Karaoke Forums

Last week I took over as Organizer for the Seattle Karaoke Stars group on Meetup.com. The site allows like-minded people to connect for events.

Twice a month the group brings 10-20 people to various karaoke bars around town for a social. They're not all singles, so it's not quite a singles group.

I've been to a couple of this group's events as a member and everyone sat together and was very supportive.

*** Do you have any such groups in your town who attend your show? Do you or the bar do anything special for them? (Rotation? Discount drinks?)

Perhaps you might even belong to or run such a group yourself?

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[font=Lucida Console]DangerousKaraoke.com[/font]
[font=Lucida Console]"Sing for the day, sing for the moment, sing for the time of your life!"[/font]

we do have one "Karaoke Meet Up" group that started, I believe, last year. I've looked at their website but haven't had the patience to sit and figure out what "they're up to". I make it a point next time I run into it to get more specific info... it seems it's going to be a trend based upon what you have experienced.

If nothing else, it's got to be good PR if they come to your show and like it. The website I referenced does seem to have some feedback on how folks enjoyed the last "meeting"

I'm not sure how this works. Bringing an hour or more of singers as a solid block into a room already going.

Are you listening or singing? You can't all expect to sing much.

More info please.


Umm no special drink prices or rotation privileges over the regulars in my place for sure!

We have had our own meetup.com site for about 6 months. We have about 100 members now. They follow us to shows, and it is a great way to get the word out. After you have been on meetup.com for a while, you will find your calendar begins floating to the top of Google searches. This is great publicity, particularly for the venues that have no web presence.

We also cross-promote the meetup.com site by using the calendar link as our calendar on our website.

I think it is a great method of getting like-minded people together!

We have one meetup group here in Tacoma, but they seem to be partial to going to the organizers own venues primarily. They came out to our show a couple times, but complained about the smoke & lack of singing time as we typically will avg 15 singers on any given night - then add their group on top of it. So they avoid our show anymore. They typically want to sing & hit the shows that have no singers to begin with.

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no "meetup" group, but we have a yahoo group... actually two of 'em!

It looks like the members don't mind waiting 10-15 deep on rotation because they're all group members. Everyone cheers everyone else on...it's truly a "group" thing.

Lonman, I've seen the Tacoma Karaoke Meetup as well as one in the Kent area. Both are owned/run by KJ's and the Meetups are always at their own venues. The Seattle group has a couple of favorite rooms, but looks like they change it up often as to where the Meetups are held.

As for special drink prices, why wouldn't a bar owner want to make a few concessions to attract a group of 15-20 people who wouldn't come there otherwise?

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[font=Lucida Console]DangerousKaraoke.com[/font]
[font=Lucida Console]"Sing for the day, sing for the moment, sing for the time of your life!"[/font]

Because the regulars would not like it.

Exactly!

Dangerous Dan sometimes I wonder about you, man. I mean would you do this to your room? Cut favors to a group that's a one time shot and snub your normal crowd like that?

I dunno. The whole thing would not be fun. A block of singers that large would totally disrupt rotation and spread things out to two to three hours.

But I don't have to worry about it, because I'm not where you guys live and there's not enough open seats on a normal night anyway. Your crew would be crammed over in the pool area standing up.

I could see it if a group that large set things up as a private party with the manager on an off night though. That would work. Just not on a normal night.

The Tacoma group go to other places, I said they seem to favor the organizers own venues. Out of 60 or so meetups they have had, over half have been at the organizers venues. They do tend to go to some of the divier bars that do not attract a bunch of singers to begin with. Since this is a group that is wanting to sing, they want to sing as much as possible & do not like the more crowded venues.

We don't make any special concessions for these groups either due to the fact stated above, not going to PO the regulars just to accomodate a group that comes in once or twice.

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

Bill, what do you think dance club promoters do? The club owner pays the promoter a per-head "bounty" and lets him distribute "VIP" cards good for free admission or free drinks or both.

Granted a karaoke situation is different because the more singers, the longer the wait. But if you were a bar owner and I told you I could bring 20 people in to your bar who don't usually come there, may never have been there before, and it's up to me to determine which bar they go to...a determination I'll make based on whether the owner offers my group some specials?

Don't think like a KJ or singer.

Think like a bar owner.

That's 20 slabs of fresh meat, baby! Think on average they might spend $10 each over the course of the night? Have any idea on the markup in liquor? (They wouldn't offer a food discount.) I'm sure the owner would rather hear the register ring than care whether people have to wait a little longer to sing.

And if I can make that happen for my group's members...why not?

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[font=Lucida Console]DangerousKaraoke.com[/font]
[font=Lucida Console]"Sing for the day, sing for the moment, sing for the time of your life!"[/font]

Your groups $200 (or less if you're looking for a discount) is a drop in the bucket in my room on karaoke night. We average around $1500. From our regulars.

But you know what? I think you're on to something. You guys are going to want to find quiet rooms anyway so you can actually sing some. And maybe that's a good way to filter out the quiet rooms from the busy ones. The quiet ones will be more open to the idea of a discount.

I know what my manager would say. Sure come on in if you can find a place to sit. But no deals.

I'm sure that a group of 20 would be welcome at ANY venue, but to think that they're supposed to get special treatment is a little presumptuous. The manager of the venue could give you any kind of drink deals he wants to, BUT, I think if he were any kind of business man, in order to be fair to his REGULAR customers, he would give the SAME deals to EVERYONE. Announce " for the next 2 hours, rail drinks are 3.00 instead of 3.50. That would make sense, anything else would be suicide. Because here's his REGULAR paying full price (sitting right next to you), and YOU get the discount. THAT makes alot of sense. Then to expect to be INJECTED into the rotation as a block of 20, the karaoke host may as well announce "This is now a private party, ALL REGULARS please quietly leave the room". A dance club, and a KARAOKE BAR are two different fish. A block of 50 people entering a DANCE club would be heaven for the owner.

Rosario

Haha, looked at your sight dan. Loved the Retro Dangerous pic. I think that group thing is a neat idea. A local car club does the same thing going to all the different cruise nights and inviting other car owners to join them in their travels. Never thought of doing it for karaoke.