Karaoke Forums

I live in Michigan, where the economy has been down since 1999. We have had the worst track record in the nation for quite a while now. I'd call the last ten years a depression, so you can imagine how hard it is to book work. I have seen full blown karaoke restaurants go out of business in the past few years.

Comptetition is fierce, and I have moved to a bigger city to make it a little easier to book gigs. One thing I have noticed amongst my 20 - 30 competing karaoke businesses in a 50 mile radius are those that have several systems. I wont mention names, but one company has 13 systems! Another has 7. Two or three have 4 or 5.

Is this normal in your areas? Do you yourself own several systems? After seeing this myself, if I can manage to book a full five nights a week within the next two or three months (at two now, thought I had three but one got snagged away from me - happens often with all the competition) I am hoping to add one system each year or two until I get to five. I wouldn't want to manage any more than that, as this is not meant to be my main job or source of income, and at five systems the income would be pretty substantial anyways. (I can't imagine the guys with 7 and 13 systems!)

With the all the competition It would seem impossible, but I will be adding only the best sound systems with the largest catalog of music possible and provide a marketing campaign to give me an edge over the competition. It also seems that the big guys don't have very good set-ups, however they do have decent music selections, but their kj's are also lacking. That is another reason I wouldn't want to go above five systems. It's hard to find good help it seems.

How big is your business and how big would you want to grow it if you could? Any similar experiences?

Chances are high that these multiriggers are illegal. Multiple harddrives with maybe one set of discs, more likely though harddrives bought off E-bay, Craigslist etc. The larger the library the more money is needed. Say 1,000 discs at an average of $20 a disc is $20,000. I highly doubt someone with 7 rigs has spent $140,000 thereabouts for their music plus the hardware required.

What can you do about it? Realistically, probably not much at the moment as no one seems to have the will to investigate and prosecute.

My understanding is this type of activity is going on everywhere.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

My basic opinion on this is you can get KJs to do one or two nights a week at a low rate by supplying them with bookings and equipment; but anyone who is good at it and wants to work more than that is going to buy their own gear and operate independently or with partners.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

The company with 13 rigs is actually CDG based. Could very well be copied discs though. The 7 rig company uses CAVS systems, which are encrypted to not allow copying. One company that has 4 systems is hard drive based and CDG based on different rigs. The larger company's owners actually were killed in a motorcycle accident about a year ago. Their kids took over the business. The same company has had a KJ working for them for about ten years five nights a week. They have other KJ's in similar situations. Oldest company around these parts. I guess they have it made! I'd be happy to manage 3 rigs, but 5 is an ideal goal.

In one way or another, from what I have seen in S Florida, operations with more than two rigs are usually not quite legit! But seeing that there is nothing that can be done to change that and considering that you are not asking/focusing on legalities here's what I believe will help you!

There are at least three companies around my area that multi-rig. The important aspects/benefits of how they operate is as follows:

1. Such companies have a great deal of instant credibility with a prospective new venue by touting all of the shows they already have running.
2. The company's multiple venues and large number of regulars singers make for good copy and pictures to put on a website and elsewhere on the internet
3. Each new show helps to expand the database of singers
4. In a short period of time, multi-riggers can develop a database that is so large it is almost impossible NOT to get a bunch of people out for each new show, hence making each new show more likely to succeed!
5. The owners have plenty of time to run around and gain new gigs because there is a constant flow of income from the existing shows, and they do have to keep getting new ones because their level of quality doesn't always retain the gig!
6. One company advertises that no matter where you attend one of their shows you'll have the same database with 17000 unique tracks!
7. One company offers gifts of various sorts to select people who come out to a new show!

AND NOTE: ONE MULTI-RIGGER TYPICALLY SENDS OUT EVERY KJ WITH JUST ONE SPEAKER. So don't try to compete with multi-riggers based upon quality; they have the marketing edge based upon what I have described!

You may, however, want to compete by stressing how you, personally, will be at every show and how you have the experience over the other company(ies) who hire KJ"s off the street (at least that's what happens here) for $75

Up here most of the multi-rig companies are DJ companies that also offer Karaoke. There are only a couple multi-rig Karaoke outfits, one of which I know for a fact is using multiple copies of the same library. But what Eric mentions above is how I deal with it. Most of my marketing and promo material stresses that each show is going to feature me as the host.

It also helps that I have no desire to have multiple rigs running. I just don't want to have to manage other people. I do that at my day job and it's great, I like it. I just don't think I'd be able to trust someone else running a rig under my name. I've seen too many KJ's whose shows really put me off, that I wouldn't want to run the risk of someone doing that in the name of my business. It comes off sounding a little pompous and arrogant, I know. But at the end of the day, I don't need to have 15 shows running a week. I do this for my enjoyment and the good times that I can bring to others. So it just wouldn't make sense for me to hire someone else, my goal isn't to get big.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

As a KJ that has an employee, I can concur with most of the advice here. I have cut down the number of shows I personally do to three per week, because of my other business. My other host does the other two, and I still find myself worrying if he is doing things exactly the way I want. I once had the idea of investing alot of money to create a "karaoke empire", but I can't clone myself. Maybe I'm just too particular about the way I want things done to be able to have "employees".

The more shows you have being run by someone else, the greater your chance of diluting your reputation. I'd rather not be the Walmart or McDonald's of karaoke.

If I had as much money as Sam Walton or Ronald McDonald, I'd love to be the Wal Mart or McDonalds of karaoke!

I have no principles!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]