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JUST WONDERING WHAT YOU OTHER KJ'S USE THE MOST DURING A CONTEST. JUDGES OR CROWD APPLAUSE TO DECIDE A WINNER?

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ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!

Judges - preferably with some kind of musical interest in all genres & that does not frequent the club that is holding the contest. If it's a serious contest, for a finals we will try to get local musicians/local radio dj's/anyone that may have musical knowledge (that doesn't frequent the club).

NEVER judge a contest solely on audience response (I don't even use it as a judging catagory anymore). It turns into a "Who brought the most people" contest. While ok for a bar for an evening, bad for the reputation of you & the contests ran by you & held in the bar.

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

Just say NO to contests. Unless its a make or break the gig kinda thing.

Contests are a great revenue generator for your venue but do require extra work on your part to ensure everything is run above board and honestly. I am starting a contest tomorrow where I am having judges and audience voting. It's to raise money for a charity so the loonie a vote deal is strictly to generate cash for the charity. It is only going to count for 25% of the vote and the judges for 75% of the vote. Not using local judges is a good idea, you don't want favoritism. Ultimately, however the contest goes, it reflects back to you and your business as to the success or failure of the event even though you may only be doing the KJ part. It's your name attached to it so be sure everything is legit. If you don't, it could come back and bite you in the butt!

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"Where You Are The Star!"

I used a scoring system this past week that worked out nicely. I call it a weighted system:

Vocal ability 1-20 (1 worst/20 best)
Stage Presence- 1-10 (Knowledge of song, standing still or moving, & reading words or not)
Audience Reaction 1-5 (1 crickets/ 5 Standing ovation)

I felt this worked out very fairly for everyone.

Of course the guy that came in 2nd by 2 points disagreed.....

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Let's Kick the Tires and Light the Fires!

the thing I hate about contests:

You have a winner... and the rest are losers.

NOBODY likes that. and for a karaoke field, it's extremely personal.

Then when you have different types of song TYPES... you run into personal bias on the part of judging!

My rule is... NO contests! I do though, give random prizes out sometimes!

There are always 2 main rules in contests that some contestants seem to forget.

Rule #1 - Somebody will win
Rule #2 - Somebody will lose.

If you get into a contest with the attitude that's it's just for fun regardless of who wins or loses, you'll have a lot more fun. If you go in thinking your chit don't stink & everyone else shouldn't even bother is when you have problems. I am in a club that has to run contests & sure I get the whiny players that think they should win or call foul, but guess what? They always come back when we have a new one. These are the "PRO" contest hoppers, doesn't matter, they like the abuse & sometimes they do win as well.

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

Although I've thought about it many times ..never ran a contest myself and would like to this summer. But impartial judges are the ONLY way to run a "JUDGED" contest. The other way is just a random drawing which some people like..More of a lottery . And yes someone wins and someone doesn't (sounds better thans loses !!!) Every one who enters should win something ... $1.99 CDGS ? $1 giveaways Keychains or something ...Its good advertisement! Good luck

I agree that everyone should win something. You'd be surprised how some may think it a bigger insult to recieve a small token prize & sometimes will leave it on the table when they leave. Most are cool with it though.

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

At our Thursday night venue (a sports bar that usually has a crowd 150 or so all night long), the management insisted that a contest be run promptly at 10:00 for 6 weeks. Each weekly winner receives a $25 gift certificate for the bar, and on week 7 the weekly winners compete for a 3 day / 2 night trip for two to Las Vegas (airfare and hotel).

We have to BEG people to enter this contest......they don't seem to be interested at all! We have a nightly rotation of 30 to 35 singers, and some of them are really good! The contest has run for 3 weeks now, and we have yet to have more that 8 contestants per night.

The bar management has the opinion that the contest is really drawin' them in. They want to start another contest right away when this one ends. The truth is, people in that bar just want to sing for the fun of it. It is a real party atmosphere there, and it seems the contest just kinda gets in the way.

The judging is done by judges who are unknown to anyone in the bar. It has been as fair as possible so far, IMHO, as the weekly winners have been the ones that were the best on that particular night in the opinion of everyone, including the other contestants.

Proof positive, I'd say, that contests are not effective everywhere for drawing crowds to a venue. A bar crowd wants cold drinks, a high-energy show, a solid song selection and a killer sound system. We have that. Breaking the rhythm of the show to run a contest is NOT what these customers want, evidently. I personally wish that contests would go away forever.

Also it's partly because nobody cares about gift certificates. If he had some REAL money at stake ($100 or more) then he would see the draw. We just got done with a $1,000 contest & had a maximum of 20 people entering (with the most being 35 - which is why we finally capped it at 20). This was a 6 week contest & the place was standing room only every Monday. True it has leveled out now, but we did gain new customers out of it that have become regulars.
We got another 13 week contest coming up with a $1,000 prize & be the opening act for a National rock act.

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

I'd have to agree Lon in order for a contest to DRAW people in it has to be worthwhile as far as prizes go $100 good..$1,000 WOW ....
I think a little advertising is needed to reach out to people who would love to enter a contest THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE THAT LOOK FOR CONTESTS ...(Pro Singers !) I'm sure every contest has them ...
How do you combat the people who see a contest advertised and stop in to sign up and they spend ZERO dollars at the venue ..They sit there all night long just to see if they can win money ...

Charge an entry fee! For our big ones we charge $5 to enter. People come back week after week & pay it. We had a finals that the bar actually charged a $2.00 cover charge for people NOT in the finals - again standing room only. It was almost like they were paying to see a nice showcase of great singers, applause for each singer was AWESOME!!

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

Thanks for all your input. i used judges ( again), & it worked well for the most part, you always here some _itching & so what, but with 13 good singers, that will happen. I have heard of some kj's using the contestants as judges ( throwing out each contestants own judge card as you get to their name(so they can't influence a high score for themselves), and acutally only having 12 judges in an 13 person event. Has anyone else ever used this method?

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ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!

Not a big fan of contests to begin with, but I've seen where they have benefited some shows and bar business. Using judges or contestants seems better to me than the general audience. Other considerations to basic singing talent, such as presentation, are also possibly plusses. Definitely don't want the KJ to judge either - good way to p*ss your singers off!

Last week's American Idol was interesting - chastising the viewers to vote on talent after one of the show's "Divas" was dropped - well, AI set themselves up for it - they've got to fend off it being a popularity contest now.

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Sounds Great! Entertainment
Bartlett, Illinois

I have done contests where the judges are the contestants themselves.

Each contestant receives a judging sheet with columns for all contestants. Everyone then gives themselves the maximum points in each category, and then rates the other singers accordingly. It turns out to be a pretty fair method of judging.

If the venue that I am doing a show at insists on a contest at the last minute, I make sure that they provide the judging. I DO NOT get involved in judging in any form.

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OUTLOUD Karaoke, where everyone is a star.

I hate doing contests.

Period.

me too!