Why music bingo beats karaoke, every single time

First, some background.

I’m fifty. I’ve been legally allowed into bars for thirty-odd years, and I’ve hosted in a fair few of them — Birmingham, most of the UK, and a handful of places beyond. (Least said about sneaking in before I was eighteen, the better.) So when I talk about karaoke and music bingo, I’m talking from both sides of the microphone.

I absolutely love karaoke. Sometimes I sing — it’s a 50/50 bet on me hitting the right notes in the right order at the right time. Other times I just go to enjoy the night and have a good old gossip and bitch about the other singers.

When I’m hosting, it’s always fun. Until it isn’t.

Some nights are amazing. The whole bar is engaged, singing along with the choruses, everyone knows the tracks. Other nights start off well, then you get the singers who keep putting songs in — some of them excellent, some of them with about as much ability to sing the track as Milli Vanilli after one too many tequila shots. You see the crowd slowly disappear. Sometimes they never come back. With a busy night you can manage the queues. After eight weeks of the same behaviour, you really do start to notice the drop-off. Then suddenly the karaoke night dies, the bar is left with too many staff on the floor, and it costs more to put on than it’s making back.

About six years ago I went to my first music bingo night. Great fun. Big screens, short and contained, and everyone in the bar was playing. The host looked about as enthusiastic as a wet lettuce, but it didn’t really matter — people played, someone won, there was a group singing, and we were all done by eleven. I liked it so much I went to a fair few others over the following years. The format was consistently strong, and on the nights where the host was actually engaged and bantering with the players, it was properly brilliant.

As someone who’s always looking to improve their own offering, I took a proper look at it and added it to the DotAlt Events repertoire.

I can’t say every single one has been an outrageous success. But most have been. And as a host I love running it. Taking the best bits from what you’ve seen out and about, making it your own — it really does work. It’s been good for the venues I run it in too.

What makes music bingo work

1. It’s time-limited. You know the start time, you know roughly how long each game takes, and best of all you can build in breaks between rounds so people can get drinks, order food, have a vape, pop to the loo. No hanging around waiting to be called.

2. Everyone in the bar can play. With the right software and the right host, you don’t need to know every song and artist name. You don’t have to look up track numbers in a 300-page book. You get a card, you get a pen, and then you listen and watch.

3. With the right mix of tracks, you can get everyone singing along to some of the bangers. That gets the volume and excitement up. Have a bit of fun with “twirling” when players are waiting on one song. Builds a proper atmosphere.

4. There are winners, but it’s random. Unlike karaoke nights with prizes for the best singers, you don’t need skill, and you don’t have to wait four hours to find out if you’ve won.

Why it sometimes fails

It doesn’t always work. The reasons are pretty consistent.

No advertising or promotion by the venue. There’s a wonderful assumption that just by putting the event on, people will turn up. They won’t. You need to tell them about it, in advance, a fair few times — on socials, on posters, on your advertising screens if you have them.

Clashes with big local or national events. Football, the Grand National, Mighty Hoopla, Birmingham Pride. Know your calendar.

The host picks the wrong music, or the software doesn’t work, or the host doesn’t engage with the crowd. I always engage, but I admit freely that doing a pure 70s disco round for a bar full of twenty-somethings didn’t quite hit the mark. Better communication with the venue about who was actually booked in, versus who the regulars were, was my failure there.

The closer

Writing and self-promotion isn’t my thing, so I’ll keep it short.

If you want something different — something that genuinely engages a wide range of ages, that can be tailored to your crowd, that your staff will thank you for — give a music bingo night a go. (Just remember to promote it.)

Drop us a message and let’s see what we can do to help you put on a proper night (or day).

And because I know how bad some of the host software out there is — that’s exactly why I built Beats Bingo for Mac. If you already host your own nights and you want something more reliable, try it for yourself.