Should TUSCL add a field for Average Song Length to the review form?
herbtcat
Cool Cat in the Valley
Saturday, April 27, 2019 12:12 PM
As a 30+ year PL, I've been consistently disappointed to see the average length of songs played by a DJ diminish from 3 to 4 minutes to 2 minutes (or less) in the last several years. I remember sitting in SR Van Nuys about 10 years ago and discretely timing songs from day shift (about 2 pm) to night shift (about 8 pm). The DJ was an expert at cutting songs at 3 minutes during day shift and then as soon as the 7 pm night shift started he cut them at 2 minutes. This is the primary reason I stopped going to SRVN (that and the much-reduced potential for affordable VIP-fun). Earlier this week I was at Synn North Hills and timed day shift songs at 1:45 to 2:00. In addition, as I am sure most of you know, it's standard practice for clubs announcing a 2-for-1 or 3-for-4 to cut the songs so that the PL doesn't really get a true discount for "extra" dance time; you're still paying the same for about 3 minutes of dance time.
Why is this important? The answer is math! If you do a "cost over time calculation" you will see the following:
At $20 a song with 3 minute songs, the PL is paying $400 per hour for standard lap dances.
At $20 a song with 2 minute songs, teh PL is paying $600 per hour for standard lap dances.
Of course at most clubs there are alternatives if you have a budget/desire for a full hour (or half) of dancing based on total time, rather than a song count.
But still, I think it would be helpful in evaluating which clubs I want to visit if I had some additional info about song length, especially when my visit is not focused on extras (yes, that does happen :p).
I get that this may be asking for more of a subjective report, since most PL's do not bring a stop watch to a club. But still, even a subjective evaluation has value when evaluating a club.
Perhaps a three-tier rating like: 1. Short, 2. OK/About Right, and 3. Long?
Any thoughts or feedback?
The Cat
Why is this important? The answer is math! If you do a "cost over time calculation" you will see the following:
At $20 a song with 3 minute songs, the PL is paying $400 per hour for standard lap dances.
At $20 a song with 2 minute songs, teh PL is paying $600 per hour for standard lap dances.
Of course at most clubs there are alternatives if you have a budget/desire for a full hour (or half) of dancing based on total time, rather than a song count.
But still, I think it would be helpful in evaluating which clubs I want to visit if I had some additional info about song length, especially when my visit is not focused on extras (yes, that does happen :p).
I get that this may be asking for more of a subjective report, since most PL's do not bring a stop watch to a club. But still, even a subjective evaluation has value when evaluating a club.
Perhaps a three-tier rating like: 1. Short, 2. OK/About Right, and 3. Long?
Any thoughts or feedback?
The Cat
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32 comments
I think it’s kind of like the supermarket effect where the price stays the same but they include less product. Ice cream used to be sold in half gallons, but now it comes in 48 oz containers for the same price. A lap dance has been $20 for as long as I can remember, it’s just shorter. If the price raised to $30 but the song length remained the same, people would be upset at the price increase. Less people notice the time decrease while the price remains the same.
how is that possible
+1 plus another 1 for GoVikings !
I think Go Go Rama is the only club in USA that guarantees 5 minutes for a lap dance for $20.
https://www.tuscl.net/app/listing.php?id…
If strip club industry wants to thrive they should stick to $6/minute payscale for dancers during Action Time (i.e. contact dancing).
This pricing level brings in maximum customers and revenue - and minimizes idle time for dancers during a shift.
I also feel dancers put in a lot of effort to look good when they come in to work.
There should be a $1/minute payout when a dancer is not dancing but sitting/flirting with a customer.
Any deviation (higher or lower) will reduce revenue for club and take-home pay for dancer, in my opinion.
I think Justintolook is right on the money about the decreasing song lengths. We've often marveled at the fact that the standard price for a lap dance has remained at $20 for over a decade now, despite constant inflation. This is probably the clubs way of dealing with it. Keep the price the same but shorten the songs. Sounds a lot better than increasing the price and keeping the song lengths the same.
The best places to me are ones that sell dances based on time, not songs. Like Playhouse Lounge in NJ for example. $30/four minutes. Plus the fact the time is monitored by a dedicated time keeper and not a dancer who might try to skimp you on the time.
And GoVikings, true; I've never posted a review - here. I'm a paid life-time VIP member. But I'm always happy to answer PM's requesting advice. I've been going to San Fernando Valley-based clubs since the 80's and I've travelled all over the US and dozens of other countries visiting clubs and consuming all manner of on- and off-menu services. So, there you go... :)
At $20 a song with 2 minute songs, teh PL is paying $600 per hour for standard lap dances."
Wow, did you do all that math by yourself?
Fucking MENSA material there.
I SCed for 10-years b/f joining TUSCL and never once did it cross my mind to time songs - part of it is that b/f joining TUSCL I did not SC as much nor hit as many different clubs.
Post joining TUSCL and learning the finer-points of SCing, and becoming aware of different SCs, I became a more avid PL and started hitting more clubs including hitting black SCs more often - it wasn't till I became a black-SC goer almost exclusively that I got hit w/ a severe-case of song-cutting which as I learned from reading a lot of black SC TUSCL reviews, is much-more egregious in a lot of black clubs.
As shadowcat mentioned, often times in the black-clubs not only are the songs cut-short, but they are bled-together like some lunchtime power mix - in most-mixed clubs the DJ talks in b/w songs either to announce the next dancer or just say "set #2 for Lexus"; etc - this is often not the case in black-clubs where the DJ can often talk all the time often over the music and at times even stop the song for him to share w/e is on his mind - thus one can't even try to cue off of the DJ consistently talking in b/w songs.
One night circa 2012 in a small black club I was having a very difficut time trying to know when one rap-song ended and another one started - about 4-minutes into a dance w/ an ebony I decided to double-check the dance-count and to my PL-astonishment she tells we're into song #4 - I stopped the dances and just paid her for the 4 - at first I thought she was ROBing me but I decided to pay extra-attention to the music and sure-enough as best as I could tell this guy would mix in a new-song every 30 to 45 seconds as if he was in a hiphop club vs a strip-club.
This is when I got religion and became a song-length Nazi and started timing songs whether it was a mixed-club or a black-club - and to my surprise, in many mixed-clubs, although not nearly as bad as the black-clubs, songs were shorter than I thought/anticipated - in many mixed-clubs songs were being played as short as 2.5 minutes for a $25 LD; w/ teh avg being around 3 minutes; and some around 3.5 minutes - I would also noticed in certain clubs they seemed as if they had kinda like a sequence where they would play songs from 2.5 to 3.5 minutes - e.g. they would play a song at 2.5 mins, the next one closer to 3 mins, the next one closer to 3.5 mins, then back down to 2.5 mins for the next one and repeat the sequence - felt to me like I was being scammed b/c it's not as if I was paying less for the shorter songs - and also felt as if they were mixing the sequence on purpose as to not look as obvious that the songs were being cut-short.
Trying to fight for longer song-lengths is kinda an uphill-battle - for one the avg custy that just visits clubs from time-to-time probably doesn't have a clue - neither are most custies for that matter (I didn't really noticed till I experienced the supa-cut-songs in black clubs) since they are focused on the dance/dancer - also, some custies go to a club just to socilaize/hang-out/be-spectators; others focus mainly of VIP which is usually a block-of-time; others go to a club with the main-purpose of finding an OTC candidate - i.e. only those custies that like to get lots of dances are most affected by cut-songs.
When I became an avid-reviewer I would mention this a lot in my reviews particularly my black-club reviews - with time it got a lot better where now is not as big an issue - I can't claim it was my reviews and probably wasn't; I asssume a bigger part of it was me transitioning from a mostly nightshift custy to a mostly dayshift custy where the song-cutting seemed more egregious during the nightshift party-time where the black clubs in particular felt more like nightclubs or house-parties.
:)
Along the lines of a song-lengths entry, I also think a drink/alcohol *quality* may be a beneficial field/entry (quality and not just price) - I'm not much of a drinker but do like to get a bit of a buzz on some visits - not being much of a drinker means if I get a quality drink (usually a Long Island for me); one properly made LI (or other properly made strong-drink) will almost always give me a good-buzz - yet I'm finding more and more that I'm paying a premium and sometimes overpriced drink-prices and it's as if I was drinking flavored-water - like cut-songs, a field like this would put it on SCers' radar to where if they hit a club and buy multiple drinks and it's as if they just drank water, that good chance it's not them.
That said, when I have noticed songs being shortened is when a club runs a 2 for 1. But i think the only reason they shorten them during 2 for 1’s is because it’s obviously a special.
I have definitely switched up my strategy about tips and getting dances in clubs due to this.
First, I almost always spend the first 10-15 minutes in a new club timing songs. Since I am a musician, I can do this without a watch/phone by counting the number of bars played and doing some math in my head (There you go, flagooner! :p).
Next, I will only buy dances "per song" to do a test drive of a dancer, whether or not I'm looking for extras. I'll invest $20 to find out if I want more, then I buy a timed session. I've had plenty of deeply sensual sessions without extras that were quite memorable. Interesting note, I find that I get offered phone numbers and unsolicited (pun intended) requests to take a dancer OTC more often this way than a more aggressive approach. Sometimes, being a freshly-showered, funny, nice guy who isn't reeking with the stank of desperation wins the day.
Third, I very selectively make tips at the rail - only to get the attention of someone I'm interested in meeting. Note that if there's some PL who's throwing down bills like it's the Amazon rainforest, I won't tip at all.
In summary, I agree that the cure for songs cut short won't likely be complaining to club management. But the whole issue can be sidestepped by only buying timed sessions.
Unfortunately for me, I like variety and don't like sticking to just one dancer and spending most/all my $$$ on just her - I like to sample and this can usually only be done by buying single-dances vs VIP - but fortunately for me the black clubs I hit the dance-price is lower to where I can afford to sample.
Camera presence
Lap dance seating comfort
Square footage of the stage
Average time to get served a drink
Mean and median age of dancers and customers
Pee Troll presence
Music volume
Yes, I'm being facetious
and i loose count of the songs when i get dazzled by the girl.
this is exactly what i'm use to. many clubs in virginia and north carolina are set up this way. the vast majority of the lap dances they sell are sold by TIME. and these dances that are sold by time START at 100 dollars or more. i guess the club figures this is the best way to maximize their profit. but IMO lap dances that start at 100 bucks or more seem like they wouldn't be easy to sell. seems like it would make things hard on the dancers