So, you've decided to hop on the big trend and start karaoke at your venue, or maybe you're considering it as an option to fill your weekday evenings, or bank the big bucks with sold-out Saturday nights? Well — congrats! Karaoke is growing in popularity, and you are sure to have a lot of success with it.
Karaoke's comeback is undeniable, and in this article we'll cover the best practices on how to run a karaoke night at your venue, and make it a success right from the start. Let's get started!
Learn how to make karaoke evenings at your venue a whopping success:
1. Get the right karaoke provider
When you're beginning karaoke at your venue, one thing you need to consider before anything else is the karaoke provider. You should make sure your karaoke is legally sourced — respecting the copyright requirements and legislation for public and commercial use. Also, you want to make sure that you have all the songs your customers desire to sing, whether it's a Doja Cat banger from 2022 or a Johnny Cash song from 1960's. To get the best karaoke software our there, Singa Business is the choice. Just plug it in to your PA system, and get a screen for lyrics.
👉 Read everything you need to know about the tech setup for karaoke
👉 Read how to start a successful karaoke venue
Singa Business is an easy-to-use, modern software 80,000 fully licensed karaoke tracks, and all functionalities you need for karaoke in 2022.
With Singa your new, karaoke-loving customers can find you more easily! Your venue will be discovered in Singa consumer app, that karaoke lovers around the world use to sing karaoke at home and request songs at their favorite Singa-powered karaoke bars.
Get more info and book a demo!
2. Host to the MOST
Your karaoke host can be the one single thing that lifts your karaoke up from ordinary to extraordinary, so make sure you have a host that makes your singers feel welcomed, encouraged to sing, and have them leave the night with a feeling that they need to come back.
You can find a karaoke host through your networks or through local promoters — feel free to ask us for recommendations! Your karaoke host can also be somebody from your bar staff, if you want to keep it low cost and have the people with the right attitude and charisma working with you! Read here what it takes to be a great karaoke host and tips for karaoke hosts to help them in the right mindset.
For special occasions or special recurring karaoke evenings, you can book a host that will attract audience with their name and following. In the UK Barrioke karaoke with Shaun Williamson is an extremely popular festival karaoke, and for example karaoke with local artists, influencers or other public figures or known karaoke lovers can be a great attraction!
👉 Read why Singa is a great tool for karaoke hosts
Drag karaoke with a local drag performer can also be a great event, especially during pride month. The Karaoke Hole, for example, is know for their amazing group of drag performer karaoke hosts.
3. Find your karaoke niche
Rap karaoke? Musical karaoke? Country karaoke? The sky is the limit and the world is your oyster. If you wanna stand out from only doing karaoke (though, it can be exactly the perfect thing, too!), you can try out making it a karaoke with a handful of something extra. This can be especially great if you have other local karaoke venues nearby and need a way to stand out.
We've seen rap karaoke in London's coolest venues, heavy metal karaoke in Helsinki, as well as "karaoke on steroids" with all kinds of props and costumes for karaoke goers to have fun with on Melody Club in Gothenburg. Something to stand out from the crowd and provide a special experience helps you with the start!
Some great karaoke theme nights include:
- 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s music — Every decade has a dedicated base of karaoke fans!
- (Insert language here) music night — You can bring in a whole new crowd of people who want to sing in their native language.
- Ladies night karaoke — This can be a great recurring event and might already align with your existing events.
- Drag karaoke — A great way to add some comedy, humor, and artistry to the night!
- Night of 1000 Britneys/Adeles/Beyonces — Pick a famous singer with lots of songs and keep their songs in the playlist for anyone to jump in during the night.
- Bad music night — No Adele or Queen tonight, let everyone sing their guilty pleasures in a shame-free zone.
You can make sure people stay on theme by giving them a Singa singlist to choose songs from. Any holiday can be turned into an event or theme, check out our list of national days bars and venues can celebrate.
4. Use social media to promote your karaoke nights
When you start to plan how to promote your karaoke night, social media is a good place to start with. Social media is one of the easiest ways to reach your customers with low cost, and get them excited about your karaoke nights. You can create posts on Instagram and Facebook, Facebook events, Instagram reels or TikTok videos about your karaoke nights, and just keep shout-outing about it as much as you can! Even though you'd feel like you've already let your followers know about it, only a fraction of your potential audience has probably seen your posts. Being active is the key!
With your social media, you can just try having fun with your karaoke promotion. Use karaoke memes, make some behind-the-scenes videos of preparing your karaoke, use photos of your venue, ask what your customers want to sing — just get people to know about it and get them excited about it!
5. Start the word-of-mouth with influencers
Twitch streamer Andy Pyro with his friends at Wallis Levi Karaoke bar.
Working with social media influencers can be the tipping point to turn your karaoke the go-to karaoke in town. And don't worry! It doesn't need to be extremely expensive campaigns with the biggest stars in the world — it can be, but you can start with karaoke loving micro/nano type of influencers too!
When you're getting started with your karaoke, you can simply look for influencers you think are a great match with your venue, and start reaching out to them via email, instagram dm or by contacting their management. You can invite the influencers to your venue, and for example provide them with a free evening at your karaoke room or a table with some free drinks at your venue.
Let them know that you wish them to share a story/post or a few from your venue and tag your venue to it. If you wish to do bigger collaborations, and have some extra budget for your karaoke marketing, you can contact an influencer marketing agency to help you find the right influencers and plan the campaign.
Working with the right influencers you can reach your potential audience with an engaging way! You can also think of doing a fabulous launch party and invite all your potential influencers, and of course — your regular customers in it too. Everyone loves launch parties, don't you think?
6. Pair it up with other activities
Depending on your venue's current vibe and offering of entertainment, you can hit the sweet spot with combining karaoke to some of your existing activities — for example, eating. "Karaoke dining" can be a way for you to start trying karaoke out, even though you wouldn't have a dedicated karaoke stage or a karaoke room.
👉 Read how Holiday Bar started their Singalong Saturday karaoke dinners!
Or maybe you have live music at your venue? Try pairing karaoke up with your live music gigs, to keep the audience staying later or coming earlier to warm up for the gig with karaoke singing. Maybe you're opening a terrace for the summer season? Bringing your PA and a screen outside too, and make it a terrace karaoke!
Bowling alleys, hotels, cocktail bars, etc. have paired karaoke up with other activities, so be open to add some singing to what you're already doing successfully!
7. Have fun with it!
As said before — only the sky is the limit when it comes to karaoke, and how to promote a karaoke night. Ask your customers for their wishes and try things out! The karaoke magic can be born in many ways, and when you find your sweet spot, it can turn your irregular customers your regular karaoke singers!
If you are using Singa Business, you can always ask us to promote your venue on our social media channels! Please reach out to your point of contact for more info.
Need Singa to your venue? For more info, send us an email at sales@singabusiness.com or chat with us on our website www.singa.com/business.