Music Cafe in Singapore

[soft]

carinac, dont know if you have been to this place at changi village. it is a westen food joint at the side of the hawker centre. the atmos is completely different from your usual hawker centre. customers do not sit at the usual hawker centre table or chairs too. they got these low table/chairs. very layback.

they are also known to have a very good collection of beers from all over the world!

Charlie anybody?

 

[carinac]

hi, soft. nope. i only went there for the nasi lemak before and didn't realise the place that you say. i try to go down this weekend or next weekend and explore around. hee hee.. i don't really know much about beers.. seldom drinks.. i will check it out.. !

 

[mikemann]

Beer or alcoholic drinks will consitute a major part of the takings. Cover charges (one ticket comes with 1 drink) imposed by popular nightspots is a way of making the patrons buy drinks 'compulsory'. Laid-back style of outskirt places have waiters to gather drinks order.

Food normally means 'finger food', deep fried stuff, easy to prepare, serve and dispose. But drinks is the easiest to serve, and prepare. Thus it consitute the best margins. Places with live music, normally sell beer at least $25 per jug (my estimate, haven't being pubbing for a long time). The cost is just a fraction, so the more beer sold, the more the takings.

Remember, everyday your overhead must be covered, so you must make the money from somewhere.

 

[ictaros]

carinac, dont know if you have been to this place at changi village.

I thought you MUST be referring to Jacob's Cafe. One of my fav hang out dining places in Singapore.

 

[AgingYouth]

Charlie anybody?

Heard about it but Changi is the pits of Singapore. Too far away. Their clientele is mainly expat from what I gather...

mikemann, S$25 a jug for a place located centrally is cheap! I hardly see any pubs in the neighbourhoods which provides the whole band experience (I might be wrong but correct me). Was at a club before (name shall remain undisclosed...) and when the Vodka Ribena came, the waiter asked for $46. I almost wanted to kill the waiter and run off.

It din help that the Vodka Ribena tasted totally like Ribena.

 

[Scream_ed]

Just to add to the list of things to consider:

1. Alcohol license. Heard it's quite a bit of money.

2. License for public performance. Dun want the matahs to come often, unless they are patrons...

3. Parking space. Believe it or not, it actually makes loads of difference.

 

[carinac]

K. I printed out the points to note. I heard before that alcohol license is quite a bit of money. I find out first. Plus performance licenses, parking..... Got quite a few stuff for survery.. I got friends that set up pub before but made quite a big loss after a year. My main theme is still in performances, food. It's not really going to be a pub. Else, i will not have a big headache now. But i agree with mikemann that i must have costs that cover overheads everyday else sooner or later, everything will go down to drain. setting up is easy, maintaining is the difficult part. appreciate all the golden advise... :smt023

 

[vickychan]

It is a good idea! Next time if have chance, can let local talents to perform here!

 

[jabberjaw]

Places like Kopi Tiam / food courts in the heartlands can be very good avenues for musicians to gain exposure, I think. Stall owners can pool money together to sponsor musicians with decent tunes to play like an hour or so. Maybe like $50 for 1 hr session. Not really loud stuff, but good clean acoustic music should be pleasant enough. Wonder why nobody tot of such a concept for SG? Win-win for both musicians and food vendors if it works out.

 

[centralcatchment]

Why nobody thought of such a concept? Because it doesn't work mainly. Or at least there are problems:

People don't go to kopitiams to hang out. Stall owners don't encourage people to go to kopitiams to hang out, unless it's downtime (after lunch hour). As you know, kopitiams are either really empty or full. If it's really full, you got no chance. The kopitiam stall owners knows that anything that takes up space, or makes the customer stay more than 20 minutes at a place is not an option. And anything that they have to pay for - even if it's $10 - is not an option either.

I am an engineer. When I go out for lunch with my colleagues I want to be discussing problems, cutting deals or bitching about my boss. I don't want to be listening to live music.

During downtime for the kopitiam is when you have more choice. But during downtime, people will want to go to kopitiam to talk cock with others, or to watch TV. You might have to compete with all that. And I don't think that you'll get any money from the stall owners, because downtime is not a profitable time for them. Maybe a better business model is for you to be busking in a kopitiam, and hopefully during that hour you can raise $50. And you'll have to see whether the authorities or the neighbours of kopitiams allow it or not.

And if you want to be busking in a kopitiam, why not busk in a neighbourhood town center instead? And why not establish a tradition where you busk at a pasar malam? Or you play your music at getai festivals?

One of the biggest impediments to live music in Singapore is sky high property prices. Second biggest impediment to live music in Singapore is sky high alcohol tax. Both these things mean that opening an entertainment spot in Singapore is very expensive, and therefore there are restrictions.

As for freedom of speech as an entertainer in Singapore, forget it:

http://othersounds.sg/news/local/gr...-out-of-club-after-voicing-political-beliefs/

I know that I probably shouldn't be a wet blanket, but it's also important to not try things out that will probably not work.

 

[ridethetiger]

Not everyone is an engineer. Not everyone wanna bitch abt their bosses or bring problems to lunch tables, some people who do not work, would want a place to chill n enjoy while paying.

 

[centralcatchment]

I can only talk about why I think the plan's not going to work.

I can't stop you from doing what you were going to do.

 

[Stillborn]

eh....so did threadstarter open the cafe? realise this thread started in 2005...