[darrinlutz]

I have the best of both worlds situation, being a KJ and a band member in the Central Texas area. There are whole slew of new KJs that have popped up in the the last 3yrs around here, I know I am one of them. We run a Family Karaoke show, and particularly cater to families with children. The only public show that we do is at a local restaruant with an outdoor stage. We were charging the owner a percentage of his outdoor food and alcohol sales with a small minimum to set up. This would work great for both of us, if he made money so did we, if he didn't we were at least compensated for setting up. This worked until his business was established with Karaoke. We would average $150 nite, some nites were $280, some nites less than $100. But none the less the average was about $150 overall.

Recently he decided to change the percentage rate - to his advantage - needless to say we almost pulled out..... we finally settled on a flat fee of $150.

I know to most of you, "How can you charge or except such little pay for the show"..... The children was the key here.... no one else around did this, also, in this situation, there isn't quite as much money being made by the owner as in normal bar scenes.....plus we also get quite a bit of private parties from this show of which we charge $300 for 4 hrs.

Now heres the real kicker......

Austin area, Music Capital of the world, too many KJs, too many bands, prices go down...... supply and demand....

Bands around the area for the bar scenes...... unless you find a really really really good tipping crowd, most bands average $300 per nite.....4 to 5 members.... do the math.... not good.....

In fact we talked to our current KJ establishment about replacing his Friday nite bands with Karaoke and bring in more people, he told us we'd have to take a pay cut..... yea right.... won't do it...

Kinda funny. Most KJs I talk to in this area charge the standard $150 a nite.

Darrin
Karaoke Kraize