house concerts and 21st century touring

Here are a few suggestions for you to work smarter, and increase your chances of getting a response or a gig.

Make sure your CIYH profile looks and sounds great.

We get 10-20 new hosts each month, and many of them see CIYH as their primary source for talent. Don’t waste the opportunity to make an important new fan.

The concert series has been going very well. We just had a beautiful show with James O’Malley.  If you look at our schedule, you’ll see that our last six artists have come from Concerts In Your Home. — Don S.

Tips:

• feature songs that represent what you will sound like live.
• embed a video - a simple recording of one of your best songs.
• personalize your bio - make sure it speaks to a house concert host, in your voice if possible. Spell check!
• if you have an upgraded membership - use the new quote area! and use the new link spaces wisely. Where do you most want them to go if they are interested in hearing/seeing more? Don’t link to something you aren’t proud of!

Decide on a strategy.

Considering your strengths and talent, what types of hosts should you be contacting? (Hint: The answer is not “all of them.”)

Let’s look at a few key elements of the house concert host profiles. Example. 

Favorite Acts they’ve hosted: (Big leagues vs minor leagues)  There are hosts who have established industry contacts and a track record for great audience turnouts at their events. If you see a host that is booking big name folk acts (I know, name one, right?) - like David Wilcox, Vance Gilbert, Jimmy LaFave, or Eliza Gilkyson, chances are you will need to be a well-promoted act to get in there. (i.e. played frequently on folk radio) - unless they offer opening slots, which is rare.

Genres: Your music style is not as broad as you think, and neither are the host’s. Chances are, your sound (90% of your material) falls solidly between 2 established genres. (folk rock, americana country, blues rock, etc.) Your chances of connecting will increase dramatically if you focus on hosts who indicate a preference for what you do.

Experience: (number of shows hosted)  Watch out for the zeros. On one hand, a host that is just starting out, can be very receptive to newer acts. On the other hand, it could mean they aren’t able to commit to getting started. Check how long they’ve been a member and decide if they are a promising prospect for you.

Last Update: Have they updated since they joined? If a host has updated their profile recently, they are more likely to be active.

Things that tend matter to experienced hosts:
1. Great music
2. Personality - many hosts report that their favorite acts are remembered as much for what they do in between songs, as the songs themselves. This also extends to before and after the show.
3. Manners - divas don’t do very well in a house concert setting. Being pretentious and full of yourself only works when you are on a big stage or going for laughs.
4. Draw - It’s often helpful if you can add an extra 5-10 people to their audience. If you have fans/friends in the area, they can be a great asset for both the host’s series, and your financial results.

Shape your contact email.

While we certainly expect you to personalize any message you send to a house concert host, it’s very productive to have some standard text, photo, and info to include in each email. Create a template, and save it as a signature in your email program. Think of this as your brochure, and the personalized greeting and personalized paragraph as a cover letter. See 2,3, and 4 for more email tips. 

Follow UP!

Repeat after me… “I am selling, and most sales do not happen until the 5th try.”  Now say it again. The sooner you make your peace with this fact, the happier and more successful you will be. An artist who expects things to work on the first try, is like a hiker lost in the woods, looking at a map of downtown Atlanta. Once you understand that booking is all about follow up (the right map), then you’ll dramatically improve your chances of success.

Most artists do not make more than two attempts. You can be the artist who understands that persistence is just as important as talent.

Of course, persistence must be tempered by reason. Every host is different, but it is wise to follow up (no more than once or twice a month) until you get at least a “we received your package/email/etc..”

After that, back off. An occasional polite reminder (”I’m touring in your area in November…”) no more than once a quarter should keep you from wearing out your welcome. If you get a “no, thank you” or no response after 5 emails - be respectful/smart and move on.

Test/Adjust/Retest

If you plan on making a lot of inquiries through CIYH, make 10-20 of them at a time, and measure your response rate. If you get no responses within 10 days, you should look for the weak spot. What could most stand to improve - your email text, your profile, or your song selection? Improve SOMETHING, and then send your next 10-20 emails and see if you get a better response rate. Repeat, and don’t forget to follow up, and keep track of what’s working!

House concert hosts tend to be kind individuals who love music and want to support it (for no money), but that doesn’t mean they aren’t busy people, and overwhelmed by email like the rest of us. Don’t expect house concert response rates to be better than professional bookers. If you aren’t a known name, a  20-30% response rate is very good. If you follow up nicely and consistently, you’re likely to receive a higher percentage of feedback.

No Comments »

Here are some of the many things we’re doing to help you succeed.

The obvious:

1. Inspiring and educating new hosts
2. Organizing their info so you can find opportunities that match your needs. Have you tried the advanced search yet? (At the bottom of the linked page. )
3. Providing tools for you to create your own opportunities… videos and how-to articles you can share with your fans.

The not so obvious:

1. Constantly raising the bar for talent. We turn away a lot of artists who are not ready. This means that CIYH artists have a reputation for quality & respectfulness, and that hosts are less likely to get overwhelmed by artist inquiries.
2. Providing tools that help hosts succeed. Calendars, flyers, videos, and how-to articles to help them build an audience for their house concerts. When they succeed, you succeed. Here’s our new how-to video page.
3. Providing opportunities for music fans to discover your music. We are the number one destination for house concert information, and we get different types of inquiries from people who want to hire talent. Check out the new video page.

The future:

1. We’re collecting “artist reviews” from hosts so that we can add “recommendations” to your artist profile. Wouldn’t that give a host great piece of mind to book you if they saw that you’ve been recommended by several CIYH hosts? We thinks so. Learn more about this.
2. In the next few months, we’ll also start collecting “host reviews,” so that our artists can recommend hosts who’ve done a fine job, and provide additional piece of mind for artists when they book recommended house concerts. I think this is especially important for female acts, who are sometimes uncomfortable staying with hosts they don’t know.

Who’s having success?

We get a steady stream of testimonials… here are a few.

Need to join, upgrade, or renew?

Share this with artists you love.

No Comments »

I’ve written about the importance and effectiveness of video as a booking tool here and here.

I’d like to first contradict the great advice below by saying/reminding that great material can overcome weak video, and that a lack-luster video of a great performance is still worth documenting, sharing, and even promoting. That said, here’s some great advice to make the most out of any video you shoot. Take it away Tom!

“I Am An Angel” by Julie Christensen from Tom Weber on Vimeo.

Hi. I’m a Folk Alliance member and professional videographer; also, I  teach video production and filmmaking at an art college.

I’m appalled at the generally low quality of videos that artists use to promote themselves. Bad lighting, distorted or inaudible sound, poor shot composition, no graphics, shaky handheld camera or boring  static shot from the back of the room. You wouldn’t record your CD on  an answering machine, why represent yourself with a bad-looking video?

Hire a professional (hire ME! I have a room at Folk Alliance every  year with studio-quality audio, lighting, and backgrounds), or find a  film school student who will do it for free. Don’t just hand your home camcorder to somebody at the audience and hope for the best!

Which ever route you take, here are some tips:

1. Don’t rely on the camera microphone for audio. They pick up vibration from the camera motor and distort easily. Always use a
   separate microphone or (ideally) stereo pair. A good quality room mic beats a feed from the sound board, because it picks up more audience response. Make sure to get enough level — peak signals should reach -3dB consistently.
2. Put up some kind of backdrop, black or a muted color that complements what you’re going to wear. Videos shot at house concerts, in particular, often suffer from cluttered or unattractive backgrounds. Professional photo backdrops can be had for as little as
   50 bucks.
3. Use backlighting. The backlight — a small spotlight above and behind your head — makes you stand out from the background. I’ve worked in a lot of house concert environments where there was a lamp or tracklight that could be aimed at the back of the performer’s head and shoulders. Makes a world of difference.
4. Lighting is crucial to the quality of your image. Video cameras like white light, and plenty of it. There’s nothing wrong with a dramatic color as an accent, but your face should NOT be green, red, or purple.
5. Don’t put the camera at the back of the room. This requires you to zoom in, which flattens the image and magnifies any shakiness. Bring the camera closer, into a seat in the audience, and zoom out to make the room look more spacious.
6. Have the video edited on a professional editing platform such as Final Cut Pro, Premiere, or Media Composer — NOT consumer software like Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. Consumer software is for Uncle Henry and Aunt Millie’ trip to Hawaii, or Junior’s high school graduation. Cheesy graphics and effects and ready-made DVD menus mark you as an amateur.
7. YouTube has the biggest audience, but I think both Vimeo and Virb offer better quality. They’re free, so why not use all of them? In general, you are embedding the video on your own webpage or MySpace/Facebook page, so go with the highest quality. You can look at some of my work from the 2009 Folk Alliance at http://www.vimeo.com/tomweber/videos.

I hope some folks take these suggestions to heart. — Tom

Tom Weber, Ph.D.
Video Services for Working Musicians
1283 Cedar Boulevard
Pittsburgh, PA 15228
(412) 370-1736 voice/text
www.vimeo.com/tomweber

“Something Pretty” by Julie Christensen. from Tom Weber on Vimeo.

No Comments »