Karaoke Forums

I usually do karaoke only on Friday nights and weddings and parties on Saturday.  January will be slow, so I am thinking about a karaoke contest.  I never do contests, but I figure what the heck, I'll give it a try.  I told the owner he needs to advertise, since there a lot of people who aren't regulars look for contests.  I think my regulars would hate it anyway, so that's why I'd have it on an off-night.  Now let's say it's a 5 week contest.  I guess first prize would be about $500, second, $200, third $100.  Sound about right for a local bar?  Now, how exactly would I run this?  I don't want to judge it myself...I don't want to judge it by audience applause.  Other than that, I have no clue.  I don't want this to be a disaster for the bar, so I want to do it right.  Can you all give me ideas?  Thanks.

Be smart, don't do it.  The only type of contest we run is where if you sing a song, your slip goes into a hat and later on a slip(s) are drawn for a prize.  No headaches from people going it was rigged fixed, or that singer didn't deserve to win.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Contests  :headscratch: - I've run 1 contest and it was a disaster  LMAO
But that was more of lack of planning on my part and being thrown into it unexpectedly by the bar owner ..NEVER AGAIN !

Now you are going about it the right way - Planning and asking questions !!
#1- You're absolutley correct - Your regulars won't like it - What happens most times is that one timers will show up to enter the contest and you'll never see them again.  SO the bar and you really don't benefit from the extra exposure and these PROS usually don't even buy a drink.  

SO one of the better contests is as Tim suggested - "just plain luck of the draw"  
You sing - your slip gets put into a big (barrel  / jar / whatever) and at the end of the contest - You pick the winners .  The more you sing the more chance you have to win !!!!  - NO judges  // No hurt feelings  / etc. - You may get many NON SINGERS to get up and sing a song just for a chance to win and thats were the fun begins .... Make  the final drawing on an off night and winners must be present !!!

Well, that's why I would have it on an off-night.  My regulars won't have to be subjected to it on "their" night.  If they want to come and sing the next night, great.  I just figured this would be a good oppurtunity to get some new singers in there.  Plus, the bar owner would advertise it.  I ran a contest once (on a Wednesday night), and I had a few people who saw the advertising and liked how I ran it.  They are now regulars.  I would never run one on a Friday.  That would tick too many people off.  That said, anyone have any ideas for me?

I may be the only KJ on this site that doesn't mind being involved with contests!

The last few I ran were ina tournament format.  Basically singers could attmept to qualify for the tournament once each week for 5-6 weeks and these qualifying nights were always off night shows.  If the regular shows are working, use this as an opportunity to generate some extra income for the bar and for you.  These nights the judging was done by people from the venue and were basically an impression type of thing.  At the end of the 5 or 6 weeks, I sat down with the folks who had been the judges and we pulled the best 8-10 singers in each division for the tourney.  Each time I try to do it with a different theme, and I always like to include a category for singers who ordinarily wouldn't enter a contest because they know they'd have no chance.  Often this is the most entertaining divisionto watch come tournament time.  

After the field has been set, the tourney begins.  The beauty of this system as opposed to the traditional contest format is that each singer is only singing against one other singer as opposed to the entire field.  It also makes the judging easier since the two will sing back to back and they just have to deice which was better--farily easy until you get right down to the end.  Usually, we hold the tourney over two nights.  The problem you may have is SPACE.  The last two of these I ran, we ended up with 24 singers in the tourney, and wound up with about 300-350 people in the room watching and cheering.  Obviously the easy way to fix that is to have a smaller field for the tourney, but in our case we had the space so it was all good!

Things to keep in mind--

1)  Even though you may play a role in selecting the field for the tournament, don't let the singers know it.  

2) Have no part in the judging come tournament time.  Your favorite line should be, "I just play the music dude..."  Be sure to emphasize that you have no role in the outcome.  

3) Get judges that are not affiliated with the bar.  Usually we'll get some of the local music teachers, or someone that has won a karaoke contest in the past.  It's gotta be impartial or the losers (which is all but a couple people) will be upset and angry at the bar and worse still, YOU!  

4)  Charge them a little more than you ordinarily would for the show.  This is for a couple of reasons.  First, you WILL be doing a lot of extra work outside of the show if you want to be successful.  Second, the bar is going to make a $HITLOAD of money off of the contest and its only fair that you get a taste too!


I know this is long, but YOU ASKED!

With the situation you describe, I'd probably do this.  You have $800 for prizes.  I'd set up a tourney format with two divisions, one for good singers and the other for so-so to bad singers.  Of course you let THEM choose where they want to sing but encourage them to try out for both to increase their chances.  Give the divisions clever names, depending on you tourney theme, kinda like when we were kids in school and they had weird names for the reading groups so no one felt bad.  Make qualifying nights to be an off nite like Wed.  You run the qualifiers for 5 weeks.  Then you set up a double elim tourney with 6 singers in each division and run it down.  I'd make the top division prise money $300 for first, and $200 for second, and in the lower division, $200 for first and $100 for second.  

If you're interested, you can PM me and I can email entry forms and brackets that you can use if you'd like.  

Just like anything else, if you do the proper planning and take care of things ahead of time, there is no reason why a contest can not be a success!

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Spreading the karaoke gospel

I do contests all the time with no real bad response.  It's all in how it's run.  Don't play favorites - no matter HOW regular a customer may be.  Try to get judges that are at least SOMEHOW in the music field - be it vocal coaches, studio engineers, radio personalities, musicians (that aren't locked into a particular genre).  It can be done successfully without reprocussion.

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

I run contest all the time. Regulars never mind they usually win.

My contest ruls are posed on my web site if you wish to view.

when I have slow nights I do a "blind draw " contest in a bowl I've got several songs listed by disk # and song # only  nobody knows what they are going to sing until they get up to do it  Sometimes we get guys singing Madonna which is good for a laugh from everybody

As a singer only and not a kj, I really like this idea. It would be a blast for a one night competition   Timbo

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what if I am the one whos normal and the rest of the world is all messed up?

Ever since American Idol, karaoke contest have become American Idol copycats.  (yes I know there were karaoke contests before american idol, but AI has since changed what a karaoke contest is now)

Folks go to karaoke to sing, or watch folks sing.  A stage full of terribly singing girls can be just as entertaining as a crooner with a silk voice.  There is something to appriciate about every performer that comes across the stage.

There was an articleabout a year ago from the SJSU newspaper that sums it up pretty good.

DJ Loverboy, please enlighten me: why do you suck? You guys can afford to have a host, a disc jockey and judges and you still can't run a feedbackless show. And what is up with your Limp Bizkit interludes between songs? Seriously, even disregarding bad taste, stop playing outdated "Now That's What I Call Music!" compilations. Now.


You can follow the above link and read the rest of what they wrote, all negative.

I think the worst thing about a contest is it sets everyone up to be judged based on some made up criterea. Again, everyones performance has merit.

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Living my life as Robert Cortese, 162 E. Jackson St, San Jose CA.

It's like the difference between high and low budget toilet paper, it really doesn't matter in the end. -exweedfarmer

Which is smarter? Just sticking to making/selling karaoke, while people all over the world create software FOR FREE that helps you sell it, or trying to compete with them and keeping it a closed loop while you blow your money into an industry (software) that you(the karaoke manu) knows nothing about?
-me