house concerts and 21st century touring

For so long, empty seats have been the bane of concert venues and saddened performers around the globe. In the house concert format, since most chairs are (re)movable, the Greater Council on House Concerts has formally decreed that the occurrence of empty chairs will no longer be tolerated, and the new law will be enforced by a new “burn that chair” app soon to be launched by CIYH in the famous Apple “App Store.” The app will be free for house-concert goers, but lighter fluid will be sold separately.

The Council expects that house concert presenters will now be more diligent in sending out event reminders, collecting RSVPs, and not over-estimating the number of guests who will show. Extra chairs will be accessible, but no longer will they be placed in shameful public view.

When asked for comment about the seeming severity of this law, Fran Snyder was quoted as saying “Not really.”

Source: Judge Fran Snyder of ConcertsInYourHome.com

In Other News: spotted in Wikipedia….
Fran’s rule of house concert seating:

For every guest bottom, there will be no more than one equal and opposite guest chair, unless the host wants the event to look poorly attended and the performer to cry.

Another important physical law of house concerts.
A guest in motion, tends to stay in motion, until the host asks him to shut up, sit down, and listen to the show.

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In the free House Concert Guide, I explain the importance of not having more chairs than people at a house concert. Nothing sucks the energy out of a room more effectively than empty seats. It’s even more of a problem when those empty chairs are in the front row, so I have always suggested that hosts pull a few close friends aside before the show to ask them to sit in the front row when the time comes. Human nature being what it is, there are a lot of people who feel uncomfortable looking that eager.

However, here in western Nebraska, I just learned a new trick from the Clarks.

What they do, is they set up a “fake front row” of 4 chairs that are ridiculously close to the performer (considering the space of their living room.) Naturally, no one wants to sit that close, so the second row seems like an attractive choice (close enough, but not too close.)

Then, a few minutes before the show, they pull the chairs out from the front row (to remove, or add to the back if needed) and the full second rowers find themselves in the front row. They grin, the performer loves it, and any pictures of the event now will look well-attended.

Of course, they explain this dastardly plot to the performers ahead of time. Also, if your room is exceptionally small, you may have no choice but to sit people ridiculously close to the performer - so my original advice would be more helpful to you.

When all else fails, be sneaky. Try the fake front row.

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From Jeff:

I just finished up my month-long reach out to our host members. I thoroughly enjoyed my many conversations with you.

You shared with me an abundance of useful observations and concerns. Let me drill down on them here and offer some thoughts.

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Fill the room.

A tough nut to crack for many of us. But I’m convinced there are practical ways to conquer this, if we’re willing to do just two (very related) things.

• Put email on Pause. Pick up the phone. Make connections. Resume email.
• Be open to some proven, creative ways to fill more seats. Email me and I’ll send you a little something called “7 Ways to Fill More Seats.” Numerous hosts have expressed enthusiasm for the ideas in this piece.

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Minimize the cancellations.

You might never be free from cancellations. But there are ways to minimize them, especially the no-shows.

1. Ask for a financial commitment from your RSVP guests, where they agree to either attend, or send someone else in their place, or write a check to the artist
2. Send email reminders about the concert as you get closer to the day of the event. Include a message from the artist or an update on their career to further trigger interest.
3. If you run out of available seats, get that word out to your RSVP guests, and gently hammer home that there are people on a waiting list who will miss the show if those with reservations simply don’t show up.

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Love our artists = reply to their booking inquiries.

Thank You for responding to artist inquiries.

As for those who aren’t so consistent about their replies to booking inquiries, we need your help. Some CIYH artists tell us that the reply rate feels almost non-existent, ranging from 5% to 15%. And this makes artists feel invisible.

Part of the problem resides with the how some artists communicate. But the rest of the problem resides with the many non-responders among us.

I learned that we non-responders fall into five groups:

1. we no longer offer concerts but we didn’t remove our CIYH profile

2. we are not booking at this time but we didn’t update our CIYH profile to say so
3. we choose to ignore artist inquiries as a matter of philosophy. Hey, Silence = No!
4. we don’t have the heart to say “No”
5. we don’t have the time to keep up with the inquiries.

Any of these sound familiar? Happily, there’s a solution to each.

If you’re not in a position to do anything productive with artist inquiries, change your profile (I can help you). If you don’t have time to keep up with inquiries, pull together simple template responses that signal No or Maybe.

There are several easy/effective ways to say “No Thanks” to an artist. Here’s one that is firm but not offensive.

“Thanks for your interest in [SERIES NAME]. We’ve reviewed your [mp3, video, EPK]. Nice [material, songs, stuff] but we feel that our audience is not a good fit for your music. We wish you well with your touring. Take care.”

The important thing is to reply with a Yes or No or Maybe in some form. Host silence is poison to artists. Artists are thick skinned, but they aren’t mind readers. “No” is valuable information that they need and want to hear from you. Really. For artists, “No” always beats Silence.

If you get an impersonal email blast from an artist, or if the artist doesn’t follow your artist instructions, or doesn’t dovetail with your genre preference — it’s OK to ignore it. Otherwise, we want to reply to each artist inquiry within one week. Fran and I feel this is a reasonable expectation of our member hosts who accept inquiries from our member artists.

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Artists can be better at doing their part.

Fran is talking to artists about three things we’ve observed that result in non-responses from hosts. We will remind artists to

1. read (and honor) a host’s profile page before they send an inquiry
2. refrain from impersonal form emails
3. resist the temptation to reply with “Why Not?”

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So what’s up with this “Booking light thingy?”

From the beginning, CIYH has always given hosts the power to invite, filter or stop artist inquiries. Artists see a red, yellow, or green-colored booking light when they search for hosts on our site. That light instantly tells them whether we’re open to receiving artist inquiries. And you can set or reset that light in your Edit Profile area at the top of the Host Info section. In case it’s been awhile.

• Green = I’ve got dates to fill. I want to hear from artists
• Yellow = It’s challenging to get a show here. I offer concerts infrequently, or I know who I want for most of my shows, but I’m willing to hear from artists who could be amazing and a great fit for our series.
• Red = I’m not booking at this time.

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Host recommendations of extraordinary artists.

If an artist really wows you and your audience, we can post a recommendation from you on their profile page. Just write up two or three sentences, and then email it to me.

Here’s a protocol thing regarding recommendations. We’ll ask artists not to solicit them from you. This is potentially awkward and you can feel free to refer artists to me. Then I’ll solicit the recommendation.

Fundraising? Really? Yes, really. A house concert series can be a great vehicle to raise money for worthy causes and organizations. There’s a very cool, very proven method outlined in “7 Ways to Fill More Seats.” Just ask me.

As always, hosts, thanks for all you do to be a music Giver in your community and to help artists earn a living wage from offering their extraordinary talents.

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