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I am hosting (and performing) at my own house concert...
#1
I just bought and read Shannon's house concert book. So informative! 

I am on the cusp of my own house concert. I am doing something a bit different. I am hosting the house concert in my own home, but I am the main act. I thought it would be a fun way to release my new EP. It's quite the undertaking and I am finding, after reading the book, I am on the same track with some of Shannon's methods, but others I went a different way and time will tell if that is wise or not. One important note is- I am not publicizing that its at MY home. I am stating on invites that its an "exclusive house concert in the Sacramento area". I haven't quite figured out how I will approach the question of "whose house is this" the night of the concert. I am toying with the idea of having a "fake host". Being a family member or friend. Or just avoiding the question all together. Most of the people who will be there I would trust. But I'm sure there'll be a few here and there that I would rather they not know its my home. 

First off, I set a "requested donation" of $20. With that $20, guests will receive a digital copy of my new ep (bandcamp download codes) and also free food and beverages will be provided. For this I reached out to my community and family. I asked them to bring dishes and drink to share and I've got a good amount of that going now. I am still going to encourage guests to bring things to share if they desire (like alcohol and snacks) but its not required. 

Another difference for my show is I've lined up an opener. He'll play for 25 mins and then we'll take an intermission where he can sell his merch and people can grab food and drink before I take the stage. Originally I wanted to make sure I could bring in enough people and thats why I wanted an opener. As the date draws near I realize I probably could've done it as a solo act bill. At this point I can't ask him to step off, or I suppose I could but he's not a "good friend" and only a musical acquaintance so I'm hesitant to make that move without an established relationship with him. 

I've guaranteed him a flat rate for the night, and thats another reason why I am setting the requested donation at $20 and not leaving it to chance. I realize that I might be limiting myself by naming the donation price, but I also want to make sure I can pay my opener and still have enough for myself to turn a profit. If I get 30 folks to attend, which I am fairly confident about- this is my hometown so invites are going out to my entire community PLUS the fans of my opener- then I will pull in $600. Plus any merch I sell. I'll be selling physical copies of the new EP plus t-shirts. 

It's all very stressful to say the least, but I'm hopeful that I can pull it off and give my community a great EP Release show, in a controlled environment. No bartender ice shaker noise, no loud venue. Ideally for the future I'd like to have house concerts in the homes of my friends and family, and not my own home. But for this one show I'm sort of pulling out all the stops. 

Any suggestions?? I am on the verge of sharing the news of the concert to my community, so I still have time to tweak certain details, and I'm wide open to suggestions. 
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#2
Hey SD! Thanks for the in-depth post, and for sharing what you're doing.

This is definitely different from how we do things. I'll be interested to see how it goes for you! I don't see a problem in your situation with having an opener, so I hope you didn't cancel him. Openers are more an issue with donation-based shows, where you don't want the energy split or disrupted but instead focused entirely on you. Your merch sales will suffer a bit as a result of having him there, but then again you're giving everyone your music as part of the ticket price so probably that effect will be largely mitigated as well.

What you've basically done is to create a venue at your house and make yourself both a booking agent and a promoter. These are three of the main things we set out to avoid in our model, haha - so you're definitely putting your own twist on things! I'm really interested to see how it goes. Can you make a follow-up post when it's done, to debrief us all on how it went and what you learned - what went well and what didn't go so well?

Welcome to the community - we're glad you're here.
--
jamie hill
shannon's husband & partner in crime
co-inventor of the house concert model & co-author of the book
which is why i reply so often on here
i produce, mix, & master records
you can hear my work at  deptofenergymgmt.com/work
Tacoma, WA, USA
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