LAWRENCE, KS (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Imagine the joy of listening to the skillful stylings of an accomplished singer/songwriter on a Saturday evening surrounded by a select group of friends. Now imagine that said concert is taking place in the comfort of your living room instead of a club or coffeehouse — if that sounds like your cup of tea, read on.
Since the '70s, house concerts just like this have been taking place around the country and a new website, concertsinyourhome.com founded by singer-songwriter and house concert aficionado Fran Snyder, hopes to help match prospective concert hosts and musicians.
Here's how it works: A prospective host agrees to host an concert, turning over their living room as a performance space to an artist. Then a select group of friends are invited over for an intimate concert. Typically, the host provides snacks for the guests and room & board for the performer(s) while the invited guests donate a small amount to help defray the costs of putting the event on and provide some recompense for the artist.
Its estimated that between 300-500 homes around the nation host soirees like this on a regular basis. The hosts don't really have a profit motive, usually not breaking even on costs — most are just in it for the experience.
Its a boon for a lot of aspiring artists to be able to play in settings like this. The economic realities of more traditional touring for singer-songwriters and folk musicians ensure that it is virtually impossible to make it on the road, especially with the paucity of venues with formats to support this kind of music and the lack of promotional channels available to such artists.
With house concerts, it can make the travel between dates in traditional venues economically viable and it puts the artist in front of fans who might not otherwise have ever heard the artist perform, a valuable means of creating a fan base within a region that would support the artist when they appear at a more traditional venue.
Snyder, himself a veteran of the house concert circuit told CelebrityAccess "as a touring act with no major label pulling strings and spending
cash to publicize my shows, there's simply no better way to open up new markets. House concerts keep my expenses low, my rewards high, and my network growing."
The website contains listings of both potential hosts and potential performers with resources to facilitate both sides of the fence, providing just about everything you'd need to put on such an event. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
