What makes a good karaoke experience? Part 2

Last month, I blogged about my thoughts on what makes a good karaoke experience:

http://heckledtrio.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-makes-good-karaoke-experience.html

For the most part, that still holds true. Last night's karaoke outing has only reinforced that. But not in the positive sense: I got to experience a few *negative* points that really turned me off to the KJ, and, as a result, the establishment itself.

My friends and I first hit the Cliff Room back in April, shortly after Tabitha's birthday. There were only 4 of us in attendance, and we had mixed reactions afterward. If you recall from my blog post, I enjoyed myself immensely. Now I realize that it was primarily because I'd been drinking that night, so my perspective was a bit skewed :-P Last night, that same group of 4 of us finally got a chance to hit the Cliff Room again. This time my drinking was light enough to keep me sober all night, so I feel like I got to observe everything with a different set of lenses than the first night. And while the evening started off quietly enough, it did not end well, karaoke-wise, primarily because of these negative factors that totally turned me off to the KJ:

1. Not having a good system in place for keeping the correct order of singers.
G-Man (of OTT fame) has his computer, with karaoke software to keep track of the queue of singers. Dyno Mike (of Creekside, Monty's, and all sorts of other places) uses the good old-fashioned song slips, and simply arranges them in the proper order. The Cliff Room guy? Simply keeps a notebook with a list you can append your name to.

As you can imagine, that system is fraught with all kinds of problems, not the least of which is that it's difficult for the KJ to keep track of the proper order of the rotation. As new people come in, G-Man and Dyno can simply insert their names into the middle of the rotation to keep it evenly spaced out. How do you do that when ALL the names are already written down on a notebook, in what amounts to a random and unfair order?

2. Drinking too much.
I've been of legal drinking age for a while now-- definitely long enough to figure out how much alcohol I can tolerate before becoming totally wasted, and how to pace myself to prevent that. So you'd think that a KJ, who is being PAID to render a professional service, should also be able to control his alcohol intake.

Not this one. He was so drunk he couldn't keep track of the rotation! He accidentally skipped people, or switched them out, or... well, all kinds of things (see point #3). Having a messy notebook on top of that certainly didn't help him keep things straight!

3. Taking bribes
I think this irked me more than the above two factors combined. Bad enough that as the night wears on, you have to practically hover over his shoulder to make sure the drunken KJ doesn't miss your turn (yes, I had to do this, and even then, he kept forgetting me!). Even worse when you see people come up with cash in their hands, with the #1 spot going to the highest bidder. Yes, I witnessed a $5 briber "lose out" to a $20 briber. There is absolutely no sense of fairness in this.

A good karaoke rotation should be first-come, first-served for the most part. And I can understand a KJ making a one-time exception for a known regular, if the regular has a good reason (like a birthday boy having an extra turn because he's actively celebrating his birthday at the bar, or the time our friend Eric was squeezed in because it was his last night in SB) and if it's not a frequent habit. But bribery? Especially under the guise of tips? i.e. shaking your tip jar at people who want to know if they can go a bit sooner? That's really low.

All in all, I had a terrific time last night, despite our woes with the KJ. The atmosphere was lively, the people were a ton of fun, and I enjoyed the company of my 3 friends immensely. So it's not like the night was a total wash. I just wish that our enjoyable experience hadn't been hampered by a jerk of a KJ. Well... never again! Next time we're sticking to the known KJs and their establishments!

Netflix Raises its Prices

There's been a lot of outcry over Netflix's recent announcement about changes in not only its prices, but its plan structure. We subscribe to the unlimited streaming + 1 DVD out-at-a-time plan, which currently costs us $10/month. When the changes take place in a month, that same plan will now cost us $16. Quite an increase!

Now, for us, the change isn't particularly drastic or unmanageable, for a number of reasons:

1. Netflix serves as a TOTAL replacement for cable, not a supplement. $80/month vs. $16/month is still an incredible savings. Plus it cuts down on channel-surfing-- we only watch TV when there is something we want to purposefully watch.

2. We use Netflix primarily for TV shows, secondarily for movies. There are really only one or two shows that we can't get either on Netflix or on another website (like Hulu, or the station's website), so Netflix's offerings, when it comes to what we like to watch, is pretty substantial. Between me and Allan, we probably watch nearly a dozen TV shows on a regular basis.

3. Now that we have our brand-new, huge flat-screen HD TV for the new house, we REALLY take full advantage of the Netflix streaming service, because the TV has a built-in Netflix app. We can watch everything that Netflix streams (commercial-free and in hi-def!) with just a wireless internet connection.

In fact, we're even contemplating upgrading to the 2-DVD-out-at-a-time plan, which would cost $20/month-- still a fraction of cable cost. Although I primarily use the DVD subscription to watch TV shows that aren't streamed, it would be nice to also be able to check out the occasional movie, without having to wait until the current DVD is finished.

So, although for us, it still makes economical sense to stick with Netflix despite their inflated prices, I can also understand where a lot of other consumers are coming from with their outrage.

First, Netflix did away with their combo plans and instituted separate DVD vs. streaming plans. So now we're essentially paying for two separate services: streaming and DVD. This makes sense when you have customers that use one exclusively over the other, but it penalizes those that actually use both. Why isn't Netflix offering a discount for those who subscribe to a combination plan?

Second, if the pricing structure is undergoing such a drastic change, why aren't existing customers being allowed to grandfather in their current price/plan, or at least have their prices raised by a much smaller amount-- essentially the same as receiving a discount for a combo plan? I know that when we significantly change features on our products, we try to mitigate the effect of taking AWAY a feature-- at the very least by making it user-configurable.

These changes don't seem to be making much sound business sense. I am really curious to see what happens to Netflix's customer base once the changes take effect. Whatever decisions they decide to pursue between now and then, or even afterward, it definitely won't be without lack of consumer outrage! Wonder how much they'll take that into account...