Karaoke Forums

Just copied this exchange from my facebook. 4 KJs commenting, names were
changed to protect the identities:

KJ- A
I think i hear cricket's in the Karaoke World.
2 hours ago
KJ-B
Slow?
about an hour ago via mobile
KJ- A
yeap
about an hour ago
KJ-B
I'm down to 1 gig per week...and I'm letting my employee handle that!
about an hour ago via mobile
KJ-B
Thank goodness for the radio gig
about an hour ago via mobile
KJ-C
glut on the market. separates the wheat from the chaff....
about an hour ago
KJ-B
Certainly you're not insinuating just because one's karaoke business is slow that they are the "chaff"...?
about an hour ago via mobile
KJ-D
yeah I have one show a week venues do not want to hire KJ'S some of what I have been told is that they dont want that enviorment
15 minutes ago
KJ-D
Plus the threats of Law Suites to venues are not helping matters
15 minutes ago
KJ-B
In many cases its the "chaff" which causes the legitimate guys to be slow. Venues just don't want to recognize WHY the legal guys have to charge so much more.
5 minutes ago via mobile

Yeah keep it up Sound Choice....

Additionally, I'll point out that 3 of these 4 are SC/Chartbusted CERTIFIED...

Sounds like the chaff is more to blame. Even without SC, taxes and licenses take enough out of each night that anyone legal in more ways than just the library still has to charge more.

OK... I'm lost.... What's the Chaff???

"separate the wheat from the chaff"

equivalent to

"separate the useful from the useless"

-Chris

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-Chris

Too much starch in your shorts.

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Birdofsong

LMFAO...

But I'm still lost on that complete FB conversation.

Chaff is what military planes deploy to decoy incoming missles.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I saw that conversation myself because, like Rick, I am friends with several of the KJs who posted. I just saw it as a little shop-talk amongst KJs.
I don't know how I feel about cut-and-paste of Facebook comments onto a different forum, seems a little odd to me.

Which is why I didn't identify anyone - Jerry, you know what these guys are dealing with in our area, lawsuits have bars spooked to hire anybody for karaoke and the folks that were named in legal action are still out there several nights a week running shows, while these guys, who paid a lot of money to be "certified" run 1 show per week. A couple of named KJs have more shows now than before they were identified.

Makes me feel very good about my choice to dump karaoke as a business plan and start my trivia business. We run 26 trivia shows per week and I have 9 people working for me doing them, no karaoke company I have ever heard of has done that around here, mainly because there's not that many potential bars who want karaoke and the lawsuits have been a barrier to anyone being able to grow their business.

My point in pasting the conversation is to highlight that even with all the legal activity by SC in the Raleigh area, there are still several "certified" hosts with 1 show per week.

well, has anyone from SC stated that this was intended to improve business for US?
has anyone form SC stated this was to get more money for them?
there's your answer.
thanks for posting that, it was interesting to see it is not just AZ that is not benefiting from the suits.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

In this area, we had an explosion in the number of pirates over the past 3-4 years that dried up the available venues. It created a glut of KJs here scrabbling over a limited number of venues and a finite number of singers. The pirate boom screwed the supply-demand curve.
I have not seen the SC lawsuits as being effective in "removing" pirates, nor have I seen them frightening venues out of hiring pirates (only a couple of exceptions I know of).

I think it will take quite some time before a benefit from lawsuits or the fear of them, will show up. Karaoke will suffer, as it is already suffering. If it becomes apparent that illegal will get caught, then the illegal will slowly go away and venues will eventually begin to look for legal KJ's. This could take years and years.
Some good news:
We have had a Saturday gig at one venue for three years... this venue hired a KJ that uses a pirated hard drive for Sundays. The venue owner mentioned that he wanted to do Mondays also. I was nervous that he would hire the 'illegal' guy. This 'illegal' guy charges half of what I charge. Anyway, I had a meeting with the venue owner and explained to him what was going on in the karaoke industry. I offered a 'package' deal to him of Saturdays at the usual price but Sunday and Monday at $50 less each night...To my surprise he said, "Sounds great!", "Illegal guy is outta here!" He's paying us more than he paid the 'illegal'.

Goes to show that if you take the time to really talk to your venues and explain what is happening.... One small business owner to another.... there is the chance we could make more of a difference in this battle than the lawsuits are. Yes, I took a cut in pay... but I got took one gig (possibly two) from a 'bad guy' and the cut wasn't to the bone so-to-speak. One gig at a time.... we can make a difference. Schedule a meeting with venue owners, see if you can't do the same as I did. I hope to have more of those meetings... getting the word out that illegal hard drives are hurting the legitimate small businesses.... can't hurt.

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

wasn't this supposed to be getting our rates HIGHER instead of lower.....again?
you got that gig, not the lawsuits. suits or not you would have gotten that gig because they like you and you are most likely doing a better job that pirate boy. take the credit for what YOU accomplished.
before the lawsuits we had to drop our prices to compete with the illegals, after the lawsuits, we have to drop our prices to compete with the illegals.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

It is hard to understand how you can be celebrating the idea of lowering your prices. You're basically taking a $400 per month cut. I think that's very unfortunate.

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Birdofsong

@Lisah

I guess you have to protect what you have from potentially bad outside influences that could take away your steady stream of karaoke revenue.

Makes perfect sense to me, although i am sorry to hear you seemingly took a hefty pay-cut.

Didn't do the math but it sounds like in order to keep the other 2 days, you gave them an almost-freebie night...??

I may be wrong.

Regardless....

Hoping the Best for you Lisah! -john

Sorry to relay that Bruce posted an opinion, and it fell off the interwebtubes..

Actually if you pay attention you will find that she is making MORE money than she would have because the income she makes from two possible gigs is more than ZERO.

Just as an example, if I normally charge $200 for a karaoke gig and decide to give them a $50 discount for giving two EXTRA gigs that I didn't have before, that would be $600 EXTRA that i wasn't making before.. Even if you subtract the $400 that still comes out to a surplus of $200. I'd be pretty damn happy if that were the case too..

I give a discount if a gig turns to multiple on a sequencial night where I can leave the system set up. If it's multiple nights but have to set up each night then it's full price.

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

I do the same thing. Getting 1-1.5 hours back is worth it.

As for LisaH losing money, I say it is worth a hit in nightly pay to pick up the extra nights (more money overall) and keep a pirate out of the marketplace. I don't see anyone offering any alternate solutions to what she did.

-Chris

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-Chris