How to Open a Karaoke Club

From the karaoke boxes of Japan in the late 1970s, karaoke has become a worldwide phenomenon. Many bars have added karaoke nights and, as the technology becomes more powerful and affordable, dedicated karaoke clubs are springing up. Here are some things to consider if you plan to open a karaoke club.

Instructions

Layout and Acoustics

1. Consider having multiple karaoke rooms of different sizes, along with a main stage. Individual rooms can be dedicated to either specific music styles or rented out for private parties, such as wedding receptions or school reunions.

2. Install sound-deadening materials in the individual rooms and main area so that private parties don't disturb the main stage area and vice versa. Possible materials include sound-deadening paper and carpeting for floors and vinyl composition tiles for the walls and ceiling.

3. Place speakers within the club to take advantage of the rooms' shapes so that sound is distributed evenly without reverberating in the singers' ears.

Equipment Needs

1. Obtain as broad a selection of karaoke music as you can. Store your collection on a computer server to provide easy access to it for your KJ (karaoke jockey) and your singers. Have a backup server in case something goes wrong with your main server.

2. Have a means for customers to select the songs they wish to sing. It can be as simple as songbooks in three-ring binders and individual request sheets or as high-tech as touch screen computer terminals. Keep your available song list up to date.

3. Provide a means for playing the songs your customers have selected. If you've stored your songs on a server as suggested in Step 2, this means having a laptop computer linked to the server to control song play. If not, this means using a CD player, preferably one with the capability to cue up multiple songs.

4. Invest in good quality audio equipment: microphones, sound mixer (board or software), amplifiers and loudspeaker. You'll also need a video system of equal caliber to display the song lyrics to the singer and the people in the club's audience who want to follow along.

5. Set up a bar or wait station to handle patrons' food and drink needs. If you don't have a restaurant integrated with the club, you can offer packaged snacks, but you will need to offer a reasonable drink selection.

The KJ

1. Find someone who enjoys singing karaoke and working with the equipment. An enthusiastic KJ will infect the crowd with his enthusiasm.

2. Choose someone who deals with people consistently and fairly. The KJ should give everyone their chance to shine in front of the crowd and also should be able to deal with difficult, and sometimes drunken, divas.

3. Get someone who can sing relatively well and is comfortable being in front of a crowd. Singing ability should be secondary to interpersonal skills, however.

4. Determine your expectations from the KJ before you hire him and communicate them clearly throughout your working relationship. A "handshake" deal may be sufficient, but consider a written contract if the KJ is someone you're not familiar with.

Tips & Warnings

• Plan to have only as many rooms as your budget can afford and your research shows you will have customers to support. A 1,000-square-foot lounge with five rooms will cost somewhere between $20,000 to $27,000 to start up, while a 10,000-square-foot club with 50 rooms will cost about five to six times as much to open.

• If your main stage is large enough to accommodate it, hire professional singers and bands to perform or stage theatrical productions to provide variety.

• Consider hiring an acoustic consultant to help with planning how to best take advantage of your club's acoustics.

• Apply for your club's liquor license far enough in advance so that you'll have it when the club opens.

• Keep your KJ contract as simple as possible. Cover performance dates and times, payment arrangements and cancellation conditions in a simple, understandable manner.

• Be aware that some karaoke music companies are suing makers of software that allows karaoke tracks to be ripped onto computer hard drives, claiming that they violate "fair use" laws.