Revisiting the old cliche that karaoke kills business for musicians. A musician friend of mine posted on FB complaining about not being able to charge his worth, and his rallying cry is to blame karaoke and jam nights...as if on the day all the open mic and karaoke shows stop, the unemployed and underpaid musicians can get to work, LOL. Not possible. Anyway, I composed a lengthy and well thought out reply and don't know how many people would see it, so I thought I would post it here to share with you who may commiserate or have the same argument at times. This goes out to all my friends who are musicians, or karaoke hosts, or just interested in the business dynamic...
"I have a ton I could say, but will keep it as brief as I can...and I preface this post by saying first, that I am a friend of *****, and I have infinite respect for him and his craft, feel his pain, and lastly, that I am a karaoke host. I am not here to defend bar owners or karaoke, but rather to offer a scenario where ***** as a performer, and myself as a karaoke provider have more in common than you would think.
Firstly, for every musician attempting to make a living doing their thing, there is a hobbyist or amateur, or hell, a really great performer, who does not understand the market, and their worth, and make themselves available at a very low rate, watering down the future market for full time working entertainers. A guy who can perform, and has a day job making $12 an hour, sees a value in doing his thing for exposure and beer and a little cash, and $100 for 3-4 hours will be more than he makes at his day job, so he feels like he is winning, to the chagrin of folks like ***** and myself.
Second, I take no offense to *****'s cry of f**** karaoke. I respect that. I understand that...but that being said, I have to make the case that the people who support karaoke are not the people who support local musicians. While there is a cross section of people who do both, for the most part, if you remove all of the karaoke hosts and replaced them with fantastic musicians, the audience demographic would change accordingly. Karaoke and live music are different dynamics...karaoke being more attendee driven, and driven by attendee ego, as opposed to live entertainers. When I started karaoke full time 21 years ago, I used to hear how we were killing live entertainment. After 21 years in the field, I just do not see it. Personally, I work well in bars along side bands, working venues and nights where live entertainment does not make sense, or have an appeal.
Thirdly...karaoke people (such as myself) are in the same boat, feeling the same emotions. For every full time karaoke host doing it right, running legal, paying taxes, using a full professional PA system...there are others who are showing up with inferior gear, illegally sourced content, sub par sound and working for a living doing that, usually off book and tax free...reducing the pool of singers, and working really cheaply, which makes it hard for a pro host to charge a fair living wage...and we go back to the example of the day worker making $12 an hour...and doing karaoke for $100 and beer...which hurts the karaoke host trying to charge more, and the musician.
Fourthly...the venues. There are a couple of scenarios... a vital venue with a good clientele, good product and service, that hires entertainment as an amenity and does not rely on the entertainer to bring in a base to survive, and the venue that is struggling, cant justify a few dead nights a week and brings in entertainers who can put asses in the seats. They justify our worth by calculating how much they will make with NO entertainment, and how much $$ the entertainer puts in the kitty, and after the end, and paying the entertainer, do the break even or lose...or profit? Are we as entertainment providers being hired as an amenity to serve the venue, or as a draw, to bring customers with us? Therein lies a rub. Lately it is more of the latter, and when negotiating with venues for a fair price, they want to justify our cost with a return to the register, and if we cannot do that, they either let us go, or replace us with a cheaper solution, or no entertainment at all. Rare is the venue owner who is a patron of the arts and hires musicians at full price just to help support the musician, the norm is an expectation of ROI.
These truths hold for musicians, and karaoke hosts. Rare is the venue that has the same musician as a house act for years on end. A karaoke host can pull that off if they attract a diverse pool of spending clientele.
So while karaoke and jam nights appear to be the enemy, the issue runs deeper than that, in different directions, and at the discretion of the people who hire us, and what their expectations are. There are places I have worked at that considered me and my service a valuable asset, and others the hated what I did but seemed to put up with it because of the register ring. Then you find that sweet spot where you are respected, paid fairly and appreciated. Musicians, and karaoke hosts, have issues finding that sweet spot.
I am not the cheapest guy in town. Like you, there is a number that I wont leave my house for. There are others who consider themselves my peers or competition that will leave home for half of my bottom number. You can only tell them to consider their value, and step up their game and rate...but you cant make em. I know of working musicians who will work cheaper than me as well. It is not always a financial thing when karaoke dominates a venue...and as stated earlier, a venue that is doing well with karaoke long term would not get the same reaction if karaoke nights became local music nights, with a house musician. It is just a different concept. It is like saying steak houses cant make it because there are too many McDonalds. Different concepts. But, f**** McDonalds anyway...just because.
I wish ***** all the love and luck in the world...and any musician working as hard with as much skill. But, karaoke is not always the enemy. Sometimes, it just is what it is, based on the community, the demographics, and who is willing to come out of their house and support a venue, and what gets them there. Love to the venue owners who hire us, whatever their impetus...whether it be to milk our followers, or to just have us represent them with no regard to return on investment.
My .02."
"I have a ton I could say, but will keep it as brief as I can...and I preface this post by saying first, that I am a friend of *****, and I have infinite respect for him and his craft, feel his pain, and lastly, that I am a karaoke host. I am not here to defend bar owners or karaoke, but rather to offer a scenario where ***** as a performer, and myself as a karaoke provider have more in common than you would think.
Firstly, for every musician attempting to make a living doing their thing, there is a hobbyist or amateur, or hell, a really great performer, who does not understand the market, and their worth, and make themselves available at a very low rate, watering down the future market for full time working entertainers. A guy who can perform, and has a day job making $12 an hour, sees a value in doing his thing for exposure and beer and a little cash, and $100 for 3-4 hours will be more than he makes at his day job, so he feels like he is winning, to the chagrin of folks like ***** and myself.
Second, I take no offense to *****'s cry of f**** karaoke. I respect that. I understand that...but that being said, I have to make the case that the people who support karaoke are not the people who support local musicians. While there is a cross section of people who do both, for the most part, if you remove all of the karaoke hosts and replaced them with fantastic musicians, the audience demographic would change accordingly. Karaoke and live music are different dynamics...karaoke being more attendee driven, and driven by attendee ego, as opposed to live entertainers. When I started karaoke full time 21 years ago, I used to hear how we were killing live entertainment. After 21 years in the field, I just do not see it. Personally, I work well in bars along side bands, working venues and nights where live entertainment does not make sense, or have an appeal.
Thirdly...karaoke people (such as myself) are in the same boat, feeling the same emotions. For every full time karaoke host doing it right, running legal, paying taxes, using a full professional PA system...there are others who are showing up with inferior gear, illegally sourced content, sub par sound and working for a living doing that, usually off book and tax free...reducing the pool of singers, and working really cheaply, which makes it hard for a pro host to charge a fair living wage...and we go back to the example of the day worker making $12 an hour...and doing karaoke for $100 and beer...which hurts the karaoke host trying to charge more, and the musician.
Fourthly...the venues. There are a couple of scenarios... a vital venue with a good clientele, good product and service, that hires entertainment as an amenity and does not rely on the entertainer to bring in a base to survive, and the venue that is struggling, cant justify a few dead nights a week and brings in entertainers who can put asses in the seats. They justify our worth by calculating how much they will make with NO entertainment, and how much $$ the entertainer puts in the kitty, and after the end, and paying the entertainer, do the break even or lose...or profit? Are we as entertainment providers being hired as an amenity to serve the venue, or as a draw, to bring customers with us? Therein lies a rub. Lately it is more of the latter, and when negotiating with venues for a fair price, they want to justify our cost with a return to the register, and if we cannot do that, they either let us go, or replace us with a cheaper solution, or no entertainment at all. Rare is the venue owner who is a patron of the arts and hires musicians at full price just to help support the musician, the norm is an expectation of ROI.
These truths hold for musicians, and karaoke hosts. Rare is the venue that has the same musician as a house act for years on end. A karaoke host can pull that off if they attract a diverse pool of spending clientele.
So while karaoke and jam nights appear to be the enemy, the issue runs deeper than that, in different directions, and at the discretion of the people who hire us, and what their expectations are. There are places I have worked at that considered me and my service a valuable asset, and others the hated what I did but seemed to put up with it because of the register ring. Then you find that sweet spot where you are respected, paid fairly and appreciated. Musicians, and karaoke hosts, have issues finding that sweet spot.
I am not the cheapest guy in town. Like you, there is a number that I wont leave my house for. There are others who consider themselves my peers or competition that will leave home for half of my bottom number. You can only tell them to consider their value, and step up their game and rate...but you cant make em. I know of working musicians who will work cheaper than me as well. It is not always a financial thing when karaoke dominates a venue...and as stated earlier, a venue that is doing well with karaoke long term would not get the same reaction if karaoke nights became local music nights, with a house musician. It is just a different concept. It is like saying steak houses cant make it because there are too many McDonalds. Different concepts. But, f**** McDonalds anyway...just because.
I wish ***** all the love and luck in the world...and any musician working as hard with as much skill. But, karaoke is not always the enemy. Sometimes, it just is what it is, based on the community, the demographics, and who is willing to come out of their house and support a venue, and what gets them there. Love to the venue owners who hire us, whatever their impetus...whether it be to milk our followers, or to just have us represent them with no regard to return on investment.
My .02."
