TenTen – House Concerts Made Easy – Listening Room Festival Edition!
We’re looking for 7 more hosts in the Tampa Bay area for concerts during the Listening Room Festival, April 19-27 (www.ListeningRoomFestival.com)
Let’s thrill your friends.
You’ve undoubtedly heard of house concerts, and how music fans are putting on living room shows with amazingly talented artists. These shows bring neighbors, co-workers, and friends together, and deepen the roots of communities. Plus, they can be a lot of fun!
The easiest and best way to get started is with a house concert format we call TenTen – Ten Songs for Ten+ Guests.
TenTen Concerts are exclusive shows designed to achieve some wonderful stuff:
- Get enough committed attendees by sending just one email.
- Host a show with a minimum of effort and maximum fun.
- Create a show on musician’s off-nights, and help them start build an audience in your town.
- Give your friends a remarkably intimate concert experience – every seat is like a backstage pass.
New hosts are often stunned at the quality of talent that is available for these small shows. Touring artists spend a lot of time and money to develop an audience in a new town. Publicity, travel, hotel, flyers, ads, soundperson/system, and food make it incredibly difficult to tour sustainably when playing clubs and traditional venues that also take a big percentage of the revenue. House concert hosts take away all these expenses except the travel. Hosts are the heroes of the new music business.
The easy TenTen Concert format is designed for weeknights. Touring artists have to make more money on weekends (especially Saturday nights) so we encourage bigger events on those nights. However, if you’d like to host larger shows, the TenTen format allows you to build up to that gradually by hosting a succession of smaller shows to hook a few new friends each time.
The Numbers Fine-Tuned
Ten guests is the minimum expectation. We don’t count the host as part of the number of guests, so we’re really shooting for 11-16 people depending on your space and list of friends.
The host only promises a $100 guarantee (ten guests X $10 for the artist), and provides a guest room and dinner if possible. We don’t want to ask any professional artist to play for less than $100. That means you should collect RSVPs, promote early, create a waiting list or overbook if possible, and send a reminder message two days before the show. CD and merch sales do not count towards the $100. Ideally, an artist will make $150-$225 from a TenTen Concert.
Since the successful host (with ten paying guests) is not expected to pay, anyone can afford to host a show. Some hosts like to buy a couple of pizzas and make a salad, but that’s totally optional. The point is to make it quick and easy for people to attend after work.
Time is running out to join the fun. Have a look at the wonderful artists available, and register to host a show so we can help you schedule and promote a wonderful, intimate concert in your home.
