Karaoke Forums

Okay, I have had the same bar gig, with various nights, for about 18 months or so. It started out as every-other-Tuesday and now I am there Tuesday and Thursday for karaoke, I DJ some Fridays, and usually do karaoke on Saturdays also. I charge more on Saturday because it's a big place, over 120 chairs and easily 200 customers there on busy Saturdays. So my typical Saturday is 35 - 50 singers in rotation before midnight, and some of them just don't get to sing, because there is only so much time.

My schedule is 10pm until 2:30am on all the nights right now. I am thinking about changing Saturday to more like 8pm until 2:30am, because I really want the customers to be able to sing more, and I would like to be able to tell those customers who sign up really late, "try to come earlier, if you sign up at 8 or 9 you will have more chances to sing." That would get them drinking earlier and the whole point of karaoke is to make them drink and spend their money at the bar.

I really hate doing the Saturdays at this place, but no one else will do it, I guess my rate is too low, but Tuesday is a pretty slow night with 15 - 20 singers, and I am just now building up Thursday, it may take me a while to get a good crowd on that night. Plus the Friday DJ thing, it's just a filler when they don't have a band, but they do pay me for it and all I have to do is push play on my song list and talk on the mic. I put effort into it, but it's easy compared to karaoke.

Have other hosts had good results from starting their show earlier on the busy nights? I would try it for a month and if it works out well, I will get the bar to raise my pay on Saturday. I'll know if they are making more money because they are honest and tell me how much they sold each night whenever I ask.

_________________
Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

The advantage of starting earlier is that if you can entice people there with something and they make it their first stop of the evening, it may be their only stop. I start REALLY early on Thur *7:30'ish* and people come and eat dinner ... even nonsingers. The singers are all done singing and spending their money by 11:00 or so, and they then move on to other places to sing - works for us, works for the singers who get a jump on the night and get to sing more than on other nights.

Weeknight shows are more successful the earlier you start - I have always used it as a psychological thing - you can come and sing a few songs and still be home by ___ o'clock (insert time: 11? 10:30? 10:00) to go to bed and function at work the next day.

We did a 9:30 to 1:30 Monday show for over four years - hard to get anyone but the young power shot drinkers to come out to a show that starts at 9:30. Not many serious singers, just young kids who sang all the new songs I got - I loved it, but don't miss getting to bed at 3 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

I have moved my early night back from 8:00 to 9:30. To me 6 hours of karaoke is just way too much.

Instead of getting a raise this year I just moved my time back.

Jeff, what kind of crowd do they have in there before 10? Are you in a bar or a restaurant? Do they presently have any entertainment before 10?

The management doesn't care if they sing, as long as they drink. So they might not care to pay you an hour or two more to start earlier if it means whatever extra ring at the register goes right back to pay you.

Before you just decide to do this on your own time, I'd first talk to the management to see if they would even be open to paying you for more hours. Good luck!

_________________
[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]

I can appreciate your interest in getting people to stay after happy hour or a meal, but if you start early, i think that it will eventually be expected by the bar, and by the patrons. I'm always at the bar early enough (1/2 hour or so) to announce that Karaoke is coming up, so people know. I will say hello to people, and answer questions, but I won't start until the regular starting time.

birdofsong

If you asking would I start earlier JUST so more people could sing ..It looks like you're talking for FREE. If that is the question I would have to say NO WAY.

But I do on most nights stay a few minutes LATER to get a few people up to sing that would not have if I stopped on time.

**If you run a fair rotation with no filler/dance music ** then I wouldn't care about How many singers sang or not. It's just the nature of the beast -- THE SHOW STARTS AND ENDS.

It's a bar that opens at about 3pm during the week, but they have very little business until much later, 9 or 10pm. There is no other entertainment except the occasional band on Friday, which starts at 10, the same time I start DJing on the non-band Fridays.

Saturday is the only day that I can consistently expect to walk in and see at least 50 guests, sometimes over 100, when I arrive. I usually have people asking me what time karaoke starts before I even have my microphones out.


They have changed my schedule around twice in the past year and both times they saw a large and immediate hit to sales. So they know they make a lot more off karaoke than they pay me to host it for them. They canceled my Tuesday gig for a couple of weeks, and the sales on that day immediately went from over $1500 to under $500. They gave me the night back pretty quickly. There may not be $1000 worth of customers actually singing on a Tuesday, but if there is no reason to go there, other people will walk in, see that nothing is going on and no one is there, and walk right back out.


Yeah, I'm going to do so. I feel like I can improve their sales by at least $500 every Saturday if I start an hour or two earlier, maybe $1000; if that turns out to be true I'm sure they won't mind paying me a little more.

Mainly it's aggravating that the first 4 or 5 customers who sign up will get to sing twice pretty quickly, but they won't see their third chance to sing for a couple hours if they get another chance at all. The regulars who come on Tuesday/Thursday do not come on Saturday, or if they do, they leave much earlier; because they know how long the list gets. I feel like if I start earlier, people will get drunker before the rotation gets crappy, and then they will stay anyway.

On some Saturdays I do play a lot of music, not because there is a lack of singers, but because there will be dozens of people dancing, which I figure is a better way to entertain than making one person happy at a time with karaoke. If there isn't a large group on the dance floor I do not waste time with it, though.

I am very fair with my rotation. The previous KJ was pretty disorganized and favored some people while forgetting others. Everyone knows I am pretty fair, and even my girlfriend doesn't get to sing more than anyone else. I would like to have a way for my regulars from Tuesday/Thursday to have more chances to sing on Saturday though, and I think starting earlier may accomplish that.

Oh, and for the "FREE? WHAT?" posts, I don't mind putting in more time for a few weeks for free as long as its understood that if it is successful and increases sales, I will get paid more, or go back to the current schedule.

_________________
Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

At one bar I used to do 8-Midnight. The eight o'clock hour was always slow to start. but the bar insisted thinking they could draw people over from the restaurant side.

We just recently changed from 9-1 and so far I like it MUCH better. People are already lined up to sing and at nine, BOOM! Full on karaoke instead of the slow-ramp-up.

The slow ramp-up stuff never bothers me. I cross-fade between music and karaoke pretty effectively even when I have hours worth of singers, because I really hate dead air. The other advantage to that is I can have someone sing as soon as they ask, whether or not there are other singers ready to follow them; and it doesn't really seem unnatural.

_________________
Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

I just recently started emailing every one that that if they come early, and I am set up an ready to to go.....I will start the show. It is starting to catch on, and I am getting an early eating crowd. They will try a new song during this time as well. I also keep close track of the number of songs sung the first hour and challange my singers to beat 21 singers per hour. I am using Karma so the singers can see when they are coming up next.

Mrmarog

Right on. I have seen this work for others -- a couple of gigs people get there early to get earlier in the rotation.

Nothing frosts me off more than to arrive at start time ready to sing, then be told "I'm going to wait until we have a few singers to start." Well, thanks for thinking of my time, bud. And why would anyone show up early to sing if they knew they were going to have to wait?

_________________
[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

When I remarked above that I start VERY early, it is in a small bar and restaurant situation...people come in to EAT...since the bar is small, we make up for fewer numbers of drinkers with four-ups ordering full meals. Later arrivals all drink, some order food, too. I don't think this works in pubs because people don't generally go there to eat...but in my case, with a very good restaurant connected to the bar, people love to eat first. Have to make up for fewer seats/drinks sold and it works very well. And as we know, if someone buys fries or something that has a strong smell to it, pretty soon everybody is ordering....onion rings, fries, coconut shrimp, etc.

Wow, this is my pet peeve too! If your show starts at 9 and I'm there with a song in, why am I not singing? So what if I get a few songs in before the crowd gets there? Even if I'm the only one singing...I don't expect to sing songs consecutively. Go ahead and play a song or a video or let the host sing.

But I don't understand having to wait until there's 5 people in queue before the show STARTS. If anything, the sight of people singing communicated that the show had begun and it's time to sign up.

_________________
[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]

Agree 100%. I guess the KJ's waiting for a list don't realize that "Singer's begat Singer's".

Start the rotation...and they will come.

Yeah I hated that "waiting for more singers" time, but it's how I was told to do it when I was booking through a company with other DJs/KJs. Now I do everything my own way and if somebody wants to sing as soon as I have my stuff hooked up, I don't make them wait.

I talked to the bar owner this afternoon, and for the next few weeks I am starting an hour earlier on Saturday. If it works well I'll get paid a little more, and everything I do to help them sell more booze helps right now. They are bleeding money like every other bar.

_________________
Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

It makes about as much sense as a bartender telling someone "Sorry...I'm not going to serve you any drinks until more people get here".

Dead on. 8:00 start, couple drinks and songs, home early to "function"

I have been starting as soon as I get setup, and what I have found is that when the singers start singing, people seem to settle into their seats quicker, and therefore the wait staff can serve them quicker.

Mrmrog

I'll throw my hat in the ring in agreement that waiting until there are more singers is complete crap. First of all, my clients pay me to play from a set time to a set time, so starting late because there isn't a crowd is to me not honoring my contract (even if it is only verbal). If I don't have singers to start off the night, fine, I'll just play DJ music, sing a few songs and if my wife is along she may sing a few. If there are only a couple singers, they'll sing as much or as little as they choose, I'm on the clock so I'm playing.

With regard to starting early, I've done it in some situations. However, in some of the places I play the cleints actually do not want me to start early. I also try to be respectful of those that are using the jukebox. I figure if I'm scheduled to start at 9:00 and they plug some money in the Jukebox at 8:45 they're entitled to the next 15 minutes to try and hear the songs they chose. However, if there's no reason I shouldn't start, I will start early if people are there ready to sing.

_________________
DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

I sometimes have the people who will come up and go, man, I just put $5 in the jukebox! There may be 10 singers signed up already and that guy playing pool with his girlfriend will still think they got cheated out of their 10 metallica songs.

So what I do is ask them if they remember what songs they picked, and I do my best to play a few of them in between singers or when I have a chance to take a break.

I agree that the customer who put money in the jukebox should be treated nicely, as that jukebox is there to earn money for the venue just like everything else inside it.

I used to put a sign on the jukebox that says "KARAOKE STARTS AT 10, JUKEBOX WILL BE TURNED OFF AT 10" and I found it didn't really help; but when I used that sign I didn't feel quite as bad about turning it off. I guess I should start doing that again since I am moving my time up an hour and people might not know about it yet.

_________________
Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ