Karaoke Forums

I will say one more thing and then I'm done with this. And the ones who think contests are so great can try to justify it all you want.

The last contest I did, we had a contestant who had the voice of an angel. Not only was she an unbelievable singer, but she was dressed professionally, had great stage presence, knew how to work the mic to her advantage and didn't even need to use the on screen lyrics. Everyone thought she was going to win including me, and rightly so, she was awesome.

Well guess what?? She didn't! Someone else won. Someone who, IMO, couldn't sing. She had a terrible voice, no stage presence, and no mic control. But yet, she won. Why? She was terrible. Maybe the judges found her "hotter" than the other one.

After that fiasco, I vowed that I would never, never, never do any kind of contest or competition again.

Needless to say that the results drew a lot of negative criticism from patrons, customers, other singers, even the owner.

Never again.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

...I thought the exact same thing.

"KJ wanting to throw contest". So what else is new?

The best way to discourage pro level singers IMO is to keep the prize money at two to three hundred dollars for big comps and less for smaller ones(or equal to less than whatever the best local bands earn per member per gig ). It isn't worth it to compete(and maybe lose) for that amount when you can just go out and (for certain)earn it gigging , and anyone who can't isn't going to stand out that much from the better karaoke vocalists(who often have at least a couple of songs they sing fantastically, which is all they need for a chance at a win) who could take the prize with a great song choice and performance.

I agree. Anything over $100 prize & you start to get the ringers coming in. I've ran contest for over 20 years for anywhere from small $30 weekly to large $5000+ more payouts & know this to be true. We are running a small 6 week contest right now (for the last couple years) with $50 grand prize, $30 2nd & $20 3rd and none of the 'ringers' that normally come in for the bigger prizes are coming in. Not worth their time.

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

You know... all this talk about Contests and Ringers...

If you can find it, watch a movie entitled "Jackpot" (with Garret Morris and Peggy Lipton in it).

In our case, the "ringers" are welcome to take part... Our contests aren't all about local singers... They're about putting on the best possible free show for the people of our economically depressed town. Besides... we have local singers who can hold their own with the best of them.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

Disagree 100%.

I have people that go to my shows to dance and to listen to the people sing. Sometimes, it's friends of the karaoke people, other times, it's just people that come to eat, and/or drink and/or listen.

Contests, when done completely fairly, and with 100% transparency (clearly written rules including how the judges are picked and how they judge), are a hit. I've had very few problems running contests. If someone can't enter a contest without pissing and moaning that they should have come in first or that it 'wasn't fair', that's on them. Let the whiners go to another show and whine. They're probably whiners to begin with, and probably whining about something at your show already. I've lost singers because they thought something wasn't fair. I was happy to see them go. They were whiners.

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DJ Don

Perfect Don... I couldn't have said it better.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

Or maybe, they had legit complaints. I'd rather not lose any patrons.

Sorry, but contests hurt more than they help. Sure, some love it, especially the winners. For every "whiner" you hear from, there are ten more that didn't bother to tell you. Most don't. They just don't come back and tell their friends what a "fix" it was...whether it was or not.

I'd rather not lose patrons either.

The paying kind. Or those that contribute in some form.

The rest, whether their complaints were legit or not, again, can go elsewhere and whine. If they're going to go somewhere else to whine before they bring up a 'legit' concern to me, then likely they whine about everything in their lives. Please. Go somewhere else and whine.

Conversely, just as there are as many that whine and don't tell, there are as many that think a show is great, and don't tell. The regulars may come, and may not be there for the host... but for the karaoke. Or the food. Or the bartenders. Or something else. I'd like to think they're there at least in part for me. Generally, I'm happy with who's there and who's not.

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DJ Don

As with anything entertainment or customer service related, no matter how great ,no matter how fair, no matter how well planned,and no matter how talented or skilled the people involved, someone is going to be unhappy . As long as more are happy than complaining, chances are you're doing okay.