Karaoke Forums

I'm picking up bits and pieces around here. Manufacturers going out of business, other forums shutting down, more and more of you combining karaoke with DJ.

I'm kinda new at this but at least in my little area there's more karaoke than ever. My home room seems to be normal in spite of the money crunch.

Personally I've always thought that I wouldn't be doing KJ long term, but just ride it as long as we're good. When this job ends (and they always do sometime) I know I'll get a little sad, but I'll try not to cry about it too much and approach it like my music jobs... well we had a good run...

What do you guys think? Are your rooms holding up? What about karaoke in general? Does the fact that overall there are fewer pure karaoke rooms (I guess?) and fewer manufacturers (seems to be true) a sign?

In the UK - I have seen karaoke move, rather than decline.

It seems to be moving out towards the local pubs rather than the city central areas.

I'm kinda new at this too.  BUT, it was my belief when I got into the business that karaoke (as we once knew it) is definitely in decline.  Florida was once vibrant with karaoke, it no longer is.

I just lost my Sunday gig and in looking for a replacement, I ran into the following
  - one place paying $125 for four hours
  - one place paying $150 for five hours

I think these are the biggest factors for the decline:
  - it's no longer something new
  - many people have home karaoke machines and/or can play CD+G discs on their computers
  - many people have "magic mics"
  - many people download and sing karaoke on their computers
  - many people sing on-line

As a host I have to be ready to do whatever it takes to entertain and to keep a crowd coming.  I believe I can do that by promoting karaoke as the core attraction! And IMHO, the reaction I've gotten to my show is very positive and tells me that I am on the right track!

I've only been karaoke-singing for about 2 1/2 years, so it better not decline, at least not too much!  When karaoke first became popular, I didn't have the nerve to get up and sing by myself in front of people.  Now I do, and I love it!

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I'm wondering if there's another possibility. That karaoke singers who were once gung-ho are just tired of it.

Does anyone think that the number of karaoke singers is less now than a few years ago?

I wouldn't say there are less per se, but they don't necessarily go out of there way for a specific club/kj anymore like they used to.
When I started it was almost standing room only on a nightly basis - didn't matter what night, the rotation was rediculously long with 50-70 - one song if you were lucky, this was back in 92-94, then more & more clubs started popping up & people started going closer to home & to other clubs that had smaller rotations, same amount of singers, just spread out over larger areas.  It actually helped out a bit at the time.
If anything i'd say there are more singers than ever, but now with oversaturation of clubs, they will never gather like they once used to.

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I don't know if saying karaoke lacks newness for many people isn't the same as saying there are less "gung-ho" singers?

Maybe we should settle on the words "fewer enthusiastic singers"? I surely don't go out singing anywhere near what I used to!  At one point I was out 2-3 times a week.  I don't get out that frequently now in a month's time.   Usually, I don't go to karaoke but once a month, if at all!

Lonnie is right - at least in this area, and I believe the NW is probably more 'karaoke saturated' than most regions in the country.

I'm going to suggest here that the cost of living has DEFINITELY had an impact in our area. With gasoline approaching $4/gal, rather than drive any distance people are opting to stay home.  In describing this area, you might say it is a group of communities along the I-5 corridor within 30 miles of Seattle - each neighborhood (more like towns really) has its selection of clubs. The quality of the shows, compared to the big boom time of '92-'94, has fallen terribly. I hate to say this, but with popularity came the rush by wanna-be's to throw shows together ... and that trend has continued to now. Sadly there are companies that have gone from room to room, convinced owners to bring them, they last a few months, and move on to the next one...over and over. What ends up happening is a lot of places end up with a bad taste in their mouth and decide NOT to do karaoke anymore because people lost interest in attending a dog and pony show instead of a great karaoke show.

A lot of places that used to be just hopping in the '90s have stopped providing karaoke; a lot of the good hosting companies have gone out of business (a lot of them burned out).

I think probably the smoking ban has had some effect, though at the real popular places, the die-hards will just go outside several times a night, but they still show up to sing.

Rather than declining, I think what is happening is the attendance at the places providing high quality shows are surviving; the places that opted to bring in 'fly-by-night' companies, pay less, and get sold a bill of goods, are starting to fade by the wayside.

I have found that there are still TONS of people who are now just starting to sing. Seems like every week I talk with someone at one of our shows who has only been singing for six months...or a year....or sang in high school or college, or in their school jazz choir...and didn't realize how enjoyable karaoke could be.  These 'serious singers' gravitate toward the higher quality shows as it is SINGING that they want to do, not get drunk and act stupid.

This could possibly be a time of transition for karaoke. The wheat will be separated from the chaff and in the end, the good shows survive and the cheapskate owners who want something for nothing get nothing in the end.

As far as mixing DJ and karaoke, that really only happens with the private parties we do - we always offer karaoke as an extension of the DJ'ing and probably 50% of the people opt for it ... maybe they don't even do it, but they always consider it a bonus when I offer it to them.  

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Karaoke died in this area. People got tired of the same drunks singing the same few songs over and over. If you are in an area where you have 30 singers in a bar then stay with whatever works. As a singer I would not come to your show for I no longer like that atmosphere. I prefer a place where I can socialize and find a part of the bar where the music isnt breaking my ear drums. Dont attribute this to old age, most young people feel the same. Pirates or small operators did not kill it.

Karaoke is making a comeback but it is nothing like what it used to be. Luckily over the last 3 years or so I was booking parties and found out what people want. They want dance and party music sometimes of a specific genre. Karaoke for the few singers is a bonus.Sometimes it is mostly karaoke other times it is DJ. The crowd determines the ratio. It was natural to adapt this format to a dinner crowd type atmosphere. WE are considering a new venue which I spoke of in other threads They dont sell food..... The karaoke host has to have the full package and the venue has to have the full package. It is more sophisticated now.

The movie industry went banannas when new media emerged and went on a suing rampage and tried to pass laws to protect their industry. this attitude resulted in years od reduced box office theater goers. They finally came to their senses and changed their marketing tecniques and adapted to new technologies. They are making more money now wth new markets.  THE FANS WITH THE MONEY DETERMINED THE MARKET>

The music industry is going thru the same crap now. The public needs to be informed about who is doing to who. Karaoke hosts, singers and the public will determine the market not district courts. The AMOA is a powerful organization that stands up to ASCAP and the rest. As a result there is the JLO which provides equitable fees. Until this industry forms an alliance it will suffer and maybe die. If Sound Choice or any of the others had brains they would have formed this association and given Karaoke and DJ'S  a method to stay legal and pay an equitable blanket fee for public performances.  

The task is there. I doubt in my lifetime I will see any progress in this area. But I do know this for sure. People have been singing in churches and bars for generations and they will until the end of time. If all hosts started charging so much a song and inform singers this was to pay ASCAP  the public outcry would bring results now..

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That is a very good question.  I personally don't know if it's in decline soooo much, it has definately reached it 'catch on' point and leveled off.  In my area, there are more bars per sq mi than anywhere else in the state...and a very large portion of them offer karaoke.  There is LOTS of crappy karaoke out there too and it brings down the sport as a whole........MrD

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Ya know, I didn't want to get into the discussion of the "same ole' drunks, singing the same ole' songs", but I was wondering if familiarity doesn't breed contempt?

I had one good singer, for example, singing "That's Life" at every show.  Why?

I know what you mean, Eric.  At one place where I went (I haven't been there in a while), one girl sang "I Try" (by Macy Gray) EVERY time.  She would sing some other stuff too, but she ALWAYS sang that one.  As I said, it's been a while, so I don't know if she's still going there or singing that.

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People are turning 21 every day.  I get brand new 'virgin' singers still every week, some become regulars, many do not, but karaoke is still a new experience to many.  It is going to break down to whether it will be (like Ollie explained) a 'loud' environment - I i'm going to twist that - with a crappy system turned up to the point of clipping, tinny sound, over effected where people cannot hear themselves think over a nice clean full sounding system that doesn't need to be turned up overbearingly loud to sound good & people can still have a conversation.  Die hard singers (and there are more than we probably think) will eventually go to where they are going to sound good as singers, the hole in the walls will fall off & swap entertainment out, those that WANT to sing will seek these places out.

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No Bah Humbug Here !

Karaoke is alive and well here in Chicago. Maybe some of your areas are saturated, but doesn't that mean there is a lot of karaoke?

I see karaoke everywhere, cruise ships, weddings, anniversaries, graduation parties, bars, and town festivals. It has reached every country in the world. Maybe it is just leveling off. I have a hard time believing karaoke will ever disappear completely. You can even get it on comcast now  LMAO .

Sure people have home parties, but nothing will replace going out for karaoke.. The attraction to karaoke is that you get to be on stage for the night and let other people here you sing. At home parties only give the chance for you to be heard by a few of your friends. When you catch the karaoke bug you want to go out and let others hear you sing. I applaud at home parties. It just makes for more singers. I can't tell you how many people have told me they started doing karaoke in someones house. Going out provides more people to hear you and usually a better sound system with more songs to choose from.

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More songs, not necessarily...songs people WANT to sing, yes!  Fill your book with a lot of garbage & crappy versions that sound nothing like the original or midi synthed, this will not help anything, this just makes karaoke SOUND cheap.  
Have seen this as well, more often than not.  I laugh at the people that say well so & so has over 50K & blah blah has over 75K songs but nothing I want...and everything is listed 5-10 times each, however companies that have 8-12K true single title songs have songs that i've actually been wanting to sing.  Companies more often than not fall into the mentality "more is better" and will buy up any disc they can find, even if it means repeating titles they already have over & over.  Sad thing is they try to get as much as they can for the cheapest price, well this does not help either.  A couple thousand well chosen songs that will get sung far outweigh the 50K "fill my book with any song just to give the appearance of a larger selection" anyday.

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In our area Karaoke is more popular than it ever has been. My opinion is that there are more bars doing it now out of necessity and that gives an over abundance of choices for the Karaoke Regulars to choose from. The shows that offer Good Mix of sound, broad selection of songs, friendly KJ and fair rotations will get the most business.

Many of them are competing on the same nights usually Friday and Saturdays so the competition is tough. I have a weekend gig that has no less than 10 karaoke bars within a mile or two from one another and ours tends to draw the most consistent crowds due to fair rotation and atmosphere. It seems that the other KJ's tend to spoil their regulars and do not cater to new blood. We treat everyone the same....no favorites.

At home karaoke will never rival singing in front of a full crowd for most folks. It's their ability to entertain others and get applause that they really want. If you have a friendly atmosphere and they feel like they belong then they will keep coming back. Gas is a factor for those who have to travel long distances to karaoke, but I think with all the bars out there offering karaoke it wouldn't be hard finding one in your neighborhood to go to.  

There is an untapped market here in our area in Private Parties I'm finding that they are becoming very popular. Where say 15-20 folks all chip in and hire a KJ for the evening....say $250 and they purchase their own liquor and bring some sort of pot luck dish and it avoids the smoky bar situation, avoiding the police, etc.  Plus they are in control of their rotation and do not have to share with anyone but folks at the party. I have seen a sharp increase in my business in that area over the past couple of years.

My opinion is Karaoke is everywhere! There are probably 4-5 times the number of venues there was 10 years ago.

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Amen to that, Towntenor!

I'd MUCH rather have 1000 well selected songs from Sound Choice than 100,000 songs from crap manus like SGB/All Hits 2000, Nutech, Backstage, Sound Images, Standing Ovation, Hot Stuff, etc.  People DO know the difference between songs that actually sound like music and songs that sound like productions of a computer music program.  

There are KJ's in my area bragging about having 100,000+ song librarys.  I can assure you that they do not even have an original disc or a LEGAL download purchase receipt for all these songs on their laptops - blatant piracy!  I'd bet that if you figured it out they would be lucky to have 15,000 UNIQUE songs.  The guy I sub for (posts as the Rainman on the now-defunct SCSB) has around 23,000 UNIQUE and LEGAL songs.  It's funny how people claim that he has a better selection than those with the 100 K song libraries.

On the subject of the decline of karaoke:

In my area karaoke is certainly alive and well but it isn't quite what it was 10 years ago.  People just aren't going out like they used to in the mid-90's.  Also, there were more people going out to bars FOR the karaoke.  One thing I DO know is that the karaoke manufacturing industry certainly isn't what it was 10 years ago.

The original post was not questioning the current state of karaoke, but rather whether or not it is in decline.  Since some of us are in areas where there has been a significant decline, and no one can counter with a story of significant growth elsewhere, I can't come to any other conclusion than the opinion I offered in my original post.  

And while it's clear to me by now that some of you are in areas where the only venues that offer karaoke are bars that are limited to people in their majority (over 21), around here, "they're" singing as soon as they would like.  And I know teens (quite good singers at that) who are out singing every week at "bar and grills" (that serve food and are family friendly)!

PS:  In regard to a previous off-thread post, the topic of which I am so tired of hearing about ------- I'll take the specific SGB, Legends, Sunfly, All Hits, Nutech and Backstage tracks that I have come to prefer, anytime, and defend and support their equivalence, if not their superiority, over any competing manu's tracks for the exact specific tracks that I have in mind (and there are hundereds of them).  And the satisfaction I get from those preferred tracks, more than justifies my investment in those series.  Furthermore, there are folks on this forum as well as my peers around town who agree with this observation.   And, sometimes, these manus simply have the only track available!!!   And sometimes Sound Choice's sound just plain out sucks!  And sometimes other factors, such as the proper arrangement, tempo, timing of swipes, accuracy of words, are more vital than superior sound!  There, now I feel better! This thread can now return to the future of Karaoke

There does seem to be areas of stability though. In my own room, for every singer that I lose as a diehard regular (most return but not as often) there's a new one there every night.

We're in a transitional stage right now. In quality as well. But last Saturday several of the original singers who helped build the room (all very good) came in, and because it was relatively slow it was sure nice because they could sing quite a bit.

I'd bet that there are more karaoke venues out there than before in a lot of places, and maybe that's it. In the last year there have been a couple more go up in my area. We're really saturated. As others have suggested, maybe all the singers are just spread out more. But somehow through it all we are about the same as we've been for the two years I've been doing it.

Well yeah they kind of both go hand in hand.  If the current state of karaoke isn't what it used to be in areas, then it's on a decline from what it was.

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