Karaoke Forums

in my neck of the woods k. j.'s have gone nuts...

problem 1 is that a lotta guys are selling 80,000 tracks for 500.00 then those that buy it and there are quite a few they go out and cut prices and get jobs are take other k j;s job from them...

we have casino's here so there's not a lotta places for bands to play anymore...
most play at d.a.v. v.f.w. and elk's r moose loudge's...and in those places they guys doing the karaoke have switched to either setting up for 75 bucks a night are for tips...the bands on the other hand are either taking to door are for a five piece band getting 50 bucks a night...
there's 1 that plays for the door he gets maybe 30 people in there at 5 dollarts a head...you do the math...ok it's 30 bucks a piece...

i believe they as in the bands have lowered there standards so low that thy just feel blessed to have a place to do what they love to do...may not be to long the band will be paying to play...
these are not top notch bands at all, infact there pretty bad, but there taking jobs away from good bands because most good bands won't play for nothing...
and as i was watching the people in this place i don't think they really cared if they were good are not...thats sad...again lowered standards...

bottom line is bands along with k j's are NOW willing to work for nothing.

we must have 20 karaoke places around here and maybe just maybe 1 is worth going to..the rest have no clue as how to even set up there p.a.

ok i'm done

I did the band thing for years.. the only way you'll ever make any money doing the band thing is if you have a schtick.

Problem with most bands is they are mostly dudes, and they like playing music THEY like.

Of course the music dudes like is rarely the same kind of music women can shake their asses too. Bands that play music that women like to dance to will always be popular.

I know a 5 piece band right now that makes over $1200 a night, and they're playing every friday and saturday.. and they're not very good at all.. but they play the kind of music women like to dance to, and they put on a show.

Same with karaoke. Any tool can get some music and a PA and start offering karaoke for $50 a night.. but those 'hosts' rarely have the kind of personality that is required to really stay busy and make money in this business.

The difficult part, however, is getting established, and being able to show that what a professional KJ with a dynamic personality can bring to the table for a reasonable $150 to $250 a night is leaps and bounds better than what the kid with the laptop full of bootleg music charging $50 a night can do.

Karaoke has evolved into formidable competition for bands. Around here, they charged $400+ per night (usually). Back then, bands did very well. But, not any more.

Karaoke has taken the place of bands at almost every bar. Why? Because karaoke has evolved from "just karaoke" to a major DJ and karaoke event. The KJs have gotten better at what they do, and thanks to American Idol, it is more popular than ever.

I've taken over two bars that gave up on bands. They love karaoke and we have more customers than most of the bands ever did. At the end of the night, paying me $150 means a lot more money in their pocket because they didn't pay for a $400 band. This has been the trend over the last five years or more.

After getting used to karaoke and the way it sounds, I find that most of the bands I see are so loud that it is unbearable. Or, maybe it is that I am getting old.

Give me the variety and sound quality of a good karaoke show ANY day over bands.

Bands blame karaoke for their decline in gigs, however it's typically due to the bands that just plain suck why they can't get shows. I admit I was in several bands that were not great - whether it be the songs we chose or just couldn't get the songs tight enough. No one to blame but ourselves - even when karaoke took over some of our shows at the time (well ok it was my show ). The bands that are still working, there is a reason - they are good!
Nice thing about my shows are we often get alot of musicians in to sing, sometimes practice or bring in their own karaoke versions of their originals due to being in the scene in both playing & engineering. We've had several bands begin at our shows from musicians meeting others.

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

Lon nails it right there. My band's not having any problems getting booked at decent rates. I gave up hosting karaoke because the band was booked most weekends. The major problem in our area isn't karaoke, it's the bands so desperate to play that they don't care if they get paid or not. Unfortunately, they don't connect their lack of talent, lack of practice, and lack of showmanship with not being able to get paying gigs.

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Dave's not here.

Much to our surprise, we have had two members of bands actually become friendly to us and help promote us. I had remarked to both that I thought band people hated karaoke people (although many karaoke hosts started off in bands).

One replied that it wasn't karaoke that was his problem. He saw a decline when the drunk driving laws got stricter and many places just don't have the tills anymore to pay him enough to make it worth his while. But he still gets jobs and we trade info on places that are hiring, recommend each other, etc. He is a regular at our show but not an avid singer as that is his "job." He enjoys having a night off playing pool with his buddies while we keep the wives happy singing. Then they beg him to do a few and he brings down the place.

The other said that he used to resent karaoke as he felt it took jobs from him. But now he sees it as helping to keep places open so that he will have somewhere to play. We are at the same venue as he is 2 nights a week while he hosts an open mic there one night and books bands on a monthly basis on another. He puts us on his flyers and we do the same for him. He says if we werent there on a Wednesday, what kind of income would the place have for that night?

The problem with bands in our area is a venue will book one to give the place a boost and have a great turn out. So they try it again and it is been there, done that and no one comes. Very few command a regular following but some of the better ones are still successful.

I support my venues who book live bands on weekends -- the number of times I've walked in with a commitment to spend a certain amount of "support money" and oftentimes have trouble staying long enough to do it - the bands are POOR! TERRIBLE! I swear - sound seems to be the biggest issue for some of them - they have NO CLUE -- either they don't bring a sound person or they sit someone at the board who wouldn't know which knob to turn or which way to turn it. GRRR. I sit there and mull, groan, and think to myself, 5 minutes at the board and they'd sound great. But that is certainly not my job.

Leopard is quite right - bring them in the first time, they are successful; bring them in the next time, it's 'been there, done that,' and they have a poor turnout. I'm not so sure that a lot of places realize you can only tap your regulars for so much money and they start being more selective about the nights they go out and spend money. In our small town there are about 4 venues that have live entertainment, ranging from really crappy bands working for nothing to the bands/performers that do the circuit; unfortunately there is no guarantee with either of the quality or the turnout. I can only hear Mustang Sally so many times before I go postal anymore. Many bands are just not entertaining - you have to entertain people. A front man who doesn't say anything or connect with the audience is a death knell for these bands.

The problem is two fold. Most music scenes have lost an appreciation for quality live music. So if I can pay a band $300 and get 50 people in the door or pay a band $1200 and get maybe 100 in the door, as the owner the math is simple (or is it). Around here the bands that do the best are the festival bands that seem to be glorified wedding bands. I other words they play a lot of different stuff, but don't play any of it well.

The second problem is the cost of PA. Back in the day, not everyone could do this or do it cheaply because PA equipment alone was a major investment. Now that we've got all these budget brand sh!t-on-a-stick kits available, anyone can get a band going. The result is crappy bands that can't get a following or big gigs, will take crap money just to play and they can afford to because they don't have the major upfront investment that used to be required. The sad fact is many of these bands you see in bars today would have never made it past the garage band stage 10-15 years ago.

The same things that have killed the band scene have killed the karaoke scene. There's no longer anything special about someone who owns their own PA, CDG's, players, etc. Everyone has them or can get them. Pirates have hurt this as well since now with loaded hard drives, anyone can get a huge selection of songs cheaply.

In the end it's the patrons, the American public, that have allowed this trend to build. People don't go to see bands the way they used to. How many times have you seen a live band where people actually applauded after a killer solo? How many times is there a band in a bar where over half the patrons aren't even paying attention to what's going on up on stage? If people actually had an appreciation for quality live music they would demand such from their venues and would only frequent the ones that have quality bands. Unfortunately, most people don't care and as a result there's very little incentive for bar owners/entertainment directors to book high dollar bands.

Of course you can also look at the fact that there are a lof of bars that shouldn't have bands at all that are contributing to this problem as well. Bars with capacities lower than 150 people can't possibly support high dollar bands. So they hire cheaper bands. The result of this is the novelty of having a band in a bar has worn off, also contributing to the lack of appreciation for quality bands.

For both bands and Karaoke the problem is there's not enough demand for quality anymore. I mean we talk about it here all the time. As counter-intuitive as it is, people will still go to sing karaoke with a host that they don't like rather than find a different venue or complain to the venue that hired the crappy host. Boring or jerkish hosts with crap systems get gigs because there is nothing to incent the club owner to pay more for a higher quality KJ. Very few understand the value of a good host anymore.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Very well spoken Tony. I could NOT agree more!

That is a good point about bands not being special anymore. When I was younger, live music was worshipped and we would follow bands. But I think they must have been really good bands. I know one that played our High School Dances actually became a local one hit wonder and had a song on the radio--anyone remember "The People" and "I Love You?" You can YouTube it. Pretty funny.

There was another I would go to see every weekend once I turned 21. It was fronted by a car salesman who couldn't sing too well but he had the dream to have his own country band so he was able to hire some Nashville sidemen and those guys could play anything. It was a treat to dance to talented and entertaining people and they kept up with current hits and you didn't want to miss out on a week. The only thing that drove me out was the smoke finally kept making me sick.

Also, a competing place got in the likes of Merle Haggad and Hank Williams Jr. Can you imagine going to a nightclub and seeing those kinds of shows up close and dancing to them? Once the stadium shows took hold, how could a night club of today afford that type of act? Music went from something I would go to every weekend where you could see performers up close and personal (actually saw Dolly Parton and Sha Na Na in school gymnasiums) to being an expensive rare thing with lines and crowds and watching the show on a huge screen from a place on the lawn. Better for the perfomer's incomes, I guess but what was left in the bars didn't really seem that good in comparison to what it used to be like.

Yep.....pirate/bad Karaoke has killed all "bar" entertainment. Most people that go to bars, either don't care, and the dj/ kj /band is just background noise or they have NO CLUE what good sounds is since there is so much suckyness out there.

Perhaps some day the tide will turn and quality sound will actually make a difference.

You just gotta do like this one fellow did. He always wanted to play with his band, and so he went into business and made a pile of money. Then he put up his own band -- "Sonny Norman and the Drifting Playboys" and bought a bar. Voila! Guaranteed gig five nights a week. I think he played there for over 20 years. He and his band got to be fairly good -- you'll find some mention of him out on the net. You can even find a performance....

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