Karaoke Forums

As I'm currently umemployed as a steady KJ and waiting for one bar manager to get back from vacation to advise me if they are hiring me back for Thursdays and Saturdays I have to consider the worst case scenario that I'll have to start again cold soliciting some steady Kj work.  SAYING THAT......  IS THE MARKET FOR 100% KARAOKE  NIGHTS DEAD?  What I mean is the need for multi tasking KJ's the way to go ?   LIKE

KARAOKE - DANCE PARTY
KARAOKE - DISCO
KARAOKE - OPEN MIC NIGHT
KARAOKE - MUD WRESTLING NIGHTS
KARAOKE - BINGO
KARAOKE - MIDGET TOSSING

Are we as dedicated KJ's better off OFFERING a little more to most places then JUST KARAOKE .  (NOT THAT JUST KARAOKE IS BAD)  But I guess I'm wondering if more and more bars and clubs want to keep everyone happy and therefore bring in a greater customer base. SINGERS / DANCERS  / MUSICIANS  / GAMBLERS /  MIDGET HATERS  /

If we offer MORE services can we charge more?

So far I don't see that "just karaoke" is dead and THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!  Personlly, as a singer I don't want all that "other stuff" so if the places I go to sing changed their karaoke by adding something I would change where I go to sing.

Have you seen a trend in your area that the karaoke is changing or are you thinking of how to re-market yourself in the event the bar does not resume karaoke?  

Susie

BTW, I've found that bars that have regular karaoke and then stop for some reason or another and start up again make it difficult to rebuild the karaoke...

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Karaoke with Full House Entertainment

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Full House, It'smore of a general feeling I get when I read some comments here and on other boards regarding the market getting smaller and prices venues are willing to pay dedicated professional KJ's smaller and smaller.  I'm with you in thinking that 100% KARAOKE nights are still a viable form of entertainment BUt I guess it has to be in the right venue with the right clientele.  I fully understand from a "singers" perspective that any time not doing karaoke is a waste of time .
YOU CAME OUT TO SING !  I would love to do nothing more than HOSTING karaoke  all night long with back to back singers , But when I was working steady it was getting difficult with the same singers week after week singing the same songs  
to keep the entire place hopping with excitement . It was sometimes very neccesary to once in awhile do something differant - DANCE sets late at night always sparked the place mostly because the dancers (women) where a little drunk and had there party faces on if you know what I mean.  Then after the dance set KARAOKE and the singers where all hopped up and ready to go again.  My orginal question pertains to keeping everyone including singers happy all night long so they come back week after week and bring there nonsinging friends because they have some much fun.  Believe me having TOO many SINGERS every week is a curse not a blessing.  What happens is that if YOU get to start to sing 1 song all night long because of very large rotations - YOU get disgruntled and you will go somewhere else  where you can sing 3 or 4 songs each night. Do you see where I'm coming from ?

Yep, I can see where you're coming from.  We see an ebb and tide of regulars and with the changing of the regulars.  There are certain regulars that once the rotation becomes to long will slowly move to another club with less singers; then they rotate back to us and it's fresh again for all concerned!  One of our regulars that is floating back in, who I consider a friend, brought up the fact that no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other it always feels like coming home.

I understand how difficult it can be keeping the excitement up when you have the same singers singing the same songs.  At that point if I'm comfortable with the singers (& I usually am if they are repeat customers) I suggest a mutual kamikaze early on before the larger crowd arrives.  Since we know each other's preference in music it makes it a little easier.

I hope we don't get to the point where we have to offer other things but pure karaoke, then we might have to manufacture our enthusiasm and I'm not sure I want to.

Keep your fingers crossed that a good KJ, along with a good system and bar staff are all that's needed for MANY years of fun!

Susie

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You do it in the shower,
you do it in the car,
Ccome do it with us,
and be a star!!!!

Karaoke with Full House Entertainment

[scroll]Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean...... [/scroll]

Susie

Fingers are crossed,  As you suggest the only thing I can do for now is Offer a good selection of songs,quality audio equipment ,fair rotation, and a professional KJ performance.  I'll be ready however if the need arises to "mix it up" a little bit
Dance sets are always easy - maybe some KARAOKE THEMES that can be followed thru out the bar - 50's night ?  / Disco Nights? / Country Nights?  / Elvis NIghts /
etc.

Thanks for the feedback
Tony

The fall is the slowest time of the year for both bars and restaurants due to the vacation season being over, the weather cooling off, and school starting back, so if the market seems crappy right now it may just be the season.

As far as 100% karaoke, it is alive and well around here, though I do about 25% dance music at my shows just to engage the non-karaoke patrons!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

So you do a 75% karaoke night  ?  LMAO

I don't think that karaoke nights are dead.  On the contrary, they are alive and well!  I think the 2 problems are:  

1) an over-saturation of bars with karaoke on multiple nights and

2) a new breed of so-called "KJs" that have cheap gear, a short list of songs, and only charge half the amount that us veteran KJs charge.

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---wallyd

I agree with the cheap/crappy gear & not knowing how to use it or even run a rotation for that matter, but the "short songlist" isn't necessarily true.  With all the illegal drives being sold on e-bay, one could have a 20-80K library with a few hundred bucks.  This is where I PRAY that the law gets changed to have people be able to prove what they own on computer with ORIGINAL discs.  Someone brought this up in another forum & I think it would definately put a wrench in some of these low life companies.

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I have been a DJ 5 years before I became a KJ.

I look at it like so, there are bars known as Karaoke Bars they generally have karaoke 5 nights a week I know of 6 in my area. These Karaoke bars need nothing else but a KJ that runs a fair rotion and has a big upto date book, the ones here have 20k+ songs. Bars with older crowd or country crowd karaoke generally supports itself. Bars that are younger crowd you need something else to entertain. The bars I currently have karaoke in are 75% Karaoke, though rotations are getting longer and I find myself playing less music.

When a bar has never had karaoke before you almost have to play music until you develop a crowd unless you plan on singing alot, even so if it's just you singing the people that do not sing are not going to stick around.

In my country and most parts of South East Asia; karaoke is FULL time. A Karaoke bar is where you go to if you want to sing and drink; and you have karaoke from the moment it open till it close 7 nites a week. I have not come across a place where you have karaoke only after 9 when the place is open at 7. This seem strange ,neither are there places where you have karaoke only on week end.

Here karaoke is full time in the real sense. It had been like this for along time. May be in the US there will be more places doing karaoke full time in the future.

And as a side note;most home have a simple karaoke set as part of home entertement.

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