Karaoke Forums

What concerns me most is venues that either have dropped Karaoke ENTIRELY or have simply gone TITS-UP out of biz and disappeared off the face of the earth compeletly..I don't mean fly-by-night places that had no business being alive at all, but looooooooooong time, multiple decade, multiple night places that have simply put up a closed/out of business sign with no explanation. There have been like 7 in my area within the last year that were in that category. A VERY DISTURBING TREND and a drag now trying to find a new Karaoke place to hang!!

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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

Last Wednesday- the 5th- was in my bottom 5 nights of all time. I'm hoping tonight will be better.

In this particular venue, the problem is that half my core female group- which brings in males- has moved away in the course of 2 months, most because of romance. Good for them, bad for me, as their attendant non-singer friends drop off with them.

I continue creating FB events, E-mailing, and texting for this show- simply have to re-build the core....

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Was slightly better tonight, had 15 singers most of the night. Still down from avg.

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

It was slow at Lonnie's when me and KJMann did a high speed, one-night run, up and back roadie from Portland, Ore to Tacoma, Wash. to see Lonnie (2 1/2 hr drive each way, got home at 5 am). Maybe 15 people total in the T-Bird all night--on a Thursday night. He secretly recorded us singing...you can hear my recordings on SINGER'S SHOWCASE....LIVE FROM THE THUNDERBIRD!!

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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

That's a never ending process. A lot of my folks are single (for now). They end up getting hooked up or hitched and I don't see them again - unless (or with some: "until") that relationship ends and they're out looking their next unsuspecting victim. Or, they get a DUI, rehab or just drive into the river and drown. That's happened.

So, it's always shakin' hands, getting FB info, and showers of compliments.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Guys, help me out here because I don't see it. If we consistently have less than 25 people at our trivia shows we are done at that venue. Even at our $150 rate, the bar can't be making a profit. Please don't take this personally, but I'm interested in how the owners of
your venues justify keeping you in
there? Of course, there are usually other customers in the bar when we do trivia but they are only interested in the ones who come specifically to play.

I can only speak from my local personal experience the recession has lingered in Riverside County California, the unemployment rate is still one of the highest in the nation. Many long time karaoke hosting establishments have gone under since 2009. Bars have suffered tremendously, and some very good hosts have been out of work for more than a year. If you are a host with no gigs it is hard to get anyone to take a chance on you. The venues want a proven winner that brings in a crowd. That crowd is getting harder to find all the time. The harsher smoking and DUI laws are also making venue profitability more difficult. If the DUI level drops to .05 unless you are a very large person even having one drink becomes a problem. I guess they could charge $5.00 for soda or water like some bars with karaoke have done? I'm glad that I didn't put all my eggs in the bar trade, I do quite a few special shows, and private parties. I know this sounds kind of gruesome, some people want wakes with karaoke. A man said before he died that he didn't care what they did after he was gone, just have karaoke at any services. I hope that is not where karaoke is going, being buried with the customers. I have good nights and bad nights, since my doctor has told me to cut down from six nights a week to three, I have let go of my slower gigs. I kept the busier ones with the better pay.

My guy does a bar that most nights, he doesn't think they make any money. It's kind of a dive bar and it sits in front of some "project housing" in the middle of nowhere. However, I had to explain to him that they do make money. Even if he only has 15 people in the bar, those 15 people are spending about $10 per hour (on average). The bar takes in about $600 on those nights. Since they increase their prices by 50 cents for karaoke (or 20%), most of our pay comes from increased drink prices. The rest comes from the additional business that they wouldn't otherwise get if they just opened their doors on a Friday night and hoped people would stop in (they wouldn't).

Keep this in mind: "Momentum" in the bar is extremely important, especially if you have a parking lot. When customers drive by, the number of cars in your parking lot directly impacts the number of passersby that will actually stop. If they see a lot of cars, they are more likely to stop. The fewer cars they see increases the likelihood that they will drive right on by and check out the next spot. Under these circumstances, it is unfair to judge the number of people who come in specifically to play trivia (by measuring those actually playing) because I'll wager that half of the people not playing wouldn't be there if there weren't other bodies in the bar.

The ticket is to get as many people in the bar as early as possible to build on that crowd throughout the evening. You are only one of many potential draws for customers. What else are they doing to get the momentum going? Examples include Happy Hour (wine specials bring in the ladies), pool leagues, Guest Bartenders (for charity), Birthday Parties, etc.
(I've never seen a bar do it, but if I could "woo" birthday parties in with something like drink specials, veggie trays, party favors, etc - I'd do it). ESPECIALLY for the ladies.

And yes, the old adage still holds true: for every female you get in your bar, at least 2 guys will follow. And attractive bartenders also help!

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Karaoke is not just about the night of your show. It's about every night of the week at a venue. Anything that attracts people to the bar makes them money. There will be people who come the first time for the karaoke, but may come on another night when there is no karaoke. That is a net new customer. The same applies for non-karaoke nights. Someone comes in for a beer, sees a karaoke flyer, then comes back the next weekend with a friend or two.

I have started doing marketing services for venues along with karaoke. Our karaoke fee includes all karaoke related marketing and for a negotiated fee we will take over their Facebook and Twitter profiles to do all marketing for all events for them. That can actually be more lucrative than karaoke depending on the venue.

-Chris

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-Chris

One thing I been told by mangers of bars, to keep people coming in there have to be activities nearly every night, to keep traffic coming in. Food specials, drink specials, some type of contests etc.etc.

I had the all time career low last night. Two non singing people in the bar the first two hours and then 1 as in ONE singer for the rest of the evening. The past few weeks it had been building. But I did hear a bar in the same town had a band and only 6 people showed.

To Rick the answer is these days they DON'T keep you in the bar if that happens. It used to be a slow night or two was expected or it was understood a show needed to be built but many don't seem to have the cash flow for that anymore. One or two slow nights and bye. I used to try to strategize with the bartender and we did build up one place throwing good Birthday parties. But with some of these places it is like they are just throwing things at the wall to see if it sticks and if it doesn't stick right away then it is on to the next thing.

Our bar manager drives around to other clubs in the area when we are dead and she also says as far as parking lots go, ours is usually the fullest, even if it's dead. It's just bar business in general. The liquor prices are higher, DUI laws are stricter, unemployment, higher gas costs - these all play a factor.

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

It's really strange to be reading these posts on this. I thought, by reading your posts over the last 12 months, that all was well. Why the sudden drop off? The levels you're at are what I usually get. Occasionally, for no apparent reason, we have a sudden increase on one night, but then it drops back to the normal attendance levels. Almost no one risks drinking and driving. Beer prices are £3.50 a pint. Petrol (gas) is £1.40 a litre. Yeah, did you notice that? Imperial and metric together. Just to keep us confused. I'm convinced that the beer prices are what is causing the slump here. At the local supermarket, 500ml cans of beer can be purchased for approx £0.80, again metric?????, Sky (supposed you'd call it cable) TV for sports sucking up more disposable income, not to mention everyone has a moblie at £20 per month. That's where the governments, and Murdoch want us, trapped in our homes where we cause less trouble.

As for the drop in customers and singers, blame it on Bush. (TIC)

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My first choice IS Sound Choice.

Good idea the bar mgr keeping a read on how and what the competition is doing for comparison.

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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

The key is to maintain a dialog with the venues. It probably isn't just karaoke night that is slowing down. My bars have seen drops in attendance across every night of the week. One location is asking me about adding a night of karaoke to boost attendance. Because this would be a 3rd night, I am offering them a small discount. It works out for all of us.

-Chris

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-Chris

That is the right approach Chris trying to tailor your karaoke services to meet the needs of the venue owner. Have a blessed day.

I'd like to add one more thing about predicting business:

I work very hard to get people on my personal facebook. I do have a business facebook page, but I believe for my super small business, it is better to have those folks on my personal page so that I can interact with them more.

Anyway...

Doing so allows me to better forecast how the night is going to go because I know what everyone is doing before I even power up my system. I know where the bon fires are, whose having a basement party, who's bachelor party it is, etc. And, a lot of my regular singers post that they are going to be singing tonight and that their friends should stop out and see them, etc.

Still not an exact science, but it has improved my forecasting skills.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Now this is really weird and most don't seem to encounter it but I got some resistance to facebook because people didn't want potential employers seeing them attending bars. I have to be very careful about posting photos and many don't want to give permission even if they aren't making a fool of themselves.

Just for perspective, I am working out of towns of 3,000 population. It is a 45 minute drive between towns, too. The county I'm in is one of the most depressed in the nation and some of the towns are isolated enough that a commute to a larger city for work is prohibitive. So I know the economy still has something to do with it. I've also landed in one bar that is youth oriented and they seem to have a thing about not committing to plans until the last minute and being where the mob goes and not doing the same thing too often in a row. They will text each other as to where the action is. The "older" bar is more likely to have consistent repeaters.

I would think karaoke was waning or that maybe I just wasn't a match for a place but it can be dead one week and packed for two. And on the dead night it is dead everywhere so where did these people go?

Does it really matter where they went, you need them with you to keep the gig. One thing about this business it is much like that old saying in the German army, "victory has a hundred fathers, defeat is an orphan". Have a blessed day.