Karaoke Forums

I have a show that needs a little help, and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas.

The show runs 10pm to 2am, and it's been fairly successful for over two years. The problem is that almost all of my crowd comes from the food and beverage industry, so they rarely show up before about 11:30. It's not unusual for me to find myself singing every song to a crowd of three or four disinterested barflies until the crowd arrives. I've been racking my brain trying to think of a way to attract an earlier crowd, and I've come up empty.

I was just wondering if any of you have encountered this problem before and found a way to solve it, or if you have any ideas on "gimmicks" that might get the job done.

We have that problem in the summer when it gets dark later and people don't get into party mode until later. Our venue is going to start a drink special between the "difficult" hours--in our case 7 pm to 9. It is going to be something like happy hour pricing. Maybe even a first drink free type of thing. Doesn't start until next week so can't say how well it works.

If your problem is your main audience just isn't off work until a certain time, then you may have to brainstorm targeting a different type of audience for the earlier hours.

Well er No.

I had a bar once. I gave out raffle tickets between certain hours.
At the end of the night we pulled a ticket and the winner got a gallon of beer.
It only worked with a handful of people.

There are ways of getting them in earlier but you couldn't afford it.

Or get the word out that you can sing more earlier in the night - not that it really works, but everytime I tell people to come out certain hours because they get to sing more due to lack of singers, we usually have a packed house when the invitees happen to come out - making me look like a liar Have the bar offer a discount for the first say 10-15 singer of the first hour of the night.

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

I'd get the bar to get free merchandise from their beer vendors. Hats, shirts, keychains, etc..and then advertise over the mic that early singers not only get to sing more songs (Sing Early Sing Often), but can get free stuff!

Even get a free sign from the beer vendor advertising your karaoke show.

!/2 price appetizers and drink specials for the first hour of karaoke works too.

If it's REALLY slow, then let 'em sing two songs in a row. Suggest more songs from the artists they already sing to.

There's more in my head..but it's sunday... Good Luck! Aloha! -john

one of my bars gave me buy 1 get 1 for $1.00 any drinks and 35 cent wings from 8-10. but only with a coupon i sent in the newsletter i send to my singers. after the first 2 nights other singers caught on and gave me their emails. great way to build my mailing list in a respectable way and got more people in earlier. after a few buy 1 get 1 deals, most are far from going home so they end up staying all night. this goes to all my singers from all venues. did start getting more cross-pollination from other venues.

_________________
Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Don't be satisfied with one crowd -- shoot for two. Try to attract a crowd that wants to sing, as well as the later "party" crowd. And for gosh sake, don't pull this one -- "I'm going to wait until we get a few slips before we start". Why would anyone come early then?

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

If we get just two singers to begin with, we will ask if they want to start or not. Some want to wait for an audience and don't want to blow their entire repertoire in the first half hour. Others may want to take advantage of the practice time and experiement with new songs or have duel-off challenges or kamikazi rounds.

We can get away with that as we are in a small place and know who comes through the door. If you don't know if you are getting in singers or not, then it is probably best to start and have some singing going on so that those coming in know they have landed at the right place.

More information please. Why is there no one in the bar at 10:00 PM and why do you start so late?

_________________
Okay, who took my pants?

Not to speak for him as I am sure he will answer. But it seems similar to something we are encountering in this one town where we are courting a new show. The bars have both told us that no one starts coming in until 11. They evidently have a younger crowd and many have jobs as he describes--food and beverage industry--so they don't get off work until later and they can sleep later so they party later. With the later shifts and being able to sleep in, they party every day of the week and not just on weekends.

We may encounter this if we get a show in this town. We had discussed that they also have alot of agricultural workers who come in and we wondered if a Latin show would bring in an earlier crowd who would then leave earlier and then the younger hip hop crowd would take over. Or we could target an older country crowd that comes and goes earlier. Don't know. It was the first we had heard of such a late start but it was what both places said happens.

Most of my shows are 10 till 2 .. and the place is usually slow until around 11:30ish.

For that first hour and a half or so.. I end up playing DJ request stuff in between the two or three singers who do show up earlier.

Lots of people don't bother coming out to the bar until later.. they get off work, have dinner, etc etc.. one of the reasons many bars will offer 'happy hour' drink specials to draw people into the club earlier.

How to get 'em in earlier? Some people simply can't get there any earlier. Sometimes having food specials will get 'em in the club.

One club I played years ago worked out a deal with a local pizza joint on Wednesdays.. got 6 large pizzas for a significantly reduced rate in exchange for putting up their banner. The club would advertise free pizza and cheap well drinks from like 8 till 10.. as a result by the time karaoke started at 10, there was a bar full of happy buzzed singers ready to take the mic.

Works out well for clubs that don't do a lot of food business, or don't have much of a kitchen. Local mom & pop or smaller regional pizza joints are usually happy to get in on promotions like that, especially on week nights when they aren't doing a lot of business.

The reason I asked is that some KJs are not bar people. That is to say that if they weren't getting paid to be there they wouldn't be. So the client load related to time of day can be somewhat mystifying. I'm suggesting that if the patron demographics for the entire day are analyzed the solution to this problem will probably become obvious.

_________________
Okay, who took my pants?

Wow, thanks for all the responses.

First of all, leopard is spot on (pun definitely intended). The entirety of my crowd comes from the food & beverage industry, so what's late for most people is the beginning of the night for them.

As far as my show, it's tailored to be accessible to anyone, and I start on-time every week. The only exception is if there's nobody at all in the bar besides myself and the staff. Then I'll hold off until someone comes in. It's not a matter of "not being a bar person" either, because I love that bar (even though I can't drink) and I hang out there even when I'm not working.

I don't mean to sound like a snob when I say this, but I absolutely will not make an effort to attract an older country crowd. If people like that come in, fine. They will find themselves welcome. But I just can't encourage it. It's not what my employers want, it would definitely drive away some of my existing crowd, and frankly, it bores me to tears.

I like the stuff about the bar offering discounts on appetizers and drinks, but I don't know if ownership will be amenable. I'm going to try though.

Thanks again for all the tips.

Right then, let me see if I've got this straight. You want the people who are not available before 11:30 to come in before 11:30 even though they are unavailable and you don't want other people who are available because they are dull, they sing dull songs and spend dull money, dull but available money.

_________________
Okay, who took my pants?

You make a point.

The later crowd, if they're predominantly in the food/service industry, won't be able to make it out any earlier than they get off work.. so attracting others to come in earlier would help fill out that first hour and a half of the show.

Having bodies in the club for the sake of having bodies, however, isn't always a long term plan.

If they were to reach out to.. say.. the old country crowd that likes to sip water or nurse their diet Coke while singing Tex Ritter songs all night, that could quite conceivably have a very negative impact on that 11:30 crowd.

As in.. they might decide, "To hell with listening to blue hairs sing tear in my beer country, let's go to the other club."

Club management '101' teaches that what you do in a club one night can have a direct impact on other nights.. or even what they do earlier in the day can have a negative impact later in the evening.

You load the club full of blue hairs singing old school hee haw early in the evening, you'll probably scare off the good time letting their hair hang down 'bread & butter' crowd later.

Weedy, you summed it up rather well.

You aren't going to get an older country crowd with a 10pm start, so that's a non-issue. I have seen some young professional type crowds that show up earlier, but those are usually a bit more upscale places.

We go to one gig that starts at 8:30 and has an older crowd that starts leaving about 10:30, when the younger crowd comes and and runs till 1. They have good food, though, and are sort of a family place most of the time.

If it's a dive bar that doesn't serve food, I am guessing your options are limited. If it serves good food, you could start an hour earlier and try for two crowds. Otherwise, do like on place I have seen -- don't start until 11.

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

What Cheese said.

And if that don't work.
AK47's might.

With all due respect I wholeheartedly disagree with this generalization. If that were the case than adamant "non-karaokers" wouldn't come out on a venue's DJ night, nor would establishments with a busy dinner crowd be able to attract the late night college crowd.

Places that routinely only cater to one demographic may abide by "Club management 101." However the majority of the successful venues pull crowds from many different types of people at different times for different things.

---------------------

Back to the subject, the early birds are there to SING. So, why not try 2 songs back-to-back for the first hour? Sing one, get one free!