Karaoke Forums

Anybody feeling the crunch of the economy with the karaoke business?

Smaller crowds I am experiencing.

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Yeah, smaller crowds come to mind immediately and also more owner/manager involvement in my shows. Seems as if they are much more interested in how and what I'm doing etc.. I remember it used to be come in set up and play my gig and go home with nothing but hello and goodbye from the "hire". That has changed a little lately and I understand why. Times are tough for everyone.

Some areas are harder hit if they thrive on a particular industry. I've heard some people say the karaoke attendance is down these areas. Very often I scrutinize traffic, shopping and activity to see who's doing business when it slows down. I've seen a lessening of crowds slightly in the last month but now more sporadic lately. I remember a record attendance at one place when stocks went up. Movie theaters seem to be doing ok. Anyone for movieokie?

How about private parties? Down as well?

I feel like one of the luck ones. I am not seeing a decline as of yet.

I do very few private parties, so I would be a bad judge of that. I'm doing as many holiday parties as last year (3).

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I'm doing a birthday party tomorrow but business on a whole has taken a hit here in SW Florida. It breaks my heart to see so many local merchants with whom I've dealt with for years are suddenly closing up and liquidating everything. I'm thankful for the "day job" I have now and will still pursue karaoke/dj gigs wherever I can.

Hang in there and keep fighting the good fight. J.R.

its slowed down, but the smart owners are willing to do more to get more people in there bars. vs if they had nothing.

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the voices arent real, but they have some good ideas

I'm handing out customized song request slips as "business cards" and getting the word of mouth out. I've contacted chamber of commerce this week, what else can I do to advertise as I am ready to go.

Last time I said anything about my crowd size it took a dip, singer wise. !

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I almost feel lucky.. I haven't been doing it long, but my regular gigs are busy. I just got home from a gig and is was just great. It is Christmas though so you expect pubs to be busy at this time of year. The proof of the pudding will show itself in a few weeks time.
This aint the first recession we've had to struggle through. People like us exist just for the hell of it. Always have and still will whether there is boom or bust.

If I end up with less work, then at least I get to see my family more. I doubt I'll go hungry, I'm part owner of several banks now!

Even though I don't do them since I sold my mobile system off, I used to turn down or turn over to another company anywhere from 7-10 per month, haven't recieved more than 2 calls this month.

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I suppose herein lies the benefit of working in a small, basically low income town. I do my show in a tavern on Friday nights - for those of you that don't know, that means no mixed drinks. It means any kind of beer, bottle, can, or tap; wine; and things like "Mike's Lemonade" etc. We're in the midst of horrendously cold weather with icy roads and expected high winds; a lot of towns would be closed up. This town - since nobody can leave, they all came out tonight.

I know, it's a bit perverse, really. There had to be a benefit, I guess - I never have a lot of singers, a very high percentage of the people there are shooting pool, socializing, and listening/watching the singers. But they're there....and it's nearly Christmas. My guess is this - these are basically 'low income' earners - no money in the stock market, and I'd venture to say that most of them don't have retirement plans (based on the discussions I've had with them about jobs) so they're all basically doing the same as always - living paycheck to paycheck, going out to sing karaoke and socialize on Friday night, and occasionally on Saturdays. The place does great on Fridays - it is their busiest night of the week. Karaoke fills their need for entertainment as they can't afford to pay the kinds of bands they'd like to have play there....so I have amazing job security as long as they keep their doors open.

The majority of places where I have done shows cater to a higher earning group - more expensive food/location/spirits, etc., and I will be starting a new one by this description on January 7th. We'll see how they compare.

So any suggestions on advertising?

The PRS seem to think we're all winning out of this recession.
http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/abou ... raoke.aspx

I don't think we can read too much into that though. Things are changing so fast these days.

My home room was down in November. But since Thanksgiving things have been normal, which is quite busy for this room. Even Thursday with the snow falling outside the bar was packed.

I suspect things will hit home next month, which is usually the slowest time of the year for this place anyway. You Southern tier folks may not experience the January slump the way us Northern guys do but boy it sure takes a dip here.

I'm booked through March 09..




















OK, one gig then.. Picky picky..

I don't do many of these either. Of the two I've done for the holidays, a Christmas party for a country club had the smallest attendance I've seen for that event. Maybe 50 couples. I don't know what they charged... probably around $40 a plate.

Last Tuesday I did a Christmas party for the employees of a local restaurant chain. Free food and drinks for an hour. How can I put it? It was jammed in there.

The economy here in Oregon has not been affected like other parts of the country. However bar business as a whole has been down since September but not to the point of being scary. I will say the bar owners are looking hard at the bottom line these days and are a bit nervous. The bar business has always been hard to predict but normally from September through Christmas is usually very good and this year it is very different. Election year tend to be that way.

Private party bookings are up for me this year.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

The economy here (Halifax, NS) is actually pretty good. We are a military city (predominately naval), have three huge hospitals, 4-5 universities, oil refinery, large container port, etc. None of which I can see disappearing. So I would imagine the places which have diversified industries and services will do better than one industry cities.

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