[benallfree]

I've done 2 house concerts, so maybe I shouldn't be giving advice, but here's what has been working well for me:

Invitation
Hosts need invitations. This is the invitation I use to great effect. It fits 2-up on a page, is black & white, and hosts can print them easily.

Hand Bill
Every audience member should get a hand bill that talks about you. But besides talking about you, it should also talk about your availability for house concerts, how to get ahold of you, how to buy your music online, etc.

Song List
This is just me, but I've had a very good experience listing my songs on the BACK of the handbill. It creates an interactive experience. I make the list funny, like this:

  ~~~ SONG GUIDE FOR HECKLERS ~~~
  * The Hits
  * Songs I'll Remember How To Play
  * Songs I'll Probably Forget How To Play
  * Songs To Make You Cry
  * Songs To Make You Laugh
  * Deep Cuts (Hipsters Only)

And all my original songs are organized under those headings. Here's a sample. http://note.io/11VWI5t. Instead of using a set list, I just ask people to shout out a song that they want to hear. It works really well and gets everyone engaged and talking. In a few cases, they even felt comfortable enough to tell me that they misheard some lyrics and I sang the song again with their lyrics. Stuff like that, just fun.

Also, I should mention that if you do this, they WILL ask if a given song is on your album... especially if they like it... so you should just mark the songs that are, that way everyone knows. And, I invite people to sign up on the mailing list and contact me for songs that they want to hear that are not on the album.

Intro/Outro
I posted it elsewhere, but this google doc has the Intro and Outro that I have the hosts read. Hosts are very relieved when I hand this to them.

[Shannon Curtis]

Hand Bill
Every audience member should get a hand bill that talks about you. But besides talking about you, it should also talk about your availability for house concerts, how to get ahold of you, how to buy your music online, etc.

Love this. We gave programs to every house concert guest on this past summer's tour as well. It had a short bio, where they could find me on social media, a suggested hashtag for tagging their photos of the event on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and how to contact me if they are interested in hosting a house concert at their home on our next tour.

Two bonus elements of having a printed program for everyone:
1) It's one more detail that lends an air of "this is an actual official concert" and not just some lady playing music in the corner of my friend's yard. A program in hand suddenly makes the guest take the whole event more seriously.

2) The program was a great tool in executing the "5 minutes until showtime" heads-up. Something like this: "So sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I want to make sure you each have a program for the concert. Here you go. This also serves as your 5-minute heads up for music time. This will be a seated listening event lasting about an hour, so if you need to do anything to prepare for that, now's the time. Maybe make a trip to the restroom, maybe refill your drink. Then please come take a seat for the show!"

[benallfree]

Hand Bill
Every audience member should get a hand bill that talks about you. But besides talking about you, it should also talk about your availability for house concerts, how to get ahold of you, how to buy your music online, etc.

2) The program was a great tool in executing the "5 minutes until showtime" heads-up. Something like this: "So sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I want to make sure you each have a program for the concert. Here you go. This also serves as your 5-minute heads up for music time. This will be a seated listening event lasting about an hour, so if you need to do anything to prepare for that, now's the time. Maybe make a trip to the restroom, maybe refill your drink. Then please come take a seat for the show!"

Yeah #2 is good, I'm adding that to my workflow.

[craigallen]

Hand Bill
Every audience member should get a hand bill that talks about you. But besides talking about you, it should also talk about your availability for house concerts, how to get ahold of you, how to buy your music online, etc.

I LOVE the idea of the hand bill!  I think that's a brilliant way to also give something to everyone to take home who may not have purchased any merch to look you up online after the show, especially something about house concerts.  I'm thinking maybe even a special link to a specific page on my website with an explanation about hosting one.

[CharlotteR]

So helpful Ben and Shannon!   Ben I read in the Intro that you get to Nashville--do you play out there?  I will get on your mailing list--we live near Nashville part time so maybe I can hear you.  Shannon too, if you come to perform here!
Thanks sooooooo much!

[Katja]

Very good advice! Especially the one with the song list on the back - we have two albums and people always ask after our shows "Which one is better?" - which is a dammed hard question to answer! If we mark the songs with their respective album, people know which one they like best, or even better realize that they simply must get both of them.

[jilltaylormusic]

Those are some good tips, Ben.  Thank you.
I anticipate the "what should people say about me at the beginning of the concert speech" to be a hard thing for me. Shannon, what is your pre-concert schpiel?

[Shannon Curtis]

Shannon, what is your pre-concert schpiel?

Hi, Jill! I usually ask the host to talk about how they know me -- like, how they discovered my music or how we know each other otherwise -- and why they decided they wanted to share me with their friends and community. I let the bio in the guest programs do the work of filling people in on the specifics of who I am, and let the hosts make their introduction of me a much more personal point of view. 

[DaveCFraser]

Hi All, 

New poster here, I'm a professional musician near Toronto, I've been playing primarily pubs and now moving my business more aggressively into the house concert space.  

THANK YOU Shannon for sharing.

So recently performed my first house concert (using the donations only model).  Made around $225 from a group of about 20 people plus the host put us up for the night (saving us at least a $75 hotel room). 

Also as a big side benefit, we've got a good group of fans / offers of places to stay in that area for when we pass through the next time. 

We used a handbill I wanted to share, received 3 solid host offers. 

see attached PDF

Also includes a "Memory Jogger" so people are encouraged to think of anyone they know who might want to host. 

[jamie]

Also as a big side benefit, we've got a good group of fans / offers of places to stay in that area for when we pass through the next time.  

Dave, thanks for the great post and for sharing your materials! That's excellent.

Regarding the excerpt I've quoted above: I would modestly suggest that this isn't a "side benefit," but rather the entire point. This is how your career grows virally through communities.

Great to have you here.