Karaoke Forums

Though our fees have certainly dropped since the good old days of $350-$425 a night, apparently bands fees seem to be in the same boat in my area.

While their total cost to the venue is higher than mine, the pay per band member is WAY lower. I'm seeing 4-5 person bands playing for $250-$350 per night these days. Not the premium bands, but the average bar band. However, even the top bands are under $600, making per member pay still way less than mine.

We know what the KJ problems are, but does anyone know what's knocking the bands down?

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

I think I know...

Bands used to be the only act in town. And not just the only act, the only way you could hear live music. Furthermore, the live music was (a lot of the times) what was hot on the radio. Today, you have karaoke as well. Karaoke not only takes away customers because many of those same customer are singers. But also, because people are intrigued by bad singers (despite whether they admit it or realize it themselves). This is much like American Idol, early in any given season.

Most importantly, the reason why most bands don't command the money that used to be commanded in and prior to the 21st century is because the music that bands usually and are able to play isn't popular anymore - hasn't been in a long time. People thought I was crazy back in the mid-2000's when I said that rock was a dead genre, but look at it now. Pretty much, if you're not Kid Rock or Nickelback, you aint selling rock albums or songs these days. It's all either "digitized pop" or country, which now includes the likes of Kid Rock, Darius Rucker (Hootie & The Blowfish) and Aaron Lewis (StainD).

We do have a local group here that does actually sing that "digitized pop" - and they have all the equipment & expertise to pull it off (i.e. auto-tuner). They do quite well. Every other band at every other bar I work at or am rather familiar with - not so much.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

This same thing is and will continue to negatively influence/impact karaoke.

Try singing "Starships" or "Where Have You Been" or any of the other music on KISS FM. (For those outside of the US airwaves, KISS FM is a nationally syndicated FM radio station brand that literally has a 75 minute speed rotation on POP music. Take a 3 hour cruise around town and you will hear "Call Me Maybe", "Glad You Came", "Where Have You Been" at least 3 times and maybe even 5 times in that 3 hours)

I will conservatively say that 50% or more of the music is just not karaoke type material or is completely unsingable.

-Chris

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-Chris

In hit radio today, even 75 minutes can be slow. I have seen rotations of less than an hour when a song is peaking.

Funny the Kiss FM where I'm at doesn't do POP. It plays mainstream ROCK!

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I like everyone when I first meet them. If you don't like me that's not my problem it's YOURS!
A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet

When I used to go see bands it was at huge clubs that could sustain a good band. Then every bar on the corner had to have a band and they weren't so good and not someone you would go back to see each week--sort of the same way karaoke got diluted out. There don't seem to be as many large clubs as there used to be.

We have a long time band member who comes to our karaoke and for the longest time he blamed karaoke for the demise of bands. But lately he has said that the drunk driving laws made a big hit in bar attendance plus disco/DJs also cut into the places available for bands. Alot of the larger clubs are into the electronic/rave thing. His band is playing large places but still not getting much per member when it all shakes out. But he does say he has found karaoke to be a good way to try out new songs to see if he wants to take them back to his band to learn. With the economy we all seem to be in the same boat.

Edit: Was just thinking how much the music business has changed in general. At those same large nightclubs where I used to go dance to "good" local bands, they would also regularly feature special guest bands--some I saw in that "small" setting--Hank Williams, Jr., Merle Haggard, Johnny Rodrigues, Freddy Fender--even would see the likes of Sha Na Na and Dolly Parton in school gyms--just a different era, I think.

Excellent point, and may well be why 21 year olds are singing stuff that wasn't written or performed in their lifetimes. I've got babies doing Mac The Knife, for cripe's sake!

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."