house concerts and 21st century touring

It’s a crime the way artists manage their careers.

Everybody makes mistakes, and artists are no exception. I’ve been at this long enough to make a lot of mistakes, and long enough to have learned from a few of them.

One thing I’ve gotten better at over the years, is taking a step back and looking at the big picture. This survey/quiz is my attempt to get you to do the same thing, in a somewhat entertaining way.

It’s a lot more fun if you are honest with yourself. One word of advice - you’re only guilty if you haven’t learned from this mistake yet. Don’t hang yourself for how you did things 5 years ago.

Take the short quiz.

No Comments »

Why are house concerts important?

For artists, they represent

• a way to break into new markets with less financial risk.
• opportunities to test your songs and performance in front of listening audiences.
• a better chance at success than almost any other type of venue.
• a source of new and lasting friendships with patrons of the arts.

For hosts, they represent

• an interesting and memorable way to entertain friends
• an opportunity to become “tastemakers” in their community
• a way to experience live music in an intimate way that doesn’t happen anywhere else
• a way to support their “secret self” - to nurture the artistic side of themselves they may have neglected for a long time.

Is it a movement yet?

Yes. While most of the house concert activity is in the US and Canada, we frequently discover new house concert opportunities overseas. Home Routes, an organization in Canada, is now in its third year of creating 10-12 day tours through the rural provinces of “middle” Canada. ConcertsInYourHome, and several other websites are providing support for artists and hosts to get started. Our site gets more than 5,000 visitors per month, and we estimate at least 5,000 house concerts happen every year in the U.S.

At CIYH, we see this growth accelerating with 10-15 new hosts per month.

Issues:

1. PRO associations (ASCAP and BMI) have shown interest in wanting to license (charge) house concerts, but Folk Alliance is close to negotiating a positive development on that front.
2. A few hosts have been asked to stop hosting shows due to neighbor complaints. However, there have been two recent cases where the hosts fought for their right to continue, and won.
3. Many agents and some artists haven’t learned to “switch gears” when talking with house concert hosts. If you seek house concert bookings, you must be mindful that hosting is usually a hobby, even with hosts who take it very seriously. Deposits, guarantees, and riders must be adjusted (or removed) for the scope of the event. No host should sign a document which makes them uncomfortable, or puts undue financial pressure. Negotiate (cross out clauses) or walk away.
4. Many hosts, especially new ones, are finding it difficult to build an audience. Despite the simplicity of the “house concert” concept, people often don’t understand it. The positive news here is the increasing number of decent quality videos on the net, which can really serve to show the appeal to potential audiences. Hosts can include links to these videos in their email invitations. Secondly, there are a growing number of outstanding artists (in various genres) who are embracing house concerts as a legitimate place to perform. These artists are sure to inspire more audiences to come back time and again.

More positive developments:

• The increasing number of hosts at ConcertsInYourHome will soon allow us to create weekend circuits in different regions of the U.S.
• Some hosts who have a knack for this eventually create or run larger venues in the same spirit as they ran their house concerts.
• House concerts are once again making MUSIC the most important word in the MUSIC business.

You might argue that house concerts are more than important. They are critical to the development of our future artists. — fran

No Comments »

Try this. Scary and fun. Set a timer, choose a punishment, and your computer starts doing crazy things whenever you stop writing for more than a few seconds.

You can set it to gentle, normal, kamikaze, or electric shock mode. 8^)

Don’t think or edit, just write. Or die. — fran

	321
11
lab.drwicked.com

— Write or Die exercise. I set the timer for 10 minutes - it flew by. Here’s what I wrote - warts and… well it’s all warts, really. No editing. Be kind.—

Wow. This is weird. I need to write a host primer. This might be a good tool for morning pages. Write or die every morning for 10 minutes. That’s an easy enough goal. I wonder what he does with all this info. This might be good for songwriting as well. Maybe worth a blog post. Yes! Perfect for songwriters facing writers block. Why not?

Sixty four words so far. Let’s write a song….

Your face is a like a bong hit.
Sweet.
your face is alike a bong hit.

Yo. Yo. Listen. I see you on the beach you glisten. Your coppertone, precancerous, skin, my eyes are wincin, I don’t know but I want to take you home, pack you in a bowl.

Your face is like a bong hit.
Sweet.
Your face is like a bong hit.

Sweet like resin, cheekbones impressin, keep me guessin, bout what I’m gonna do, what I got to do, got to do to get wit you. Chilly blue eyes, no matter what you try, I’m adjusting my fly, I’m all stressed out, bugged out, need to chill out, get up close, can’t get enough, want to take a puff.

Your face is like a bong hit!

Flyin’ high, you’re still in front of me, but you feel like a memory, memory, memory, no - that’s an echo, hey what do I know I’m high - because

Your face is like a bong hit
Sweet
Your face is like a bong hit.

Ok. That’s enough of that, but I still have 1 minute and 50 seconds to kill. Maybe a copyright notice, I can’t believe I wrote a rap song. I should print this on soft paper so I can wipe my ass with it. or wit it.

What’s with this latent desire to get high? Is it my imagination, or just a notion. Hey I’m causing a commotion. Now I need to spit it, yo.
Word. And… I’m … spent.

fran

PS - I’m very uncomfortable putting something this ugly out there, so I feel the need to point you to something decent I wrote. http://fransnyder.com - play the first song. Whew! Thanks. I feel redeemed.

No Comments »