house concerts and 21st century touring

Imagine this:
Someone posts house concert information on the Facebook Fan Page of a public venue down the street. The venue flips out, and decides to build a campaign to shut down house concerts in their area because they think it’s hurting their business.

As house concerts gain in popularity, it’s important that we are careful about how they are promoted, especially with all the new promotional avenues (Facebook, etc.) that are now available to artists and hosts alike. Although there’s great potential for public venues and house concerts to work together, some public venues feel threatened by the thought of a successful house concert series.

Artists! 4 Rules for Promoting House Concerts on your websites and social media.

1. ALWAYS STATE that this is an invitation-only, private event.
2. Do not publish host names, numbers, addresses, or even email if you can help it. Instead, require an email to you for information about location, host email and/or number, and RSVP.
3. Do not promote the event using resources that would conflict with other venues. (i.e. don’t start a conversation about your house concerts on the fan page of another venue.)
4. Do not mention “tickets” or “charges” anywhere. The correct language is “suggested donation,” but why even put that in your calendar? Make people curious, and fill in the blanks (like the suggested donation) when they ask for info.

Here’s an example of what works great on an artist’s website.

Fran’s Touring Schedule:

July 27th, 7pm
Lakeview, FL - House Concert
This is a private, exclusive event for friends and a few select fans in the area. Invitation only. Email me for details and we’ll get you an invitation.

Final thought: Some people (your fans) could feel weird about going to the home of someone they don’t know. However, you can turn that to your advantage if you make it feel like a VIP event. Have another look at the entry above, and notice how the words make the event feel special, and put the reader in your “inner circle” by having a direct connection to you.

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from the comments on the myspace page of Sam Willoughby

Martin Martini & The Bone Palace Orchestra

Apr 23 2009 8:33 PM

well
i was at a party
in the bush
and this lady who i thought was sexy
said to me out of the blue
if you were an animal
you would be a crab
i am staring into a fire in the middle of nowhere
and she says
i would be a crab

now in the beginning this made me feel a little weird
who did this woman think she was
no man would be happy with a crab right
give him a tiger
a lion
a horse
and eagle
but a crab

as the night when on
i developed a crab dance that took the heat off me a little bit
seems people can love crabs
especially when they dance
there was crab sex in a tent later that night
who would have thought a crab could do such things

two things i have learnt about the crab
one is that its teeth are located in its stomach
so if i the crab happened to ask that sexy lady to just relax and rest her head on my stomach
well you know the rest
and secondly if a crab loses his claw in a battle
he can just grow it back
which would make piano playing interesting

if you want to see the crab dance
or the man she says reminded her of crab
you can see him and his wonderful talented band
this SAT 25 and SUN 26 at the TOFF IN TOWN Swanston St MELB CITY
show kicks off around 8
its 10 dollars cause of the recession
see you there

MELBOURNE

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What can sharing this free guide can do for you?
It can prevent these problems!

1. Some new hosts are uncomfortable collecting money from friends visiting their home. If they do this half-heartedly, it can cost you $50 to $100 in donations.
2. Some new hosts don’t understand how important it is to promote the event as a LISTENING event - a concert. When they fail to set the right expectations with their invitees, it can be very difficult to corral the crowd into something like a real audience. This hurts your performance, distracts those who want to listen, and could cost you in real dollars from the people who missed key parts of your best songs, who then fail to buy your CD because the connection was not made strongly enough.
3. Some hosts fail to see the importance of reminder messages/invites a few days before the show. This often leads to many unexpected cancellations and no-shows, many of which could have been prevented or replaced with some last minute hustling.

The HC guide gives several tips for overcoming these and other very REAL and costly problems.

If you regularly inspire your fans to host shows, this could put hundreds (if not thousands) of extra dollars in your pocket each year. Download it, and share it with your newbie hosts - it’s free and can put many additional dollars in your pocket at each show!

Best,

Fran Snyder

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