Four-fifths of karaoke businesses have gone bankrupt, why don't young people love to sing K?

Text/Wang Xinxi

A few days ago, according to reports from the financial community, Tianyancha showed that there are a total of 90,000 karaoke companies operating in China, and only 17,810 are left, less than one-fifth of the total. Four-fifths of karaoke businesses have now gone out of business, which shows us that an era has passed. So what are the reasons behind this?

The generation of young people who are obsessed with KTV have taken root in the workplace

KTV used to be a popular entertainment method after the 80s and 90s, in the 90s of the last century, when people lacked group entertainment options, party singing K may be the best choice, KTV was popular in China, and became the new favorite of young people at that time. But the real time to make money was around 2004, after SARS, the people started a round of revenge consumption.

A manager of a chain KTV once said that around 2004, a new store could basically return to its original cost within 18 months. However, the threshold of the KTV industry is low, and after 2004, the number of operations in the KTV industry began to soar. According to statistics, the compound growth rate of the number of KTVs in the past five years was 0.3%, and it will rise to 1.2% in the next five years.

But after the post-80s and 90s entered the workplace, the number of times they went to KTV became less and less, so that later, they basically didn't go to KTV.

According to statistics, by 2014, more than 77% of young people have reduced the number of times they go to KTV. Even lowering the price won't help. This time period is roughly the first few years of the post-80s and post-90s entering the workplace.

First, when I grow up, I have more work, and my time and energy do not allow so much fun, and secondly, there are more entertainment facilities, and the development of mobile Internet has given most people the opportunity to find happiness with their mobile phones alone, and they don't need to go to KTV to indulge with their old friends.

The decline in the quality of production in the pop music market has affected the business of KTV

In the final analysis, from the perspective of the pop music market, there are no new songs to sing, basically old songs from 10 or 20 years ago to support people's enthusiasm for music and singing.

In 2000~2010, it was the last boom stage of the pop music market, and a large number of pop hits were produced every year, so people went to KTV, and there were always new songs to sing. Pop music is booming, people's enthusiasm for music is high, and KTV is naturally doing well. But now the decline of the pop music market is visible to the naked eye, and the current post-00s and post-10s are still listening to the pop music of the post-80s and post-90s generation, and the pop songs produced in the past 10 years are not as good as the amount of gold songs produced in a year during the boom of the pop music scene.

You let everyone cover old songs repeatedly, which is equivalent to letting young people go to KTV to be nostalgic. Although nostalgia is also a business, if there is no pop music scene to support the birth of a large number of high-quality music works, the decline of KTV is doomed.

The diversion of karaoke software, mini KTV, and livehouse

The diversion of karaoke software and the development of mini KTV have also had an impact on the traditional KTV model,KSong software led by the whole peopleKSong software,The essence is a fan economic model with songs as friends,Good singing skills、Good at operation and short videos,You can get higher social entertainment needs through KSong software,It can get more people's recognition,You can interact with user comments,You can spread your songs more widely。

The mini KTV model is more suitable for trapping consumers in the fragmented time of catering waiting, and the current development is considerable. KSong software provides greater social value and communication channels and income-generating channels. Mini KTV provides fragmented time and more cost-effective demand for simple singing, which forms an impact and diversion for the traditional KTV model.

In addition, in recent years, the development of the bar industry has become a new look - Livehouse has become a dark horse in the growth of the bar industry, and the domestic Livehouse has gradually entered the stage of mass consumption so far.

According to the survey results, 53.59% of the young people surveyed in Guangdong have had night entertainment consumption experience this year, and nearly eighty percent of them have watched Livehouse. According to the incomplete statistics of the ticketing website Damai.com, the reporter found that from July to August this year, an average of 3 livehouses were held in Guangzhou every day, and there were nearly 100 performances in August alone. From August 1 to September 30, there were more than 150 livehouse performances in Guangzhou, ranking third in the country, after Shanghai and Beijing.

Today's young people use livehouse as a "weekend replacement" outside of concerts and music festivals, after all, livehouse can get closer to singers and bands, which is a kind of circle interest and socialization, which is more in line with the needs of young people today.

The natural conflict between the social mode of KTV offline acquaintances and the social interest of acquaintances

The traditional KTV model is actually an acquaintance social model, but it is also a kind of interest socialization, which is actually more compatible with the livehouse model, because people who are willing to sing K as an entertainment activity for a long time, generally speaking, will have great interest and enthusiasm for singing, if a small group everyone sings is very ugly, basically will not go to KTV to play.

KTV mode is suitable for high school and college reunions, generally speaking, students are naturally more interested in singing, and the purpose of singing is more pure, therefore, in the era when smartphones have not yet appeared, KTV is everyone's favorite way to gather.

However, in today's adult circle, everyone's acquaintance social circle is fixed, and the probability that the acquaintance social circle is interested in singing and willing to sing K parties often is not high, and many people lack this continuous interest and enthusiasm. This offline social model lacks sustainability and long-term fixed consumption stickiness.

Especially when a few people sing K back and forth, it's easy to get tired, and after work, you have to be able to get together and sing K, time is not allowed, therefore, the offline gathering of singing K is actually a kind of interest socialization, and it relies more on consumers to find like-minded people who maintain a great interest in singing. Therefore, this is also why the Livehouse has been able to rise, the close interaction between musicians and music fans, the immersion of the ultimate live experience, it is a kind of musical social activity between like-minded people, as a night entertainment lifestyle, attracting more and more young people.

The cost of singing K has become higher, mobile phones have been diverted, lifestyles have changed, and offline social entertainment has been diversified

Finally, one more thing is that now KTV has a high cost and high consumption, basically going to KTV is not to go to singing, especially now the bundled consumption of KTV, for example, some KTV must buy two cases of wine and drink a fruit plate when opening a box, which is not too cost-effective compared to business KTV.

If you have money to play in the 90s, you either need to find a high-end KTV or go to a bar. Many post-90s generations have no money under high rents, and life is a problem. KTV is not a cheap entertainment activity for many consumers who have entered the workplace.

In addition, the current entertainment is more diverse, especially the mobile phone diverts too much time, mobile games, short videos, and various live broadcasts are diverting the user's entertainment time, these entertainment methods are within reach, and consumers are more inclined to use more low-cost entertainment methods to please themselves, resulting in a change in lifestyle, more and more modern people are not only unwilling to go to KTV, but also unwilling to party, unwilling to participate in group activities, and even, even unwilling to go out... Offline gatherings are becoming more and more difficult, and this change in the lifestyle of young people has directly changed the life of KTV. Compared with going to KTV to sing, today's young people are more willing to watch short videos, watch live broadcasts, and play games to kill time.

Even if it is offline social entertainment, there are more and more attractive ways to play, such as board games, script killing, escape rooms, live CS, bars, etc. This diverted a large number of young people who should have been the target consumer group of KTV.

In high school and college, students are keen on KTV, and everyone can play for a day and go crazy for a day with a few dozen dollars.

Young people of every era, their youth, have their companions and witnesses, but youth always has an end of the day, mass sales KTV, witnessed the growth of the post-80s and post-90s groups, and it also slowly faded out of people's field of vision with the times. That kind of purity of singing for the sake of singing, we can hardly get it back.

An era has passed, but we haven't had time to say goodbye yet.

Author: Wang Xinxi, Senior Reviewer of TMT This article is not reproduced without permission