Is Karaoke Dead?

[Bigdog]

I just read some discussions about peoples thoughts on karaoke and asked if it was dead. Some people say it's changing.

If karaoke changes is it still karaoke?

I don't consider Name That Tune karaoke.

I don't consider Karaoke Triva karaoke.

I don't consider a show where the "host" has to spend half or more of the night playing dance music karaoke.

What would you consider death?

I have seen a drastic drop in karaoke singers and listeners in the last few years.

I expect unemployment to go back to 9% or more in the next few months. I expect Obamacare to kill everything starting when it really kicks in in 2014 when people will have to come up with thousands of dollars to either buy insurance or pay the fine. And then oddly enough you still won't have health care you'll just be paying it for someone else with you fine money.

I predict at the current rate of decline....I'll be sitting at home on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. With any luck there will be karaoke shows on Fridays & Saturdays.

Bands are losing popularity....DJs are losing popularity....karaoke is losing popularity......I never thought I would utter those words. We can not compete on weeknights anymore.

Changes in the way entertainment is delivered are effecting our income. Smart phones that can get streaming TV and access to every other form of entertainment aren't helping.

I can not compete with Verizon or AT&T. I can not provide all of their entertainment options. I'm only a mortal KJ.

I do not see how any bar will make enough money on weeknights to justify having to pay live entertainement to break even.

Football games aren't drawing people in like they used to.

There is a shift in how people entertain themsleves and it's being fueled by a crap economy. Staying at home with friends is more economical.

I have talked to many different restaurant employees lately and they all talk about declining business.

When people stop eating out and drinking out....we are in trouble. Weeknights will die for everything from live entertainment to eating and drinking.

Weekends will become king for spending entertainemnt dollars.

I feel the end is drawing near for my weeknight jobs.

Lack of attendance is going to be the killer. Even the ones that show up are spending less money and or drinking free water.

It's not that karaoke is dead. It's not that karaoke isn't popular.

It's the dead economy. Money rules the world and without it to spend on luxuries like eating and drinking out....we will die.

If you can make a living from doing karaoke two nights a week....then you will survive. If not you will have to make changes.

Now with that said....the competition for those two nights will be fierce. Bar owners will have to decide how to best fund their cash registers.

In my 40 years experience of watching bar entertainement phases....a good band always draws a bigger crowd than DJs or karaoke.

Band & DJ crowds tend to drink more alcohol. You all know karaoke crowds are pop and water drinkers.

So the bar owners have a choice to make between Alcohol drinkers or pop drinkers.

We still could get cut out of the entertainment field options.

Personally if I owned a bar I think I could still make money with karaoke.....my other option would be play the radio.

I also see in the near future bars closing at midnight or earlier on weeknights. Their insurance rates drop if they close at or before midnight. So they can increase their bottom line by closing early on dead nights. This will force the people that do come out on weeknights to get there early to eat & drink. Makes more sense if you still have a job to go to.

Karaoke is changing to a weekend & private party form of entertainment.

Not dead yet but on life support.

[Bigdog]

If you want to see how bad it's getting watch TV. Look at the restaurant commercials...do you see the dinner specials dropping in price? Do you see the 2 fors?

This is a survival plan tactic. They are feeling the crunch from lack of business. They are spending millions of dollars to attract income. Is your local karaoke bar spending millions for TV ads?

It's a rare night that I take home full money for doing a show.

First they cut your pay and then they cut you. It's only a matter of time. It can't keep going like this the bar owners will have to decide if doing karaoke on a weeknight is worth it.

I think I'll have to look for a Friday night job so at least I'll have two nights a week.

[wiseguy]

I hate to get political here but I'm tired of the misinformation. I'm tired of people blaming Obama for not cleaning up Bush's mess fast enough. We ARE better off than we were four years ago and too many people either try to deny, or are unaware of, just how bad things were heading when Obama took office and saved our asses.

Unemployment is dropping and will continue to drop as more manufacturing jobs are created and when it is made unprofitable to ship jobs overseas. Finally making the richest Americans pay their fair share is going to take more burden off the middle class.

Obamacare is going to help many Americans get affordable health insurance. Those who can afford health insurance, but refuse to purchase it, place the burden of their health care costs on the rest of society. The penalty is designed to offset that cost. Many whine about how things need to be fixed and then cry when they are asked to pay to help fix it.

It's not karaoke that is losing popularity but rather bars in general. This is evident by the fact that bands and DJs are also experiencing small crowds. Lets face it... going to a bar these days is a risky venture. DUI laws are so strict, and enforcement at such a high level, going to a bar without a designated driver is DUI suicide. The only bars that are doing well now are the sports bars where people can eat hot wings and drink a few beers while watching sports on a big screen.

The online karaoke sites and the home karaoke equipment market are doing great. A lot of money is being spent on karaoke... just not in the bars.

[Bigdog]

I fall into the catagory of the rest of the Americans that have seen their income drop by $5000.
That means I'm not better off than I was 4 years ago.

Hope & change has turned into "Buddy I hope you have some change."

Keep blaming Bush and everything will get better.

In case you haven't noticed our good paying middle class jobs have been shipped to China. We have no middle class...Just lower upper class and upper lower class. When He says he wants to build our middle class he means by sending the rest of our manufacturing jobs to China..that's our middle class. We only export 8% of anything. That means we import 92% Somebody had to make that stuff and it wasn't us.

The healthcare penalty starting in 2014 will crush everyone. The ironic part will be....they still won't have healthcare just a penalty payment because it's cheaper than the healthcare payment. Why should I pay for healthcare for someone that doesn't want to work and is very content getting welfare and food stamps.. I had to find a job that had benefits. I never even applied at places that didn't offer them. But the new normal will be working for $7 an hour with no benefits and being glad you have that even though you'll need 2 more jobs like that to eat...

I do karaoke in bars so it means the death of karaoke as we know it today...

My money says the economy gets worse and unemploymeny goes up. We are in a death spiral...not just karaoke...the entire economy and the country is going down the drain. Just remember how it used to be so you can tell your grandkids...they won't believe it. The divide between rich and poor will continue to widen...We are only going to get poorer...


All the European countries that are in economic ruins today have already tried and failed at the policies that are being rammed up our butts.

Grandma will be tossed over the cliff....their deductables have already risen from under $50 to almost $300....now it's food or meds....

With almost all the karaoke singers drinking free water or pop....nobody will get a DUI.

Sports bars have never done well...the fans are too fickle. Almost every job I ever had has been in a sports bar because they need to do something to suppliment their income from the sports fans not showing up. Been going on for years....Any idiot the opens a sports bar today doesn't have a clue. That means they cut out a major portion of the population....No different than a gay bar or a punk rock bar. Very small segment of the overall population pool.

18 weeks of football doesn't pay the bills. 52 weeks of karaoke used to...not anymore...

This all goes back to the introduction of the smart phone...hand held multi media entertainment center. Been going down hill since then with 10 million apps and access to every form of entertainment ever created. Including karaoke in the palm of your hand.

that's it...I'm taking the bridge....oh wait...don't forget when they close all the coal and oil and natural gas production for the Cap & Trade tax to save the environment. We won't even be able to afford to turn on the TV....electricity will cost too much...it will be do I run the furnace or eat...

55 million idoits picked the new same old President..with the same failed policies with the same flushing sound that is only getting louder. We are doomed...we have no major manufacturing capability anymore.

We are a service oriented country. You can't export a plumber or a mechanic or a burger flipper....or a KJ. Everything has a made in China sticker on it made by Chinese middle class workers. Living in a booming economy. They stole it from us...it ain't coming back and they ain't giving it back. They own us. It was part of their compensation package to repay them. Here take our middle class jobs...we don't need them anymore.

The good old days are over...Get out of debt now before it's too late. Once healthcare and Cap & Trade tax/penalties take effect...you'll need every penny to survive.

The biggest culprit is CORPORATE GREED. It wasn't addressed with the TARP bailout. Nobody has tried to fix it and nobody will every stop it. As long as corporate greed exists....Our middle class is gone. The bottom line profit now rules every business decision. Employees are just a red line item to be used & tossed aside. You can't justify giving a red line a retirement or healthcare...

Our wages & compensation have been brought back to where they were in the 80s...the wages reset but not the inflation or cost of living expenses... You have less money now to pay for more stuff like food and housing...That will change...it's going to get much worse...

I don't want to share the wealth with people that don't want to work. I'm trying to figure out how I can get my share of free stuff from the government. I want food stamps and free weekly money given to me because I'm a minority now.. When we all get free stuff who will be left to pay for it? It can''t go on like this.

The ringing noise in my ears is from the flushing sound....not from loud karaoke music..

[Bigdog]

Something else I've noticed....not many people are asking how to become KJs anymore. Now it's how do I get a job doing anything.

[wiseguy]

Just because you're tired of hearing that the mess we're in is Bush's fault doesn't make it any less true. The failed trickle down policies, weak financial regulations, tax cuts for the rich elite, and two unpaid for wars, are the causes. That "death spiral" you speak of is what we are pulling out of now.

Place the blame for shipping jobs to China on the Republican congress where it belongs. They filibustered a bill that would stop tax breaks for companies shipping jobs overseas.

The healthcare penalty is not going to affect "everyone"... and far from it. Single people making less that $9,500 per year, and married couples making less than $19,000 per year are exempt from the penalty. There are also other conditions that will make many other people exempt. It's amazing how some people begrudge the needy for receiving government assistance but see no problem with corporate welfare or handouts to those who are well off. Welfare money given to those who don't need it far exceeds that for those who do.

The health care penalty is there to give incentive to those who can afford to purchase health care insurance to do so instead of using the hospital ER's which leaves everyone else paying the bill. Yes, the penalty is less than the cost of insurance because it is not meant to replace the coverage but rather to help offset the costs of the ER visits. And of course if you choose to pay the penalty instead of buying insurance you are not going to be insured. That's the point... choose one or the other.

Before you bring up the economic policies of European countries you might want to consider the fact that the countries that now have the strongest economies also have universal health care. This includes Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, The United Kingdom, and others.

You can't use income from karaoke as an economic indicator. It may be the only profession I know of that the income has dropped to half of what it was 20 years ago.

As for sports bars, you might want to ask BW3 about not doing well. Every one of their locations I know of get big crowds several nights a week. They cater to all sports which gives them year round business. I know of no other type of bar that does as well.

The rest of your ramblings on the economy are just too ridiculous to address. You are obviously a victim of the conspiracy propaganda being spread by the extreme right and the Tea Party and fed by partisan media like Fox news. No facts can dissuade you.

The reason less people are interested in becoming a KJ is because that is not the direction karaoke is moving in. It is moving out of the bars and into homes. Easy access to large karaoke libraries without a large investment has a lot to do with it. DUI laws are also keeping people at home.

If you want to have any chance in surviving with a mobile karaoke business you will have to loosen the restrictions you have placed on where you will play and what you will play. If more people are going to smoking bars than so must you. If adding DJ sessions to shows will get more gigs then you have to do that. If you don't someone else will and they'll be working while you sit at home.

[Bigdog]

Big city sports bars in downtown areas will always do a decent business. But Ma & Pa sports bars in podunk can't draw a steady income crowd...It's why they do karaoke. Or Trivia or Name That Tune or have DJs and bands if they have enough room. I can name 100 of them. Everyone thinks they have to be a sports bar. The fans aren't loyal enough. There are not enough faithful GIRL fans to make it worth it. If I owned a bar I'm going to do whatever attracts a large female population and many girls don't want guys that sit at home or spend their every waking hour watching sports drinking and ignoring them.

Our jobs started going overseas in the early to mid 70s. I can rmember the big BUY AMERICAN campaigns, I worked in a steel mill. We were hurt by foreign steel dumping. Then the automakers started using more and more foreign car parts. Corporate Greed started in the late 1800s....it's why unions were formed.

Corporate greed is now the king. Bean counters dictate how business is run. They keep their jobs by selling out American workers. There is no loyalty to the American worker. As in the old days. You're an expendable number on a bean counters target list. Labor costs will always be a companies red ink. I remember our owner was always complaining about the red ink caused by having mantainance workers. He figured we were not actually making the steel so we were costing him money.

As far as healthcare. Why are there so many uninsured now? Because they can't afford it. So how does forcing someone to pay the fine because they still can't afford the insurance payment helping them?

I have what's considered a Cadillac plan. It will be considered part of my income and I'll have to pay taxes on it as such. What do you think that will do for my bottom line? The plan is a failure designed to make everyone have less income. The rich will get richer and the middle class will get poorer. That is not helping the economy.

If you want to fund everyone with a free ride socialism/communisim is a failed way to run a country. I.E Russia, North Korea, China, Cuba....total failures for the population of these countries. Slave labor what's mine is yours doesn't work. Spreading my wealth to someone that doesn't want to contribute to the mass population and would rather be a drain on it....is not right or fair. It's a road to ruin.

Taxing people out of existance isn't the answer but it sure looks like that is the master plan.

We all have an equal opportunity to decide our fate in life. If you choose to lay around and take all you can get and expect me to be happy about won't work. Maybe there is more to life than Gang Banging and selling dope and using dope.

Everyone in the country has an obligantion to contribute not distribute or redistribute. Intentional drains on society don't deserve to be here. If you're not giving back...you're a major problem I don't want to deal with. I shouldn't have to deal with. I shouldn't have to pay for. Becoming a contributing member of society is your obligation.

I don't like funding LAZY & STUPID. PERIOD. Nobody should. So why do some feel that obligation should be forced on others? And you should like it?

Why don't people have good jobs? Corporate Greed has dropped the wages and sent the good jobs to other planets.

Profits are all they care about.....not workers health or income. Oh so sorry you can't work anymore....NEXT...so sorry you can't afford to eat on you low wages....NEXT...so sorry the taxes are so high and you live in the working poverty catagory...don't like it quit...NEXT...

Not everyone can be a plumber or a doctor....pretty soon they won't have enough work. A society based soley on being a service oriented people will not survive. How many McDonalds do we need? Just like having too many KJs in your town...pretty soon you all run out of work. Nothing to export makes you too dependant on someone else. Should we be going in that direction? Should we expect all of our products to come from China which doesn't nearly have our quality? I don't want to rely on China for NOTHING.

American made has always been a world standard....not anymore. America is quickly becoming a third world country as far as wages and quality and lack of skilled workers. How did that work for Africa in the last 5000 years?

What killed the Soviet Union? Not being like we used to be. What's killing the US...acting like the Soviet Union.... we're doomed.

Our students should be learning to speak Chinese....so we can communicate with our masters and owners and overlords.

There is a reason the US became a world power in only 250 years....everyone wanted to contribute by having a job and working hard. Not by holding out your hand....Robbing Peter to pay Paul....we were warned...It's still a failed policy. Always will be.

[CORVETTE]

Its not just America where the economy is suffering, its everywhere especially in the UK. I have been a KJ for nearly 20 years and am as busy now as always. I seen from previous posts that you run your karaoke on similar lines to me, ie no filler music so without being too critical if you portray such a doom & gloom image to your crowd & bar owners as you do in your posts you wont succeed.
Just concentrate on being better than the competition and being positive and your singers will return.

[Bigdog]

Weekends will be better than weekdays.
I don't have any competition that comes close to me as far as the quality of my show or the sound. I have the song slips for about 700 different singers that have been to my shows since I switched to computer about 5 years ago.

2 saturdays ago I had 30 singers....this saturday 13...

We have dropped from 2-5 nonsingers coming to shows for every singer to 1-1 if I'm lucky. There are other shows around and they aren't doing anything to speak of either. The steady singers just aren't coming out as often. I can't beat them over the head. Playtime money is getting harder for them to come by for whatever reason.

If the crowds aren't coming out anymore it's pretty hard to hide that from the bar owners. They aren't coming out for Djs and bands or sporting events as much either.

It seems the quality of the show isn't a determining factor anymore. They aren't coming out for the best show in town so how do you deal with it?

Years ago...people would make a night of it....coming early to get dinner and staying till the last singer sang.....It's not like that anymore. Most places are clearing out around 12:30....Did they run out of money? Can't drink another drop of free water? I hardly see anyone eating at karaoke. But a lot of them are drinking free water.

The amount of KJ competition wasn't a big deal years ago....but the same number of KJs are now competing for less singers. I never could understand the attraction to crappy sounding KJs. Why bother....but they do...

The best shot at having a decent karaoke crowd now is Friday & Saturday...week nights are hit a miss even more so than weekends.

[wiseguy]

As far as healthcare. Why are there so many uninsured now? Because they can't afford it. So how does forcing someone to pay the fine because they still can't afford the insurance payment helping them?

It's called the Affordable Health Care Act for a reason. The bill sets policies that will bring down the cost of coverage and help people in paying for it. It ensures that sick people can't be dropped from insurance, people can't be denied for preexisting conditions and women can't be charged more than men. It means American's and their families will only pay what they can afford.

It puts a cap on insurance companies raising your premiums (for profit) starting in 2013 and into 2014. Starting in Oct. 2013 insurance companies will compete to be your healthcare provider via a health insurance exchange pool which helps to decrease insurance premiums.

Americans between 133% and 400% above the poverty level will buy affordable health care coverage on the health insurance exchanges. The less you make, the lower the percentage of your income you will have to pay and more help you will receive. 19 million Americans will receive tax credits to help pay for healthcare and most middle class Americans will actually save thousands on healthcare via tax cuts.

Do yourself a favor and get you nose out of Fox news, quit listening to Rush Limbaugh, and research actual facts. They really do exist.


All these beliefs of yours are just more of the same Tea Party like absurdities that I've been debating in other forums for months. The American people showed the rich elite that America is not for sale and made the right choice. President Obama is going to continue to lead us into a brighter future.

[Bigdog]

I really doubt they would call it the TAX EVERYONE OUT OF EXISTANCE HEALTHCARE BILL. A pig in an evening gown is still a pig. That was just liberal spin terminology.

19 million people get a tax break....who makes up the difference in the taxes they don't pay...the tax fairy? How many of those 19 million are the 13 million illegal aliens?

How can anyone actally believe the rates will come down. We are talking about insuance companies...They got together after 9/11 to end common law marriages in several states Pennsylvania was one of them. Because they didn't want to pay out on any more DOMESTIC PARTNER claims...as in 9/11. Just another way to increase their bottom line by denying benefits people paid for.

I don't for one second believe anyone will save a nickel with the new healthcare TAX as outlined by the Supreme Court. Tax means less money in the pockets of workers. If you screwed off in school and can't get a good job or don't want to get a job ....I'm not paying for your stupidness. Upgrade your qualifications.

I guess Cap & Trade to eliminate thousands of coal jobs and trying to tax everyone into going green (another failed policy) is the answer. When nobody can afford to have healthcare and nobody can afford untilities and nobody is working....and inflation keeps us from buying food and gasoline..... (or rather electricity for my electric car that can go 30 feet on a full charge) the country will be BETTER off?

Why can't the country go down the middle of the road instead of far left? Normalcy worked pretty good for the first 250 years.
California is ready to nose dive into the Pacific ocean with financial issues...how come.... the state if full of hard workers and millionaires and illegal aliens. Everyone is pulling their weight. It's too far left another example of failure related to bad policies instituted by the far left.

47% of the nontax paying population can not continue to be supported by the 53% with a job. Do the math. It's failure in the making. Taking $2 from me to give them one drags me down to their level. Is that the plan?

Feudal system policies from the middle ages..I always wanted to be promoted to SURF status. Anything else my LORD? (humbly bowing, praying I haven't offended him)

I like that idea...sounds like North Korea....here we come.

Employers are already dumping employees to be able to stay afloat because the Affordable healthcare act is going to bankrupt most companies. So losing your job to get healthcare seems like a pretty good deal to me. Where do I sign up.

I predict when it's all said and done...less people will actually have healthcare but more will be paying for the previlege of not having it.

Deductables will be so high you won't want to get better...you'll be shoving Grandma over the cliff to save money..to buy food and to pay the tax for the Affordable Healthcare act....that you can not afford to have.



"Taxman" (Affordable Healthcare Man)


(1,2,3,4

Hrmm!

1,2...

1,2,3,4.)

Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
Cos I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman

Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
Cos I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet

Taxman!
Cos I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman

Don't ask me what I want it for (Aahh Mr. Wilson)
If you don't want to pay some more (Aahh Mr. Heath)
Cos I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman

Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
Cos I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman

And you're working for no one but me
Taxman!


THE BEATLES lyrics are property and copyright of their owners.


Insurance companies are run by the Corporate Greed bottomline bean counters. Profits first...everything else doesn't matter.

I wonder how many members of Congress sit on Insurance Company boards?

From my personal experience...The owner of the steel mill was also on the board of some banks and the bankers sat on the steel mills board. It's tit for tat...scratch my back I'll scratch yours. How many insurance companies gave to their political campaigns? A tax is a tax is a tax....I don't care what they called it.

Politics is nothing but the best example of corporate greed in action. If you think for one minute the good of the people was their first interest...I would like to sell you my bridge. It was just remodeled..

Everything is always about money...Them getting and you giving...

[Bigdog]

Maybe the reasons for the death of karaoke and other forms of entertainment..

It Is A Matter Of National Survival: 55 Reasons Why You Should Buy Products That Are Made In America This Holiday Season

http://investmentwatchblog.com/55-reaso ... rmkO43T.99

[Bigdog]

Governments Considering Two-Child Policy For The West


Insurance companies will save money...

http://explosivereports.com/

[wiseguy]

Bigdog, you are in that bubble where no facts can penetrate. Everything you've said here can be read on Tea Party rally signs. Like them you are clueless to what is really happening. Conspiracies abound in your world.

Facts are true whether you believe them or not.

[Bigdog]

I'll rest my case by saying this...

In 2014 when all the SHTF over what really is in the bill and people have to come up with thousands of dollars every year to pay the penalty and still not have healthcare....they will realise how they screwed themselves by their presidential vote. But it will be too late. Romney said he would repeal it and they could have worked on something that didn't FORCE people to participate one way or another. When it's all said and done I'm predicting there will be the same amount or more of people that are uninsured as before it was passed because they couldn't come up with enough money to buy it. So it really didn't solve anything except tax us all for nothing we can afford.

It will not be an affordable healthcare plan for anyone but the rich. And it will make everyone else poorer....and everyone that had a plan like me....our taxes will be so high from it we will have to drop our plans...and pay the penalty and still not have insurance.

This whole thing was designed to FORCE the entire population in it. Employers will be throwing us all under the bus by paying the lesser penalty amount for not having insurance on their employees. They will still get to write off the penalty payment and they will keep more money in profits. A win win for big business and the government. They all end up with more of our money.

This bill has screwed every person in the country. It was all part of the plan...