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On top of being a musician myself, I also manage a family-owned wine café where I handle the live music booking and run sound.

For our first few years, we had live music all three nights we were open (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). Eventually, we had to scale back to Saturdays only because the crowds on the other nights weren’t consistently large enough to justify the cost.

This year went pretty well, though, and something became very clear: four musicians consistently drew noticeably better crowds than everyone else. Going into next year, I think I need to lean into those performers more, even if that means booking fewer of some of the other musicians we’ve worked with.

But I also want to experiment with some different live music concepts that give people a reason to come out beyond just “live music Saturday night.”

A couple ideas I’ve been kicking around:

Live Band Karaoke — I’d start by playing guitar or piano with backing tracks while people sing, with the possibility of eventually turning it into a full-band setup if there’s enough interest.
Dueling Pianos-style night — I have three really good piano players in our rotation, and I think some combination of them could make for a really fun interactive show.

What else would you try in a small wine café setting? Themed music nights? Tribute shows? Song-request nights? Artist collaborations? Something completely different?

I’d especially love to hear from musicians who have seen a concept consistently draw a crowd—or from audience members: what kind of music night would actually make you say, “We need to go to that”?

Would love some ideas and feedback!

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