Songs have always played an important role in sports events. Just think of songs like Jump Around or All My Life or We Will Rock You blasting during halftime. The connection between sports and singing is tight – and that is good news for hospitality venues.
Sports streaming vs Karaoke
Sports streaming means broadcasting live sporting events at a hospitality venue. It can be a great way of maximizing your sales by welcoming a new segment of customers through the door. Sports fans are known to empathize strongly with the games they watch, so sports streaming is a natural way of creating a vibrant atmosphere in your bar or pub.
Similarly, karaoke has a strong sense of community. This form of entertainment is typically offered by bars and clubs where folks gather together to sing into a microphone with the support of recorded backing tracks with lyrics. Venues benefit from using professional karaoke software, such as Singa Business. More about the basics of karaoke here.
Both activities are popular ways of boosting income in your licensed premises. The following will help you, as a bar or pub owner, determine the entertainment option that suits your venue, and possibly increase revenue.
Here is our checklist of things that go into planning and investing in a karaoke event, as well as streaming sports.
2) Gear needed for karaoke and sports streaming
6) Don’t forget promotion and marketing!
1) Get to know your audience
As mentioned before, sports and musical events overlap. Have you ever thought that karaoke is half of the time a spectator sport? So, who are these people, really?
Karaoke singers
According to estimates, the global karaoke market could be worth around $10 billion. As customers, karaoke fans are mostly curious, enthusiastic, and a joyful bunch, ready to throw themselves in new situations, like singing in front of strangers.
According to Singa's data, our top performing Singa-powered venues played an average of over 38 hours of constant karaoke per week during the last quarter. This means that there were around 664 songs sung. Also, overall in Singa, over 60% of our karaoke singers are male.
Sports viewers
The Euro 2020 final England vs. Italy match was one of the most-watched events in British TV history with a peak audience of 31.1 million viewers across both channels, BBC and ITV. According to an influencer marketing study by The Shelf, 200 million Americans describe themselves as sports fans of some sort – a lot of volume and potential there as your future customers.
Roughly speaking, when it comes to all sports fans, it seems that around 60% are usually male, and 40% female across the board. This gender division seems prevalent in most different types of sports, but of course, fluctuates a little from sport to sport.
You saw the similarities in the audiences yet? Hold on, we have more.
It's common knowledge that many sports fans are dedicated, loyal, passionate, and very committed to their hobby and chosen team. They love watching live games with their preferred group of friends or family, around a good selection of food and drinks. These traits are profound among karaoke goers, too!
2) Gear needed for karaoke and sports streaming
The good news is, both karaoke and watching sports require TV screens with good speakers. The cost of TV screens depends on the size and picture quality of the screen. The minimum price is £300-400 or $400–500 per smaller screen. And yes, you guessed it: the bigger the screen, the higher the cost. All in all, if you get high-quality devices, you won't need to update them for years.
Karaoke gear
In addition to TV screens, you'll need speakers, a mixer, and a few microphones. All together the costs for all this would start from around £1000 or $1400. Depending on how much of a wow-effect you want, the sky's the limit – or your bank account.
Investing in a karaoke party is fairly risk-free. Besides the hardware, you need pro karaoke software, like Singa Business. You can get Singa Business for £120 or $140 per month. The software comes with in-built background music and display advertising – very handy between karaoke sessions. More about different karaoke solutions for businesses here.
Remember that if you have additional rooms at your venue, the software allows you to convert any room into a bookable karaoke room. Read more about how to turn karaoke rooms into profit-making machines here.
Sports streaming gear
The gear for sports streaming at your venue consists of TV screens and, possibly, additional speakers. Depending on the layout of your bar, you might also want to consider ceiling-mounted projectors. If the viewing distance increases at your venue, modern projectors are a viable option. They allow you to blow up the image for a better viewing experience.
3) Licenses and permits
Showing sports and playing music at your venue requires licenses. The needed permits vary from country to country, so make sure to check your local situation.
Permits for showing sports
Sports leagues and teams control the rights to broadcast their live sporting events. They have licensed those rights to different TV networks and streaming platforms. To show sport at your venue, you need to subscribe to a provider with a suitable package for your commercial business. Depending on where in the world you’re located, you might also need a TV license or a broadcast receiving license for your TV device.
Licenses are a considerable investment. Lately, there have been indications of pub and bar owners opening up about the increasing yearly costs calculated in tens of thousands for broadcasting sports in their establishments.
Music licenses to play and sing
There are two things to remember when it comes to having karaoke at your venue: 1. you need to make sure you only run legal karaoke content, and 2. the public performing rights need to be handled.
When your establishment is Singa-powered, you don’t need to worry about the legality of the karaoke songs. We got that covered. For example, read more about USA karaoke licensing here.
Side note: When you play background music, use the radio, TV, the computer, play records, or any online streaming services, you need a music license. Bars with live music have a higher licensing fee. Regardless of the type of music you play or the source you use, you need a permit in all commercial facilities. If you’re thinking about having live music at your venue, check out our great blog post about that.
4) Seasonal or evergreen?
When deciding a suitable entertainment option for your hospitality venue, it’s beneficial to determine if the activity is highly seasonal or possibly popular all year round. So, what is the life cycle of a karaoke event, and how agile is sports streaming as an option?
The game is on – but at what cost?
According to one US-based audience profile, the majority of sports fans are enthusiasts of multiple sports. It means that you will most probably have a steady flow of sports spectators all year around. There is always a game somewhere in the world.
The more important question is, how much are you willing to invest. Specific subscription packages include specific sport. If you, for example, want to offer both cricket and ice hockey, you might need to purchase multiple subscriptions. That can get costly in the long run.
Karaoke all day, every day
Karaoke is an entertainment option that works regardless of the time of the year or day. All you need to do is open the mic and let the magic happen. Check out our evergreen fun themes for your next karaoke party.
5) Leveraging the event
Similar to bars with live music, karaoke is a great pre-and post-gig entertainment option in bars that stream sports. Customers who come in early or who stay late will thank you for it.
You can also host themed karaoke events on nights where there aren't sports games scheduled, or you can always have a separate karaoke room for singing. Both karaoke bars and sports pubs benefit from both entertainment formats by selling more food and beverages as their clientele increases, diversifies, and stays in longer.
6) Don’t forget promotion and marketing!
Sports enthusiasts usually rush in anyways when there is an important game on. Karaoke fans will keep coming because they love the format and want to have a good time with new and old friends.
Nevertheless, remember to you bang the social media drum loud and clear regularly. Additionally, the amazing feature in the Singa consumer app lists all Singa Business venues on the app. It makes it easy for dedicated song-lovers to find the closest karaoke venue and hit the stage. More marketing tips for promoting karaoke at your venue here.
Overall pros and cons of karaoke and sports streaming
Needless to emphasise, sports and music go hand in hand. Having both options at your venue truly is a win-win and will increase your attractiveness as an entertainment provider.
However, for many, both options aren’t possible for various reasons. On one hand, the number of worldwide sports fans is superior to karaoke folks. On the other hand, karaoke has significant growth potential. Cost-wise, karaoke is the more risk-free option compared to investing in multiple big screens, streaming and TV subscriptions, licenses, and all that sports streaming requires.
There are lots of pros and some cons to both options. To conclude things, let’s be honest, sports fans will sing anyways, so why not give them a mic 😄
If you’re interested in Singa-powering your venue, drop us a line or check out our Singa Business website.