Karaoke Forums

now now boys...

I actually have to say i've seen a BUNCH of bars around this area offering RockBand as an entertainment night that were full - one place I went had over an hour sign up sheet. I thought about offering myself due to the popularity in the last couple years. However saw quickly it was a short lived fad & do not see it much anymore. However I still get people saying they learned their song from RockBand or Guitar Hero and wanted to try it out in karaoke. As far a $1 per song I have never seen that except for almost every club I visitied in Hawaii. That is the norm there.


As a singer I would NEVER stick my money into a jukebox to sing, I think personally this would be a VERY niche market that it would work in. Most people like to sing in front of others in crowds from my 20 years of running shows.

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DK actually had a system back in the early 90's that was pretty short lived, but you could stick a buck in & sing. Not many did and most of the places that actually spent the money on one hired a host to run it like any other kj of the time.

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Oh, then you are talking to the wrong people - at least around here a private party will usually command 3x PLUS a normal bar rate. The dj's doing it for a friend for free are rare - again around here, most will charge at least something. I have never done a show for free for a friend, I may have give them 'a break' but nothing more, it's still a business.

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Here, someone doing it for free is the norm. It's the rarity that someone actually gets paid for providing music for a wedding, especially karaoke. Most of the time weddings around here only involve a little light background music. Once in a while someone will want to dance and have a good time, but again, those are not common. The most I have been able to actually get paid for a wedding was $300. And it happened to be a fairly easy one. Only a few blocks from my home and was outside so wasn't limited by space. Only problem was the rain and lightning at the end of the night. Still got paid tho. Most of the weddings I have done were for close friends, and the music was my wedding gift to them.

Like I stated before, private parties just don't have live entertainment, except for Christmas parties. Those parties will only bring a couple hundred bucks at best even. But they are usually pretty easy to do. I'm afraid Utah isn't like the rest of the country when it come to entertainment. The best stable money comes from the bars/clubs. But with the economy the way it is, that one is no longer a good option.
I got into karaoke for the simple reason that I wanted to do a better job than the hosts that I had seen. I knew what I liked, and was listening to other singers comments as well. My goal was to offer the best possible show that anyone could ask for. And by doing that, I would generate a good income for myself and a steady flow of customers for my venues.

I was wrong. That is why I feel the need to change directions. It doesn't mean, I won't be continuing with at least some karaoke somewhere for someone. It just means, that I will no longer be pursuing the bar scene anymore. A little fore warning to anyone who thinks that they might want to move to Utah and start a karaoke business,,, How about a kool-aid stand instead,, it's about the same profitability.

Will it change? I dunno. The general view of what karaoke is from the majority of the population here is.. karaoke is for drunken retards making fools of themselves in a bar. No offense to those who drink and sing, but that is the truth here. The average person who sings only does so when drunk or feeling "loose". There are a small handful who enjoy singing for the pure pleasure of singing, but those are not the ones who spend money at the clubs. Like me,,, I don't drink or smoke, in fact I don't even drink carbonated drinks. No coffee or tea either. Most bars here do not offer food, or else that would be how I would spend my money to support a venue, but that is only in a few of the bars/clubs. None of the venues I host have real food.

I know of one place here in Utah that is a coffee/sandwich shop that is a dedicated karaoke spot. The owners are a gay couple, who are friends of mine. They opened up only a few months ago. Most of the singers are children who's parents are wanting to get little Johnny or Sally on stage. But the place will die, I guarantee it. Statistically, 80% of new small business' here in Utah fail in the first 2 years. Karaoke is NOT alive and well in our state.

And that is a sad state indeed.

Here's a thought, Scott (that rhymes)..

You already have a PA.. maybe look into the local musician scene and host an open jam kind of thing on weeknights at a local club.

I've done that in the past when my schedule was a little thin.. set up the PA, got some of my musician friends to spread the word, they'd all show up on a tuesday or wednesday and pick n' grin. It didn't pay much, but it was an easy $100 bill and was more money than my equipment was making sitting at home.

Another avenue that is really untapped in many areas is karaoke for kids parties.. kids like 7 to 12 kind of range. Little kids, especially girls LOVE to sing.. that's an easy $200 gig that when done well brings in a ton of referral work.

I personally just don't have the patience for it.

Put a block ad in the local paper advertising your services for kids parties, etc. NOT A CLASSIFIED AD.. but a block ad, usually half a business card size, most smaller markets that's a $50 ad.

You may be surprised the response you get.

I've gotten a lot of gigs over the years.. all the good ones came from ads I ran, or from word of mouth/referrals.

Cold calling clubs usually gets me nowhere.

Man weddings are typically where one could clean up. A dj friend of mine they only do weekend weddings - sometime 2 per day and get on avg $1500-2500 PER show. The lowest amount for a private party I got was $500 for a AAA company party. This was a 'break' because I knew the person booking it. Normally would have been a couple hundred higher.

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Cheese,, all good ideas for sure for getting a little response from a few places. However, the pay would be nowhere near what you think we might be able to get. People here DON"T like to spend money,, hence the economy in trouble.

Let me tell you a little story about my foster dad. He was originally from Boston, where home made crafts can command a premium price for retail sales, He used to carve little birds, like partridges, doves, etc.. He could carve about 10 of them in a day and get about 30 bucks each if he sold them back in Boston. So, he would send them to his brother who lived there and sold them to the tourist shops. But, he tried to sell them here,,, and found he couldn't sell them for a buck each. The locals would look at them and say, "I won't pay over a dollar for a block of wood". It didn't matter that they were all finished and hand carved, each one different from the rest. Nope, no sales here. The local people just don't see the value in service. They don't tip, they don't get out of their comfort zones. They like to stay in their own little worlds and keep their families fat and happy. Nothing more, nothing less.

But, thank you for the good ideas, even still. Some of them I would even consider even doing. We do have the places for both kids and adults here, and might see what gives. The biggest question is "who pays for my services?" for the kids shows or the jam sessions? The kids wont, the venue won't, the parents sure as heck won't. But we will see.