June 2010
Monthly Archive
Share the Free House Concert Guide - more income, better experiences.
Posted by admin on 23 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Tips for Artists
What can sharing this free guide can do for you?
It can prevent these problems!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Breaking Into Houses
Posted by admin on 15 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Tips for Artists
to steal their hearts with music.
For many artists who’ve made a few inquiries into the house concert world, the door seems locked. Six years ago, when I first started looking for house concert opportunities, you couldn’t even find the door, and when you did, you were likely to find that the place had been vacated long ago.
Quite a few house concert presenters saw the value of using the internet to share information about their house concerts. Unfortunately, a very small percentage saw the value of keeping those sites current, well-organized, and useful for the touring musician. I was dumbfounded at how many emails bounced back, and how often these hosts had given up their events long ago.
As a result, it’s quite common for artists to feel like the search for house concerts is a waste of time.
Another factor is that house concerts who rank high on google searches belong to presenters who have done it for many years, are well connected, and give little hope to talented-yet-unknown acts reaching out for the first time. So it’s easy to get the impression that ALL house concerts are unapproachable.
What you may fail to realize is that new house concerts are popping up all the time (15-25 each month at CIYH) and many of these new presenters are very open to hearing from new artists. ConcertsInYourHome.com exists to inspire, educate, and connect these new hosts with our community of great talent.
Beyond that, there is a healthy percentage of experienced hosts who are still on the lookout for new acts, and welcome polite and personalized solicitations from our artists.
When you add the untapped potential of your fans to host concerts, the possibilities are endless. CIYH provides many free resources (a House Concert Guide, how-to videos, etc.) to help artists inspire their fans to put on shows. And these resources are available even to non-members.
There’s simply no better way to break into the house concert world, and possibly, move in.
CIYH - The House Concert News, June 2010
Posted by admin on 07 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: CIYH Newsletter
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“During the concert I often feel intense joy and pride knowing that I was part of making all these people happy.” Bob Wade - House Concert Host
CIYH is 4 Years Old!
Message from Fran:
What a great way to celebrate 4 years. Thanks to Alice Schaefer and Susan Reiss for setting up some great shows for me in Florida, and thanks to our cartoon guru Roy Schneider for letting me borrow his P.A. - I’m convinced that in a few more years I’ll be able to say “I visit friends for a living.” The only thing sweeter is being able to help other artists do the same. Thank you.
House Concert Month: Thanks to all of you who were inspired by House Concert Month. Nearly 200 hosts put up events on the calendars, and many artists shared our new “holiday” with their fans. We also added 2000 friends on our Facebook Page in a few short weeks. Jeff and I feel privileged to be connected with you.
It’s also very touching to see the impact that Jeff is having with the hosts who’ve connected with him over the past few months. So many of you just needed a little help and advice to get things rolling.
Web-boost: Finally, we’re offering a nice web-boost to our artists and hosts who want help with their websites. Bryan Tilford, who’s been coding for CIYH since the very beginning, is offering an amazing deal to help you make your websites more effective, and to help you get organized to get the most of the time you spend online. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in just two hours. Here’s the deal.
New CIYH Hosts: (artist members can search “member since 2010-05″ using the advanced search.)
23 New House Concert Presenters in ON(2) NZ, CA(2), CO, CT, IA, IN, MD, MI, MN, NJ, NV, NY, OK, OR, TN, TX (4), WI
New CIYH Artists:
(A big thank you for your support.)
Andrew Vladeck, Annie Rich, Ben Wytinck, Bill and Eli Perras, Brian Gentry, Carolyn Martin, Dan Costello, Don Sparks /Tall Troubadour, Fred Gillen Jr., George Cole Trio, Household Items, Jason Vitelli, Jeremy Facknitz, KAPO, Kassie Miller, Kyle Williams, Laura Love, Luke Winslow-King, Moss Henry, Neil Jacobs, 12-string guitar, Peter Fitzpatrick, Rebecca Turner, Rob Drabkin, Rob Heath, Sarah McQuaid, Sasha Papernik, Serendipity, Shannon Wurst, Sonny and Perley, Steve Elliott & Lucie Walker, Wendy Parr
Our Audio 6-Packs (free downloads) are back! This month, download 2 tracks from each of our featured artists. Lovely music!
Look for these new artists here!
Renewed Artists:
(A HUGE thank you for your continued support!) Annelise LeCheminant, Annie Dinerman, Big Wide Grin, Cindy Kallet and Grey Larsen, Dan Montgomery, Delaney Gibson, John Randolph, Michael Gulezian, Nathen Aswell, Preston Reed, Sheryl Paige, Yampa Valley Boys
Schwag of the Month:
House Concert Month may be over for this year, but it’s always a good time to talk about House Concerts. This shirt is a kind nudge in case you forget to bring it up yourself. It was a toss up between this one and our “STAFF” shirt. Prestige, connections. Wear it proudly!
Choose your style and size shirt here!
Tips for Artists and Hosts:
- Artists: Improve your booking emails… improve your life.
- Common issues for House Concert Hosts at CIYH.
- Booking gigs? Your secret weapon is your fans.
- Offer the Free House Concert Guide to your fans.
- What do you believe?
- Artists - How to Get Started with CIYH
- Artist Deadline: Apply for showcase at FAR-West Conference … Connect in person with House Concert Hosts in the Pacific time zone.
