Karaoke Forums

I wanted to ask how many KJs in here will settle for less than the agreed upon rate for karaoke. If you do settle for less, is your willingness to settle for less based on the night of the week?

The bar I work for on Saturdays, for the second week in a row, closed down early and told me that they were only paying for the time I worked. In other words, I got only 75% of my pay. I feel bad for the bar because I know even at the discounted rate they lost money. But, I am not on a commission basis, and I don't have my hand out when they do really well and tell them they owe me more. This is a traditionally slow time for many bars in Michigan because we are in the midst of a 2 week hunting season.

So, how many here are willing to accept less under circumstances like that? Would you be more willing to accept less on a weeknight than a weekend?

One of my favorite things to say to a club owner/manager when they come to me at the end of the night and say, "We had a bad night.. I only want to pay you 3/4 of your regular rate." is to say, "Does that mean you're going to pay me EXTRA when you have a GOOD night?"

As a general rule, clubs that try and lowball me at the end of a slow night are clubs I end up quitting. I mean.. hey.. I had a slow month.. does that mean I can just pay half my mortgage? When I get gas for my car on the way home, can I tell the clerk I had a slow night, and only plan on paying $1.50 a gallon?

I have been in financial situations in the past where i've not had any choice but to take the lower amount.. because 3/4 pay was better than NO pay.. but those were situations where I IMMEDIATELY began actively seeking a new gig to replace it with.

Summertime slows down for many bars because of the competition with family vacations, carnivals, block parties, concerts, etc.. lots of times of the year can have a negative impact on club attendance.

If a club wants to switch to a 'pay for performance' scale, or pay based on the till at the end of the night, then they should be prepared to pay you premiums on good nights, not just docking you on slow nights.

I'm with the Cheese on this one. Full pay or no more play.

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

What kind of advertising does this bar do? The reason I ask that is because in the past, very bar that asked me to cut my rate for the night did little to NO advertising at all. A lot of bars think that merely putting "KARAOKE" on their sign will bring people to their establishment in droves! T ain't so!

If a bar I played at had a slow night, and if they aggressively advertise, have a good bartending/wait staff with a positive attitude toward karaoke......basically doing everything they should, then I would give them a break in price for that night.

However, I've played places that promised to advertise, and didn't, had a lousy staff with bad attitudes about karaoke, didn't offer drink or food specials, didn't make the customers feel welcomed, have the nerve to complain to me that the register tape was low. To them I will not give a break for a lousy night, but instead offer them some advice as to how to make karaoke successful.

If your bar is really doing everything they can, and if it's a place you REALLY like working, I'd give them a break, but YOU should set the price for which you'll settle. NOT them.

Ditto.

you get a big "I second that" from me too.

Well that did happen.
When the till did well so did I.
I do however think that was the exception rather than...

BT Magic brings up a good point: Bar advertising

For all my regular venues, I have 11x17 color glossy posters printed up with my company name, the clubs name, and the day and time i'll be there. I drop off 6 or 7 of these posters at the venue for them to put up around the club.

These are professionally printed on heavy stock, and I pay a couple bucks a piece to have them made so they're durable.. you'd be surprised how many clubs over the years 'forget' to put these posters up.

Other venues either don't bother putting anything on the sign out front.. or when they do, simply put 'Karaoke' on the sign.

In this biz, it's all about building and selling a brand. Simply putting 'Karaoke' on the marquee outside could be anyone.. it could be some hack with a house stereo and a scratched up set of Sweet Georgia Brown discs, or it could be the most mind blowing KJ host you've ever seen.

One analogy I like to use is, "If you had Aerosmith playing here tonight, would you just put 'Live Band Tonight' on the sign?"

Simply booking entertainment alone isn't enough.. the club has to do their part in promoting the entertainment, preferably in conjunction with some supporting specials.

Agree mate.
I know a few on this forum that know the bar wont advertise.
So they do it themselves.
A frames.
Signs on tail gates.
It's a bit like baby sitting them.

Same here. I will never settle for less just because it’s a slow night. I don’t ask them for a raise either when business is good. I think if you agree to a pay cut then that will be the bar’s leverage to do it again on the next slow night (and again and again).

Hold your ground, TroyVnd27. You were hired to do the job; you always deliver what was expected. In return expect them to honor what was agreed upon. I’m lucky I never been in that kind of situation. That’s probably when I’ll start looking somewhere.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

Thank you, everyone. I think I am going to start looking for a new Saturday show.

I only had this happen once and it went something like this.
When the show is set up the pay is what we agreed on. If you can't honor your price Im afraid you need to get someone else.
I got my full pay for the night.

I have a contract that states my rate of pay and times contracted. If they choose for me to go early I get paid my contracted amount.

I don't have this problem all my gigs are hard min with sales incentive bonus. I very rarely make the min, most nights I make $25 to $75 over minimum.