Ernie Taylor first came across karaoke 15 years ago and turned the experience into a business. Taylor, who owned a piano store in Sherman Oaks at the time, began adding karaoke and other sing-along equipment to his product lines and it soon took over the store. By the time he moved to his current Van Nuys location in 1986, the business had been transformed and was renamed the Singing Store. About one-third of the merchandise in the store is hardware, and the rest is devoted to software, including tracks to about 50,000 songs spanning nearly every genre from pop to show tunes and even classical arias. Taylor spoke to Shelly Garcia about his shop’s somewhat unusual niche. “We sell everything for people who enjoy singing. We rent karaoke equipment for home parties and we sell it for home or semi-professional use. “Some people may spend $300 or $400 for a home portable unit that will allow them to practice and record themselves and get feedback on what they are doing, or that allows them to have small home parties. Others who want to make a business of doing karaoke shows can spend thousands of dollars. “We’ve had to develop databases and systems to accommodate the product, and of course, despite everything, it all boils down to customer service. You’ve got to have enough people to wait on people. You can spend a half-hour with somebody before they buy a CD from you. “We’ve been here for so long, we get referrals from all sorts of places. The other thing that’s really helping our business is the Web. We have singingstore.com, and I produce and maintain and design the site. It’s interactive and has listings of places of where to sing in the Valley and L.A., as well as a database to look up song titles. “Our business is better than ever. I think we went through a fad stage in karaoke that happened in the mid-’90s, and then it seemed like it went away. In fact, what happened is it became part of the culture. You find it everywhere. A lot of clubs and restaurants have it one or two nights a week to generate income. Five or six years ago, we were still pioneering and we had up and down times. Now it’s a steadier business. Singing is a fundamental human activity. I don’t think that the need for it is going to go away, and if we provide good, reliable, reasonably priced resources for these products, we should be in business for as long as we want to be in business.” Have a Story To Tell? Please write to Editor, The Briefing 5850 Canoga Ave., Suite 400 Woodland Hills, CA 91367 Or e-mail us at [email protected]
