Karaoke Forums

Not to get OT here, but I don't have a problem with the fundamentalist principal (although I am Catholic) If we can legalize weed and gay marriage in California, why not plural marriage? To each his own I say.

I've been watching Big Love on HBO. I sort of admire how Bill Henrickson runs his house. I realize not all FLDS marriages are as ideal as his, but the one message I see this show trying to deliver is that we shouldn't damn all FLDS marriages. Sure, there are abuses, but there are stories like the Henrickson show that a FLDS plural marriage is just as capable of creating a loving home for the family as any other form of domestic partnership, be it wed, unwed, or LGBT.

Hey.. I intended the Mrs. Cott thing to be an attempt to inject a degree of levity into the conversation and a play on the way the letters are displayed. Sorry you took offense to it.

Having lived out that way for several years, i've known lots of LDS folks, as well as several RLDS.. nothing against 'em, fine folks.. got along with 'em fine.

Absolutely beautiful part of the country, too. Just not a great place to have a bar.

Well let's round it up to $20 an hour for the sake of argument.

Unless i'm mistaken, your 'facts' are from having a system enclosed in a DJ booth run in a single bar for 22 months.. where.. I might add.. you're on hand to supervise it.

When you put one in a stand alone enclosure that you CAN just drop off in a bar for 6 months unattended and see what kind of revenue it generates then you'll have some facts.. until then, such a systems widespread commercial appeal and revenue potential is nothing more than you own conjecture vs. mine.

Hence why I posted this topic.

Cheese? Do we have a general understanding now? Thanks

If by understanding, you mean you understand that my intent with the Mrs. Cott thing was as a joke, and now that I know you're touchy about that, I apologize, and we can move on with the topic, then yes.

But if by understanding you mean my apology has anything to do with your threat to 'come down to Arizona' well then my feeling is.. don't sing it, bring it, asshat.

You don't take kindly to people making jokes at your expense.. I get that. At 6'2" and 250lbs, i'm not easily intimidated when face to face with a person, let alone by what a person says on an internet message board.

and you are rude

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

No, I mean an "understanding" in the best way. I am grateful for the apology, and accept it whole heatedly. I also apologize to you for making you think that it was a threat. I don't threaten people. I tell them how I feel. And you simply crossed a line that have drawn a very long time ago. The message was sent to get your attention that you DID cross the line, and I WON"T put up with it.

And you now understand why I posted the topic in the first place. Don't you? and hopefully everyone else as well? What works for one person or place, may or may not work for someone else. And both you and I know that. Here in Utah, it's simply a challenge to make things work. A lot of people here don't like change very well. They resist it to long ends sometimes.

I grew up a victim, but no longer will accept being one any longer. So name-calling goes right along with that. I also will stand up for someone else being victimized, and always will. I feel that people should give others respect, personally and professionally, NO EXCEPTIONS. Bruce will disagree with me on this, but I live by the "Golden Rule" --- Treat others as you would have them treat you.

Ok,, so yeah, I think we have a good understanding of each other now. Oh, and by the way, I'd still kick your a$$,,, I'm a bit bigger than you.. and I do a little intimidating sometimes too (even tho I don't mean to) Just kidding about the arse kicking ya know. I truly do not like violence Feel free to give me your thoughts about my situation, not just point fingers. You know what they say, you point one out and there are 3 more pointing right back at you!... Have a good one

[quote="theCheese @ Mon Jan 24, 2011 6:45 pm"]

I don't know of many people even offering Rockband.. let alone charging a dollar a song to play it.

Uh huh.

It lists for $9,599.00. Pretty sure my stuff will cost less.

In this economy, bars are looking for cheaper and cheaper alternatives. Between strong contracts and creative financing(We take 100% for a year to pay off the machine, etc, after that 50% split between bar/me) as long as the bar provides a place for folks to scream to a full set of non pirated SC songs, they'll use it.

I had no idea you were in Utah, or i'd have simply said, "Dude.. move."

But seriously..

As you already know you don't have as many hard partying bar going college kids and 20 somethings in the Industry state.. so the best advice I could offer would.. well.. be what I advise all the other karaoke guys struggling with straight karaoke shows.. try and appeal to a wider audience by opening yourself up to playing popular dance songs between rotations.

Sure, it bugs some of the hard core singers to have to wait what is basically another two or three turns, but seldom does it piss them off bad enough to boycott your show.

What it DOES do is appeal to young women.. it draws more of them in the club, and often after having a few drinks, doing a little dancing, and seeing your regular singers up and singing, they'll be turning in slips for songs to sing of their own.. and they usually come in pairs.

Of course the snowball effect comes into play at this point. With more girls in the club, more men come in because there are girls there.. many of them in turn decide to sing in an attempt to get the girls attention.

It's all about casting as wide a net as possible.

To be completely honest, if I had to rely solely on karaoke, i'd probably have given it up a year or two ago.

I usually wait until a few girls funnel in, and then I slip a dance number in there to let 'em know i'm also playing dance stuff and usually by the end of that song one will come up and say, "Can I request a song?"

A less than $25 investment in iTunes music is all you really need to get started to load up on the stuff the girls like to dance to nowadays.

First of all, our disagreement started with you not reading the original post. You had no idea I wasn't in Utah? serious? Sorry "dude", I have said that many times so far. I guess you only read what you wanted to hear. I am just shaking my head right now in disbelief. This goes for everyone here, don't judge another til you walk in their shoes. And don't jump to conclusions where one doesn't know the facts.

OK, with that said, Cheese, I think you and I actually run similar shows. I already do whatever the crowds needs/wants dictates.. whether it be a little hip hop dance mix here and there, or a country line dance, or straight karaoke..each show has it's own little quirks. How do you eat an apple? There is no wrong way, only the way each of us deals with our own tastes. Or in this case the tastes of our crowds.

The fact still remains tho, that it's harder here to be successful than it is a lot of other places, but not as hard as others. But it's what I am up against. Again, that is why I am changing directions with what I am doing, and karaoke may or may not fit in with it. The economy wins. I give up.

Are there arcades near you Scott?

Maybe if you changed the presentation, you could generate karaoke business that way. I wouldn't stop at arcades either, offer systems up for amusement parks, Indian Casinos, Pizza parlors.

For starters, there are some significant differences between a GuitarHero coinop game and what you're proposing.

If you went into full commercial production with NEW parts, cabinet, licensed library (with monthly current updates you can't get from SoundChoice) and had to include amp and mixing hardware in the unit, plus speakers, you'd be well into the $8,299 price tag, too.

Your own data shows almost maximum revenue potential of $20 per hour, and that's if the machine is in non stop use.. not the most likely of scenarios.

Your own testbed, a dedicated karaoke bar is only running the equipment 4 days a week. Why? Because they make too much money and can't count it fast enough, so they need three days off?

You mention 'float' cash.. well that only comes into play if people are getting cards. Who's printing those up? Is that process fully automated as well?

You put this all into a box like the Guitar Hero coin op that someone can just roll into a corner, plug into the wall, and start earning $20 an hour with, well then you might have something.. but then you still have to resolve the timing issues, avoid jukebox conflicts, what if a guy is in the bathroom and his song starts without him?

It's a system that can really only work well in a dedicated, controlled environment.. like your test installation.. and on top of that.. it appeals to a very narrow percentage of an already niche market.

Besides.. what does this SoundChoice license cost? % of each song? Flat monthly or annual license to their entire catalog?

Oh, and as I mentioned before.. numerous karaoke vending machines exist, and have existed for some time.

The Acesonic JB-1200 KOD-800 Jukebox a 500 Watt System with a Bill Collector, that also allows the user to set the music to vocals mix themselves, retails for $3,699.

And that's a system you can literally wheel into a corner, plug in, and start running.

Arcades are a thing of the past here... almost non existent now. There are no Tribal Reservation Casinos here at all. In fact, we don't even have a lottery. Some larger restaurants are starting to offer karaoke on a limited basis, but they only will pay around 75 bucks at most, if lucky. Karaoke is a losing battle here. I'm really not surprised, or really truly upset. In fact, I feel good about what "I" do, but there just isn't enough venues around anymore to support me and my family for doing it full time. Again, economy is bad. I don't have a day job right now, got laid off in July. (might get called back, in a couple months tho) Moving away would be like cutting my right arm off, this is my home. So, we do what we have to do to survive.

To let you know exactly what some of the things I have done recently to find shows.. I drove 125 miles away, to a town of 35,000 people, 10 bars, 6 different karaoke shows,, and heard one of them was looking for a host. But they were only willing to pay 50 bucks,,,, I mean,,, c'mon!! I would spend over 60 in gas alone!! My closest show is 50 miles away, one way. I charge them 100 bucks because they are a very small bar. The other 2 shows, I get 150 for.. one is 79 miles one way, the other is 98 miles one way.. Hard to be profitable with that, right? Even if a bar was close, it would be only mildly profitable. That's what I deal with living in small town Utah,, 50 miles from a real town with any population base at all. But, this is my choice. Like I said, economy wins, I give up.

Have you looked into weddings, parties, that sort of thing?

Those are generally the bread and butter gigs where you can command much higher rates. I think the most i've ever made in a bar a night was $250 for a 4 hour show.

But I can't even imagine driving 50+ miles one way to do a gig.. but it's better than no gig, I suppose.

It doesn't matter really where you live, the majority of bar owners are cheap. The more $50 hosts with $400 harddrives, the harder it will be for real legit professionals. Those who have been at it a long time and are good should be able to weather out the economic storm, which shall pass, but for new legt hosts just coming in it will be a tough battle.

Like em or lump em, the suits that SC and others are bringing will shake things up and from appearances some illegals are going the way of the dodo bird. So at this time we shall need a bit of patience.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Thats where I am,, I've only been doing this for about 6 years, and the distance is the greatest factor. Piracy isn't running rampant around here,, simply because there isn't many bars/clubs.. THAT is the issue. Top that with bad economy, not a good combo.

Weddings around here won't pay for music very often. They call in a favor of a friend's friend, or something like that. When I am asked about one, and I tell them what it actually costs, they simply freak out, and say something like "Can't I just play some discs on a boom box?",,, and I tell them, "Yes, you can certainly do just that, but you get what you pay for"... They then call their Uncle Bob's son who does mixing in his basement and get him to do it for free.... Yep, they get what they pay for. I live in a very rural area, no accommodations to speak of for weddings. They are usually done in a church cultural hall, or in front of a justice of the peace... Some nicer weddings book what few reception centers there are (which is almost none BTW). Private parties are very far and few in-between and simply won't pay for any entertainment... except Christmas parties..

Karaoke simply isn't a big thing here outside the bar scene. And the bar scene isn't very good now either.

YES because they're both in their 80s. The bar is only open 5 days a week, and they've owned it since 1985, so all business loans were paid off long ago (they actually bought it with some Mitshubishi stock the wife owned). Tuesday night they have a Japanese KJ come in, and cater to all their friends that are about the same age. At this point, the bar is just gravy money to them, they don't want or need more.



I'll print those up as a convenience to them (hot lam cards are cheap to make, and they're what we use now) I know they'll need around 600 cards the first month, and about 300@mo after that. If they want fancier I can always outsource it (and make a little markup) using a professional card printing company.



Same we we have it resolved right now. The entire playlist is availiable to everyone, at anytime. Be it a projector like we have at 7 Bamboo, or a 1080p TV mounted portrait.



I wouldn't call karaoke niche at all. I once mapped out the rise of karaoke venues listed in our local paper, the number of shows has increased dramatically since 2002 (when american idol came out) unfortunately nobody paid for the music.There's things we're going to do, things we have on the burner that I just can't talk about now, but it's going to change everything.



Right now they're working with us to see if we can produce 7b's numbers. We haven't even gotten into per-song or flat monthly yet. We're putting forward hardware, expertise, and installation, they're putting forth content. We do have to pay for it at some point, but they're being really lenient for this test.



True that, which is why we're not doing that at our first install outside of our "test kitchen" as you put it. We've already qualified several venues that have REAL BOUNCERS and have their own in house sound systems.

When we do get to that point though, we'll have more than enough justification for taking the take for 2 years.



Our karaoke hours on the system are 9pm-1:30am Wednesday-Thursday then 9pm to 1:45am Friday/Saturday.

So 4.5 + 4.5 + 4.75 + 4.75 is how many hours we run the system a week. That's 18.75 hours a week, hardly what I'd call non-stop use.