Karaoke Forums

I was just wondering how much actual cash in hand a year the best paid are really making. Now not the, I charge x amount, no actually money made. I have played gigs for $1200.00 a night, but only twice in 12 years. So..... actually I only made around $4000 a year. Some years better than others.

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Still love to sing!

Just for clarification, are you asking "How much did you make (let's say) last year between January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012?" without getting into the "I charge $xxx per show." type of answers? Or, are you asking "How much money did you make last year after expenses?"

Just the guys selling hard drives make that much per year..

It depends on how hard you want to work, sometimes I turn away jobs or give them to other hosts that might be a better fit for the particular venue. Currently I work six days a week 10 months out of the year. I could make anywhere from 30 to 40K plus tips. That's why I have to recharge for two months, or I would get burnt out. That is why I'm seriously considering retiring in a couple more years or so. Have a blessed day.

As you might imagine, I talk with a lot of KJs, and the financial angle often comes up.

I would expect a $100k-per-year KJ to be pretty rare. Working six days a week, you'd need to clear $333.33 per workday, although you could cut that to $275 if you did an extra show once a week. But that's profit, not gross revenue. And it's every day, day in and day out, making that kind of money.

Multi-rigging would make it easier, but then you've got to have labor that needs to be paid--and if they're good enough to keep a show long-term, there's a good chance they will become your competition instead of your employee.

In the current economy, keeping a minimal track count of quality material, with good sound equipment, and a stable of reliable operators: in order to bring home $100,000 a year for the owner, I estimate a karaoke operation would need to play about 18 bar/restaurant gigs and 2 higher-dollar gigs (weddings, mitzvahs, corporate events) per week.

That's a lot, roughly a thousand shows a year. It would probably require a minimum of four rigs, and virtually all of the owner's work would be in sales, management, and operational support--very little actual karaoke.

That's for 100,000.00 a year James and having the headache of having to manage others, plus the overhead. At 365 days a year, minus 61 day vacation, minus 48 Sundays, I'm somewhere around 256 days of hosting per year. Since I have other sources of income, I still make over six figure income per year. For one host operation I don't do bad, my sweet spot is 150.00 per show some are more some are less, and some I donate to charity. 256 x 150.00 comes out to 38,400 per year plus another 10 to 15% on tips. That comes to $44,160.00 gross, then of course you have to deduct whatever business expenses you have, so the actual net would be less. Have a legal day.

Got ya. It would be gross for the year Jan 1st to Dec 31st.

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Still love to sing!

The reason I even asked all of you here was I have heard people say they made $300.00 and up per gig. I am thinking to self "Damn, that must be nice to make that kinda money every gig." Then come to find out they only do two gigs a week or month.

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Still love to sing!

So the short answer is a big NO!

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Still love to sing!

Since the economic downturn I would say it would be very difficult for a host to gross six figure income just off karaoke. If you had a special situation where you were playing at some type of casino and getting over 300.00 per night maybe. Still 30K to 40K and more is not bad for a part-time job. Although for every hour your playing you should be spending time working on your business. Only a host that has other hosts working for him could ever approach the six figure mark. Just my opinion of course. Have a blessed day.

we have made $100,000(gross) in a year KJ'ing but not in more than 7 years. We do however own 3 systems (and a small party system) and it is a LOT of work. The last year we topped $100,000 gross our net (after expenses) was just around 1/2 that amount.

Yeppers 30-40k still good.

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Still love to sing!

How much $$$ do you have invested in karaoke music for those 3 rigs?

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-- Mark

lots of work. I hear ya. I have only worked smaller towns. IE; less than 35k people. but when I first started 20 year ago, I got paid $275 a night only did week ends. Then went to 5 nights a week, but only good for the summer months. Nobody would have karaoke in the winter. Now the town I just left, bars owners are only paying people that will do a gig for $20.00 to $50.00 a night. One host was doing two shows for $60.00 for both nights. I can only say WOW!

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Still love to sing!

I made 62,500 three years ago at a club doing karaoke and DJ, but it was at a resort club and they're running 7 nights a week for 10 months, and some nights I worked 6-7 hours, depending on the weather. I split this gig with a partner so I guess if I'd have done the whole deal I'd have exceeded 100,000.

I like this.

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Still love to sing!

How much do you have invested in karaoke music?

I'm just curious of those who have topped the $100k mark, just as I asked kjflorida above.

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-- Mark

Over the last 19 years in business my company has spent $163,698.00 on DISCS, that is more than our house cost. Some of that amount has been recovered by sales of duplicate discs. We buy in bulk keep what we need and sell off the duplicates.

My partner had all the music, he's been in the business since the early 90s and he had SC bricks and foundations, plus older pioneer, dk, mm and chart buster that he paid premium price for when it was new, so I'll bet he easily had spent $35 to $40 k over that span of time. We picked up some other newer stuff after we partnered up, including phm subscription, but less than
$1000 for that I think. So to answer your question, close to $40k.

Mid 40s to mid 50s working 6-7 nights a week, depending on the year and number of special events.

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You can be strange but not a stranger