't need me, etc.

Soooo, now my Sats at the new bar are rockin. We have a weekly "sing off" contest for $50 and 2nd place gets a $20 bar tab, and its a big success.

I've had many of my regs show up, and some mistakingly going to the other bar first. "But there wasn't anyone in there." Sadly the Wednesday nights are falling off too as staffing issues, and a variety of other things are chasing people away... and the bar has only been open a few months.

Folks, those of us who've been around awhile, have a following and are estblished are worth every dollar we are paid. We DO make a differance for an owner's revenue... and bar owner's that don't acknowlege this are really not worth our time.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

'nuff said, I totally agree.

Good for you moving on and building it up, again!

You handled it right, just replacing a host can kill a bar that has a hammer show. I watched a venue I worked at go from 300 to 500 patrons a night to less than twenty in three months twice, by going to a "much cheaper host and DJ" the last timed I refused to go back for any amount of money and the third time they went under in less than a year.

It does make a difference, so you are doing something right, don't change it.

Similar story with me. Was doing a Monday night at a bar. Agreed on price ($150 - high scale around here). Everything going great, had a lot of my following that showed up and the till went from a couple hundred to over $1500 every monday with a packed house. About a month later, the owner sold, new owner kept everything as is for a month, then asked to cut my pay - um no! He proceeded to hire a cheaper company for $75 per night - sorry to say it was a pirate - all burned discs that graphic garbled often, skipped or flat out wouldn't play with crappy equipment - the Behringer top cabs they were using sounded blown and they didn't hook into any bar tv for the audience to see. Anyway, they went from a packed house to 5 people in the bar - the bartender, the owner, the kj & two guys that just wanted beer. The bartender (who was a friend of mine) said their best night after that was $400 with maybe 8 people besides the staff. They called me back up a couple months later to see if I would come back, I said sure I would, but the price went up $50. They declined - which I figured they would! They shortly went completely out of business a year later.

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

Lonnie,

That is my method as well, let me go fine call me back it is $50+ more a night. 3rd time and I don't come back for any amount of money.

Koyote, no argument from me- been there done that.

Lon, I will never go back to an old venue with the same owners. The only exception is if it was because a short bar shutdown for remodeling or whatever. I find that one a difficulty between host and owner rises- no matter who capitulates- it will keep eating away until a more permanent parting occurs. Just my own take...

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

I really wasn't planning on returning. I knew they wouldn't pay the higher price so I wasn't worried about returning. They only wanted to pay $100 total.

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

Ah. Kinda figured that- just double checkin'.....

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Kj's make a hell of a difference......someone with a pirate hard drive isn't a threat to a good KJ, but crappy or even mediocre kjs beware....
My only fear of pirate tracks is that they drive up the cost of legal tracks, and could cause the manus to stop making any more karaoke tracks, new and old....pirates live for the present, not the future......just the the patch-eyed ones of yore...... .....a kj can make or brake karaoke at a venue....some kjs can give karaoke a black eye, in general....some people hate karaoke, because they witnessed bad karaoke, and don't really know what a good karaoke experience looks like......though there are some people who just plain hate karaoke.....usually because they couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, or they don't have the cahonies to get up there and sing.....

what a great thread...I wholeheartedly agree

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

I went to a new show tonight. KJ's book has tens of thousands of songs in it and I couldn't find ONE SINGLE SOUND CHOICE track . KJ couldn't play a customer disc and played mucho mucho filler songs due to the fact that I was the only singer there other than the KJ. Things that make you go Hmmmmmmm. I know for a fact that they will have ONE LESS singer next week and every week after that. Not sure if this is a case of the KJ being the problem or just the KJ's attitude towards customer service being the problem. I guess if there were plenty of singers there waiting to sing or if there were plenty of ladies up on the dance floor dancing to the filler music; the KJ would have a leg to stand on but when you're trying to build a show, you should try to please anyone and EVERYONE who could become a potential regular. I give this place a month, two months tops, before they cancel karaoke.

Or figure out that they need to replace the dip with a real KJ! Place just up the road from my Thursday DJ gig asked me again to replace the guy they have, they they still want a night I am booked and my second system contains "NO Sound Choice" (not because I don't want it in there just that I haven't sprung for the GEM series disc yet) But it does contain the complete Chartbuster E and a large number of the EP sets and other misc filler like All Hits, SGB Nutech, etc.. If he wants that system and will have June as the KJ I am ready, otherwise I can't help him out. The problem is I have yet to put the second system into a show that didn't generate some complaints about not having SC songs in it.