Can House Concerts Work For You - by Jeri Goldstein
House concerts have gotten a ton of recognition in the last few years, but can house concerts work for you?
I’ve been a long-time proponent of finding your own niche and stepping out of the competition of mainstream venues when there are opportunities to do so. House concerts have been one of the main touring models for so many of my musician friends since before it became chic or popular. They have maintained a viable career, made money, built a family of supporters world-wide and used their house concert community to help launch them into area festivals and other more mainstream venues.
My friend, Fran Snyder, created ConcertsInYourHome.com to help artists and house concert hosts have a place to connect and educate themselves about the house concert model. He continues to expand the model and create offshoots of it with ListeningRoomFestival.com and OfficeConcerts.com.
When you consider the finite number of venues in any given market and the thousands of wonderful artists new to the industry and those road warrior veteran performers, some careers will flourish and other will not. BUT, when every artists taps into their own individual community of friends, family and fans, all of a sudden, new performance opportunities explode. Now adding potential workspaces to the mix opens up many new possibilities. The competition gets reduced. Careers become successful.
So can the house concert model work for you?
A few years ago I read Shannon Curtis’ kindle book, No Booker, No Bouncer, No Bartender: How I Made $25K On A 2-Month House Concert Tour (And How You Can Too),
and discovered yet another artist who has profited and built a career using the house concert model and who has shared her story and methods so you might gain from her insights and experience.
Others have posted videos, written blog posts or articles claiming their success with the model and passing on their advice.
Can the house concert model work for you? Do you have friends, relatives, neighbors, fans who want to see you succeed? Do you believe in yourself enough to simply ask them to host a show in their house and invite their friends and neighbors? You sweat over making booking calls, why not simply call a relative or a friend and ask them to host a fun evening with you as their featured guest talent? Can you do it? Will you do it?
Here’s what you gain:
- You build and expand your community of supporters
- You remove yourself from the competitive playing field of other artists all vying for the same gig
- You begin to build a reputation in your desired markets
- You can surround a mainstream gig or festival with smaller house concerts in order to build up to the “Big Gig” eventually
- You get to make friendly calls or write friendly emails rather than cold calls, setting yourself up for many more successful exchanges and booked gigs
- You sidestep the open-mic syndrome or the no-pay opening act scenario
- You sell more merchandise and potentially make a lot more money while having a fuller house and a lot more fun
Even if you want a “mainstream career” and want to play the big gigs, the clubs and the concert halls, but aren’t there yet, this method of gaining loyal supporters is one way to get there.
So can the house concert model work for you? You just might want to check out some of the above mentioned resources and consider this option as you plan your future. If you haven’t considered tapping into your very own email list of supporters looking for potential house concert hosts, it’s never too late to give it a try. You just might find yourself on tour, meeting some very cool folks who just love what you are doing.
Let me know how you’ve used the house concert model to build your career or whether you will give it a whirl in the future.
Leave me a comment below or on the Performingbiz Success Strategies Facebook page.
I can’t wait to hear about your success.
Now, Thanks to Curfew, for providing This Month’s Biz Booster Theme Music, “Future Dance” Check them out at http://www.curfew.co.uk
And for more career boosting tips, articles, books, resources, tele-seminars and online courses, visit me at Performingbiz.com
