Karaoke Forums

Recently, my business partner and I had a discussion about the economy. We reflected on how lucky we have been. Since the start of this recession, we have grown our business from doing 1 bar every other friday, to have gigs 4-5 nights a week at 8 different places. (4 gigs are regularly set, others are kinda thrown in on as needed basis). We feel like we have done pretty well delivering high quality karaoke in down times, and met a lot of great people along the way.

However, in our discussion, we hkinda broke down each of our venues. We have ONE place that books two nights a week (Tues and Thurs). Her business overall is not doing well on nights that she doesn't have karaoke. And on slow karaoke nights, it really kills her mood because its so poor. So poor that on bad nights we either have to 'cut a deal' or take less than agreed upon pay. (Now, before you comment...I understand what some of you are thinking.....) I'm ok with cutting these deals....I've known the bar owner for years, and this is not my primary source of income....So, I have no problem with that. In my conversation with my partner, we kinda speculated that this would be the first venue we would 'lose' to the economy.

But, this morning, I got a shocking surprise that totally blew that speculation. I got woke up this morning by text messages from two of my buddies who frequent one of the bars that has us on a non-regular basis. The place was burning down, and fire departments from 5 counties were called in to assist with the blazes. Hmmm..........we heard a recent story LAST WEEKEND, about another venue in the area (not one that hosted karaoke, but apparently had a sweet vine into the hiphop industry...hosted many topnotch R&B, hiphop acts......but same story. This was a 71 year old venue that hosted the Glenn Miller orchestra in the 40's, Ike and Tina Turner in the 50's and 60's, Count Bassie (?sp), apparently a little known group called Aerosmith when they were starting out.....lot of history, but poof...gone. Local speculation of course was that the management who had this hiphop thing going was way behind on their lease........

Are you guys seeing any of this in your areas? I'm in central Illinois....and it's just another reminder of how scary this economy thing has gotten. I would like to believe these are just isolated incidents. I mean with THe Hub, the building was only 80 years old...so I kinda thought..well.....maybe it was faulty wiring, or something. But with the venue from today.....BRAND NEW construction in 2002 or 2003. Oh well, I'm glad no one got physically hurt, and that we didn't store any equipment there. Just kinda feel for the people who worked there.......they are gonna be out of a job for a while it seems..

Hope all is well.....and that you would share your stories if you have similar ones.

Have a great week.

I know a guy that's lost a couple gigs. Hard to say if it's due to the ecomony or just some of the normal karaoke musical chairs that sometimes goes on...

There was a big fire in downtown Renton about a week ago that took down part of an early 1900's building. I think the cause was due to an overheated outlet. Old buildings don't have to meet the same fire standards (at least in Renton) as new buildings.

Renton Reporter article: http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/ ... 14197.html

Hmmm...in same newspaper, the next Jackson 5? That's what we need! More karaoke songs! : http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/ ... 07692.html

I thought I was doing fine even though the economy was bad. Then whammo about 3 weeks ago things got slow. My Fridays which are always packed are even slower. Saturday I barely had 20 singers all night.

I'm not worried yet. My regulars are still coming just not as often and it is usually slower this time of yr. But not quite this slow.

I actually offered to the owner that I cut back and maybe do every other Saturday for a while. He didn't like that idea at all. I think he is still doing enough in the till, so he isn't worried. It's just troublesome to me to see such a drastic drop 3 nights a week.

I usually have a lull the beginning of the summer and than by the time school starts in August the crowds build themselves back up again. So hopefully I'll see things back to normal by the end of the year.

_________________
[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I've definitely seen some sporatic weeks down here. I do 5 gigs a week and this week they were all relatively slow. Last week was just the opposite. I can't figure it out. We also have many local businesses shutting their doors due to economic conditions.
The only gig I'm really concerned with is our Monday night venue. It's at an Italian Restaurant and I dont know if they can survive this summer. It gets pretty slow down here during the summer months. We'll keep providing the entertainment and see what happens. Good luck to everyone else.

It's been a long time since there's been a suspicious bar fire in the area. The last one was several years ago. Not a karaoke venue. Just a tavern in financial difficulties.

My home room hasn't suffered from the downturn in the economy at all. It seems that my group will sacrifice things like cable (and just watch TV on the internet) rather than their going out money. Some are rooming more together or even moving back home. But they still go out.

Babs I'm sure your room is a lot like mine. We go up and down over and over. Like waves on the ocean. We're on a crest right now but surely things will slow back down later this summer of early fall. Just like they always do. My owner understands that and it sounds like yours does too. The important thing about a long running show is if keep it consistent, things eventually pick back up. Hang in there!

Thanks Bill

I was talking to some of my KJ friends in the area and I guess it's happening all over. My buddy down the street said he had no one show up for karaoke Saturday.

He thought it was weather related. Our summer weather has taken a long time to get here and when it came, it came all at once.

_________________
[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

We've had a few bars go under - economy, smoking ban (the bars that were struggling to begin with blame this). But only 1 bar that has burned down (locals know as the Fabulous Firwood - later joked as the Fabulous FIREwood) that was kind of suspicious - not really a karaoke bar, but was a historical staple for quite a while. The suspicious thing about it was that they had a huge lighting rig & very large sound system consisting of 4 dual 18" subs per side & 4 dual 12" cabs per side plus all stage monitors - none of the remnants of the speakers or lighting rig was in the remains of the ashes.

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

Nothing in se Iowa.

_________________
KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Haven't had any buildings go up near our venue as there aren't that many to begin with. The restaurant where we tried to get a gig but they went DJ instead and then bartender run karaoke has cut their hours. In the town where I have my day job 2 buildings owned by the same person went up--not karaoke bars or taverns, however.

We are having the same thing happen where we have a crowd and think we are on our way and then the next week nothing. So we figure they didn't come back because they didn't like us and then the next week we have a record night. It has been going up and down like that for months. Can't figure it out. However one fellow said he can't afford to get drunk any more.