Kurt -
I know exactly who you are referring to when you say "The Cavs Unit Guy" interesting to note that at one time this person was a major contributing factor to the karaoke entertainment industry here in Portland for years. Now I believe that this person is inflicting damage to that very industry.
This type of marketing will eventually run its course and fail. These systems that are being sold are Super CDG units the song selection is broad but most of the manufacturers are of inferior quality. The bar owners are not going to keep the books up when they get wet or damaged, they will be reluctant to replace discs when they get scratched and wipe out 300 songs.
Plus what kind of show will the KJ making $50 a night (probably less because the CAV's guy is getting his cut) produce? The way I figure is that reliablilty, work ethic, and customer skills of a person willing to work for this wage will eventually make the venue fail.
The more seasoned singers will gravitate to places where professsional KJ's are playing. The bar owners will tire of dealing with substandard KJ's and the high maintenance that comes along with it. Eventually the pendulum will swing back the other way.
If a quality KJ is replaced by one of these systems I would be suprised....but if they were, it would not take long for the owner of a bar to recognize that all of the KJ's following has gone with the KJ. Now he has to build karaoke clientel of his own. We all know how difficult this is to do...it takes years to build an excellent following and that is the part they don't understand, but they will get an excellent education on the subject once they choose the "do it yourself kit that the CAV's Guy" is offering.
As for the market demand for KJ's here in Portland....I have not had any difficulty in finding bar gigs here and getting the rates I need to remain profitable. Most have come from referrals from my base of satisfied customers and a few have come from local KJ referrals. I have been operating for 8 years on this premise and have not gone out and did any face to face marketing to get my gigs. Interesting to note that almost every one of my new gigs over the past 8 years have come from bars that have never tried karaoke before, and most of them have lasted for 2-3 years or more. It's a untapped market that most of the cut-throat KJ's would never think of approaching. I use to advertise in the local entertainment paper as it was a great way to bring in new customers to my venues. About 2 years ago I stopped my advertisiments beacause the customer draw diminished and the "Gig Stealers" began to appear and since stopping those ads they have gone away.
One of the Streets that I have a gig on here in Portland has 54 bars and restaurants in about 32 blocks. About 1/2 of them all have potential for karaoke or DJ services. You will never see a "Gig Stealer" hit those bars up for their services. It is much easier for them to go to the one gig that IS on that street and try to steal that one. Several have approached me about doing shows for them and I have referred them to other KJ's due to my schedule being full.
Portland is growing by leaps and bounds. There are 20% more bars than there were last year at this time. Ownership with the other established bars changes at about 10-15% per year. Mr Gig Stealer will never know about them because he or she is too lazy to go out and earn new business themselves.
There was an excellent comment made in this thread about the TV repair shops all banding together and by sharing information on what they were charging etc. The rates for their services stabilized and actually went up. Convention services businesses did this here in the city about 6 years ago and room rates, fees etc. shot through the roof a couple of years later.
I'm interested in starting up an Association of KJ's here in Portland that would do just that...share info and be a support base for ideas of how to generate more business, stabilize rates, Refer each other etc. This would be one good way to make it more difficult for "mr gig stealer" to operate in this town. I know it has worked in other parts of the country for KJ's and DJ's why not here!
What do you think guys ....wanna give it a try?
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