Karaoke Forums

Since the economy is now SUPPOSED to be "TURNING THE CORNER", whats the aftermath of the wreckage of lost gigs, venues closing, karaoke disappering, etc, etc, etc. around different regions??

Here in Portland(not counting Vancouver, Wa as I dont go up there that much), I can think of AT LEAST A DOZEN(probably many more) bars or Karaoke places of different sorts that have either discontinued Karaoke, put it on hold, or simply went out of business and disappeared off the face of the earth all within the course of the last 9-12 months.

What has everyone else observed in their areas, regions in general???

For example the entertainment/karaoke mag I write for and deliver papers---2 years ago I got 7 1/2 bundles to deliver (1 bundle=100 papers, each place gets 20 papers per stop). Now due to closures , business failures, etc, I'm down to 4 1/2 bundles. Thats about 22 places no longer there(closures/failures/dicontinuance of all forms of entertainment) that I no longer deliver papers to. And this is ONLY in my SW PORTLAND AREA ROUTE. I have to beleive its the same way in all the other areas also.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

No big cuts in the entertainment here in Athens Georgia in terms of bars or karaoke.

As far as I know the price for gigs is at rock bottom here and would probably shock most other KJs.

The only bar I know of that closed in the last 12 months was due to a (major) fire and is being rebuilt. A couple changed names/owners, and that is out of about 25 venues that I know about. Our local economy bar economy is largely based on a supply of college students, so the downturn has not impacted local industry too much.

I don't know too much on the average nightly sales except for one bar, and I appears to be doing as well as 3-4 years ago.

In our area of SE Texas (just North of Houston) we are experiemcing steady growth and crowds. I know of no loss in shows or any new shows as there are many shows to select from (12 - 17). But our local economy rarely is affected by the national economic ups or downs. The show that I usually support has large turn outs. We do Karaoke 4 nights a week, Wed-Sat and the crowds just keep on growing. We recently put in a second bar to handled the ever growing crowds especially on Fris and Sats.

We are an upscale liquor bar and the high unemployment across the country has had little of no effect on us or the local club scene. I'm the photgrapher for our club (and for sveral others as well) and that has been a big hit and crowd pleaser for us. The members/customers get up the next day to see themselves posted on my web site.

I cover (sort of) 2 different areas. One, the rural area of which I live. This area has a limited number of bars, and all of them have seen significant cuts in sales. But none have changed formats or gone out of business. Now, the second area, I wish is was that good. It's the Salt Lake City area, and I have seen several bars close down or change ways of doing business. Most that have closed are due to their own decisions. But a couple have closed simply because of the lack of support and sales. Others still have changed owners who changed formats. As far as the karaoke shows being affected, usually in the places that have closed down has karaoke gone away. Karaoke for the most part is alive and well, but hasn't "grown" since the economy has downturned.

Didn't the smoking laws change recently in Oregon? I would think that in Portland the smoking thing is probably as much a factor as the economy. I know it made a huge difference in our area, and that was before the economy went south.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The no smoking in bars ban has really effected turn out around here for the most part

This is pretty much anecdotal and not a scientific survey but in our area a few places that expressed interest to us when we first started a year ago are still "holding off." One tried DJ instead but it didn't work out so they still have nothing. The casino near us switched karaoke to week nights and brought in a DJ for weekends. The one across the street from it that had karoke closed it's doors. We lost one potential gig to being undercut--I thought she was doing it for $75 but now hear it is $35--don't know for sure.

Our friends have had a show at the same place for over a decade. This year, the owner started bringing in a band once a month and now may cut karaoke down to Fridays or every other week--which won't help to keep the karaoke crowd. Another person we are acquainted with walked in to do her show two weeks ago and found the place had been sold and they told her they didn't need her anymore. She had to have the Sheriff do a Stand-by so she could get her equipment.

Our experience with the live band thing is it did beat us once when we were first starting out. But since we have been there awhile, later attempts to boost the till with a band didn't bring in as much as we do. We had started to equal the more established Friday show's till but this month both shows are down. We get people but they aren't spending. We thought we had quite the party crowd two weeks ago but later found out they went through 7 pots of coffee and the till was only $300.00. This is probably more of a holiday and weather sort of thing. We have been under a freeze for weeks and no one has pipes left.

Sounds grim but I really think karaoke has the most potential of all to survive if the bar owner gets on board. Costs less than a band and you build comraderie that makes people want to show up and get their friend fix every week. But it's a struggle, sometimes.

Just in terms of Unemployment rate, Portland and Oregon in general hit one of highest unemployment rates at upwards of 12%. Thats started to reduce a bit of late but still up there with the highest. We really got CREAMED out here.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

My observation is not much has changed. I think we all saw lower crowds here and there because of the economy, but I don't know of any of my KJ friends losing their permanent gigs.

As far as bar closings - nothing out of the ordinary there. Some bars are seeing a big hit by the economy, but are hanging on. I think the worst is still to come. My girlfriend who owns a bar is hanging on by a thread and considering selling. I think that is what's going to happen to most of the struggling bars. They will simply sell them. Of course this is all from my own interpretations.

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

If I condsider over the last 3 years, it looks like a net loss of 3 places I used to sing at:

El Tapatio in Skyway
The Room in Skyway
The All City Diner (most recently called Touchdowns) in Renton

I also sang a couple times at the Denny's in Renton which also closed. I think they only had karaoke for a few months.

El Tapatio, a Mexican restaurant, was my favorite place to sing. It was a small place with a great song selection and nice people.

Here is an article on the restaurant scene in Renton: http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/ ... 40257.html

As I read this thread, I'm thankful I live in a big BIG market. (Tempe / Scottsdale / Phoenix) I've driven as far a Florence for a regular gig. The downward turn in the economy seems to be having a negative impact on bars/clubs in general, but seems to be increasing the karaoke scene as it's (comparatively for bar owners) cheap entertainment. Giligin's originally hired me for just one night a week after getting rid of a more traditional karaoke show a year before due to loss of interest. Now I'm up to four nights a week, plus they often bring me in for special events too. Even in a bad economy, karaoke is a comparatively inexpensive night out for a group of friends, especially if the bar is competitive with their drink specials.

I was hosting in Tempe when Tempe had smoking bar bans and Arizona statewide didn't, and that made it harder to compete in Tempe unless the bar had a nice patio, especially if you were near the Tempe border. I was working bars in Tempe and Phoenix when the AZ statewide smoking ban took effect, and there was a big attendance drop in Phoenix, but the Tempe bars got busier; no reason to leave Tempe and the Tempe bars already had smoking patios in place. Within a year it evened out and bars outside of Tempe got smoking patios in place and smokers got sick of sitting at home whining about the smoking bans. My former competition in Florence, The Riverbottom, made thier patio huge, placed a bar in it, and that's where their karaoke is!

Anyway, here in Arizona anyway, I've seen the smoking bans have a much greater impact on the karaoke scene than the economy. What bars pay KJs seems to be at an all-time low here, though. leopard lizard stated someone in her market is doing it for $35! OUCH!!! I recently turned down an offer for Fridays at a bar in Tempe for $45 a night, and they said that's what they were paying the guy before me.

34-45$ YOWWZ!! Thats WORSE than PORTLAND!!

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT