Karaoke Forums

This came up when I was talking to some of the regulars last night. My home room does. A 50c per drink surcharge was brought in by the new manager when I'm doing karaoke. Before him there wasn't any difference.

And I didn't start charging more. He just did it.

Just seeing where everyone is at with this. A description of geographic location and how much (if any) would be helpful. Thanks-

edit: That's supposed to say "Surcharge" up there. Can't figure out how to change it. Mods go for it if you can.

No Surghargs or Surcharge. They do a $2 cover charge at the door for karaoke and $5 for a band.

Brownsville is a small town and tend to be a bit small minded. (not necessaraily a bad thing) All the bars are in the county for the city was dry till this year.

Neither place we work in charges a surcharge for karaoke entertainment; actually, they offer drink specials in lieu of charging more for the usual stuff. PNW

I have worked where places that raised there prices during karaoke. Well I no longer work there & the places are either under new owners or closed now.

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WE have ladies night and well drinks are half price. My other gig I was considering raised their prices and singers quit coming. My regulars are customers of the VFW and they rarely show up because of the higher prices. If a gig I was doing raised their prices I would walk which is what I did.,

It is hard to keep the happy hour crowd around as it is and if prices jumped radically it would ruin the business. Our z tape for a bar that seats 150 runs from 2-3k on sat nights It is the only night that they make a true profit. I do work for a business man with years of experience in various businesses. Plus he gives me full rein to run my show as I see fit and we were chosen out several wannabees. When people started calling up and asking is Ollie and Greg doing karaoke tonight we got the job and have been there over a year Went from $150 to $175.

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I've not seen that in our area. I have seen where people were charged per song sung. Very odd, KJ just took your money and fed it into a machine that then allowed you to choose a song...no rotation, just come up when ready or your money sat in a queue similar to the billiard or snooker table.

Around here they raise beeprices a quarter a bottle when the show starts. Dave

The karaoke bars here are all full-time; ie 7days a week of karaoke and the singing starts the moment the door open (if there is a singing customer). So there is no surcharge but there are places where they have happy hour rate to encourage early birds.

Bill: I did the correction since you can't do it.

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

Yep, prices go up as soon as the entertainment starts, been that way every place I've ever worked...bar wise. .25-.50 I really don't get it, I don't see that money and it drives more people away than anything. I'm really starting to push various drink specials (thru the owner of course) to try and counter balance it....MrD

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My home rooms are both pubs. They have bar prices (as per uk licensing law) posted as a tariff near the bar.

These NEVER change unless there is a tax-rate change.

When karaoke starts the drinks go up 25 cents a drink. They started this about 5 yrs ago when the new owner took over. At first the regulars were mad, but over time just excepted that is the way it is. Most of the karaoke crowd don't even know. It is more the regulars who sit there all day that know about it. I haven't heard anyone complain in yrs about it.

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My bar doesn't raise prices because of karaoke but from 5 to 8 they have reduced prices for happy hour and once happy hour is up the prices go back to their regular price. This happens whether Karaoke is going on or not.

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This can be a real show killer, and I don't allow it. If the owner insists, I move on.

When singers figure out that they are paying a surcharge for the entertainment, and realize that THEY are IT, they have a tendency to get a bit,...um...perturbed- and move on.

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kinda strange here. In Hawaii most karaoke shows offer drink specials but then again, they charge $1 per song to sing. the customers ends up paying either way.

That $1 charge per song goes to the KJ or the bar?
We have here karaoke that charge per song and is very popular among the malays/muslim in the more rural areas. They are mostly open-air and don't serve alcohol.

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

Oh, the $1 per song charge goes directly to the kj. People freak out sometimes when they realise THEY have to PAY to entertain (sing), not BE paid.

The bars in hawaii had such a backlash 10 years ago from TOO many karaoke places that most places stopped offering it altogether. Bars and restaurants were reluctant to offer it (and too cheap!) so they low-balled djs/kjs and made a wage structure agreement that included lower wages to made up by the customer.

Don't personally agree with it, but people do pay and good djs do prosper here. In the end the money is as good, if not better, than most mainland gigs. Since customers think we make $1 per song and that's all we make, they most certainly feel sorry for us and usually give us $1-$5 per song. I never solicit tips ,(why would i need to? not greedy) but to stay overtime i may take money to extend my show. The owners don't mind and i still stop the show 1/2 hour before the bar closes.

Making money directly from the customers ensures i take my rotations very seriously and don't mess around with favorites.

none of my places ever had a surcharge or charged more .... doesn't seem right unless they want to pay u more as well ... one can dream eh giggles

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:angel:

none of my places ever had a surcharge or charged more .... doesn't seem right unless they want to pay u more as well ... one can dream eh giggles

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:angel: