Proper Care and Feeding of Your Artists

Should the artist expect dinner at the house concert or venue? Certainly, this should be confirmed by phone a few days before the show, but why not make it clear in your host/venue profile?

For most house concerts and venues, feeding the artist before or after the show is expected. Depending on their arrival time, artists may prefer to skip dinner or just snack before the show, and opt for a more relaxed meal after the guests have gone.

With an early arrival time, it can be quite nice to have dinner (host, artist, and maybe a few special guests) together. This takes extra effort and planning, and if it’s too much for the host to take on they should simply say so.

Through ConcertsInYourHome.com, there’s an easy place to put this information when you list your show. It’s the confirmation page (step 3). Read the “Accommodations and Additional Info” in the example below.

This confirmation page is available to artists at anytime for reference. All they have to do is login and click on your show on their Start Page to see this information at the top of the webflyer.

Hectic travel schedules often lead to artists forgetting to confirm these details. Hosts can be pro-active to make sure food will not be a stressful or disappointing part of the artist’s experience.

TIP: Make it easy. Choose a go-to meal to offer in your accommodations. Something easy that you make all the time. Artists can accept, decline, or supplement.

Artists are capable of picking up some food before they arrive at your home. It’s not ideal, but it’s not a big deal if you can warn them ahead of time. Please have some suggestions for them, and include some gluten-free and veggie options if possible. It’s best to send these options in an email.

Some hosts really cherish the opportunity to sit down with the artist for a meal before the show. It doesn’t always work with the schedule of the artist and host, but when it does, a home-cooked meal for a traveling artist is a lovely treat.

 

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Booking Inquiries Now Expire After Six Months

We’re helping hosts catch up with artist inquiries.

Although host response rates have improved tremendously over the years, there’s still a significant number of these lovely volunteers who fall behind or lose touch. When a inquiries start piling up on a host, it can be discouraging (when they finally login) to see 15 or more artists waiting for an answer. Plus, it can be challenging to compose a response only to discover that the artist is no longer interested.

So inquiries will now be automatically dismissed after 6 months. No email notifications will be sent, but artists will be able to see the status in their inquiry download spreadsheet.

These hosts will now have a “blank” booking status with the artist (instead of “pending”), and that will return them to the top-half of your host search results so you can try again if you wish.

Remember, hosts already get a reminder every Tuesday if they have pending inquiries to answer, so there’s still no need to ask “did you get my email?”

However, this new change should help inspire hosts to catch up with their inquiries, and help artists get a fresh look at hosts who may have recently woken up after an extended break.

Twist? It’s possible to think that dismissing inquiries will make it harder to see which hosts are actually responsive. However, we can now measure these dismissals as a percentage statistic, so artists will be able to see the response rate (like 85%) in the host profile. Hosts will also be able to see how they compare to the community at large, either as a source of accomplishment or as incentive to use our easy response tools.

 

Commit to Five Minutes per Month at ConcertsInYourHome?

One of our greatest and most persistent stumbling blocks is keeping our community up to date. When hosts and artists fail to update their profiles it creates more work, and costs our members countless opportunities to communicate easily, to book more concerts, and to get more attendees.

What is stunning, is that most updates can be done in less than 5 minutes.

• Listing a show can be done in less than 2 minutes. Result? Other artists are less likely to ask for concerts around that time, and people (attendees and hosts who want to collaborate) are more likely to see the show in our calendar.
• Updating booking information in a host profile can help artists self-select (better) according to your needs. If you are looking to fill a show in August, say so. If you prefer to host duos, if you can only book up to 4 months out… all these things can help you communicate with artists who fit your needs.
• Artists – replacing one or two avails in your profile takes so little time, and can lead to discovery from hosts in the areas you most want to tour. When was the last time you changed up your songs, videos, or bio? Is it possible another combination would work better?

Yes, updated information isn’t always digested correctly. For example, some artists will still ask for shows at inappropriate times, and those are the easiest ones to notice. However, what you don’t notice, is how many artists DID follow your instructions and decided not to contact you at that time. Good information helps everyone, even if it’s not every time.

For as little as 5 minutes per month, the value of your membership can increase significantly. An up-to-date community creates much more opportunity.