I am still here….

….were you gone?

It has been about 8 months since I had any activity on the blog. There have been a few people stumble on the blog and left comments in that time, all of which I read when they were posted, I just didn’t have the motivation to respond.

In the past 8 months, my own karaoke journey has been quite eventful…

I lost a gig over a pay dispute. I walked away from a gig because I felt the owner didn’t understand what it took to build a karaoke show. I have been discouraged over the low pay and poor quality shows venues are looking for and seem to be happy with. I took some big risks which have paid off. I took some big risks that have not. I have spent a lot of time contemplating the future of karaoke and where my place is in the industry. I have managing a very active full time day job while trying to grow my own karaoke operations on the side. To say I have been busy would be a tremendous understatement. Throughout all of this, what has kept me going are the singers, my enjoyment of seeing people have a good time singing, and….my wife.

I want to get back to blogging about karaoke. More importantly, I want to focus on the positive aspects of karaoke. I have wasted too much time in the last 2 years engaging with people on a negative level. By this I mean that I have allowed myself to be drawn into discussions that go nowhere by people that I don’t feel could possibly enjoy karaoke, much less being a host. I feel I have become very judgmental of some of the folks I have engaged with to the point that I just can’t imagine they could be remotely successful as a host given the interactions I have with them online and in person. But the fact is, many of them are quite successful. We simply disagree at a fundamental level about certain aspects of the industry. We always will. Neither side will change the other’s view. So it is truly pointless to argue the points. Even this paragraph started off trying to be positive and ended up giving too much time to the blah.

I want to promote the positive aspects of karaoke. The fun, the camaraderie, the enjoyment of music and singing. The showmanship, the entertainment, the nervous anticipation of getting in front of a crowd for the first time (or the 50th!). All of that is fun and enjoyable. It is a good time and that is what I feel karaoke is and should be all about.

I will have to blog about the negative from time to time though. There just won’t be any avoiding it in my opinion. Piracy, theft, backstabbing, undercutting, crappy hosts, crappy shows (that latter three a direct result of the previous three)….they are a reality we have to address in our industry. But I think the positive outweighs the negative and so there will be much more focus on the good.

So in closing…..

There is a reason why I named my karaoke business “Feel Good Productions”. Karaoke is something we should all feel good about. So let’s feel good about karaoke and have a positive discussion about it!

 

-Chris

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