House Concerts Safer Outside?

It’s never too early to plan. There is plenty of evidence that viruses are less contagious outdoors, and that small gatherings are safer than large gatherings.

At some point, we’ll make the decision that the joy of musical gatherings is greater than the diminishing risks of Covid-19. That time is not now, but it will come.

I believe house concerts are a great opportunity for us to slowly emerge from isolation, and to create small, safe events to re-engage with live music. If you have a house concert series, take a moment to consider the following.

1. How could you have your events outside?
2. How would you minimize contact points (no pot-luck, etc)?
3. How would you make necessary contact points (bathrooms) safer/cleaner?
4. How would you limit audience size (what #) to allow more space between guests.

Remember, this is about starting small and safe. Artists WILL adjust to smaller audiences for a while.

If you have other suggestions or questions to add, please email fran@listeningroomnetwork.com to help improve this post.

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LRN extends all artist memberships by 2 months.

Even though we’re still seeing a little bit of booking activity, we’re adding 2 months to the memberships of all our active artists. This will prevent artists from being asked to renew during this difficult time, but also compensate everyone for the downturn.

In addition, we’ve had a successful launch of our Sponsored Livestream program, enabling fans and hosts to contribute to livestreams directly from our calendars, as well creating a general livestream fund. 100% of donations go to LRN artists, and our goal is to get $50 to every artist on the site if they list a livestream concert.

Thanks for being part of our community.

LRN Launches Livestream Fund to Support Artists.

We’re building a Livestream Fund – your input please!

Since livestreamed shows will be the primary income of many artists for an extended period of time, we want to help LRN artists by subsidizing and promoting their livestreams.

Within a few days, I’d like to announce a list of private and corporate sponsors who will support a package of livestreamed shows. For example, $250 could give $50 to five performances.

You may have already noticed this page, which is growing by the day. https://my.listeningroomnetwork.com/events/stream

Artists typically post donate/payment links with their streams, so we are looking to supplement, not replace, that income.

Questions:

1. I’d prefer not to take a percentage of this fund, but administering this program will cost money (web development, accounting, cc fees.) So I’m curious if you’d prefer to see me do a separate ask for these funds, or if I should take a small percentage (less than 5%) to make things simpler.
2. We have one committed donor so far ($2000) and that would help us start by subsidizing 40 shows at $50 each. Would you rather see us promote fewer shows and subsidize at $100 each?
3. If you are interested in supporting this, please PM me privately if you wish. fran@listeningroomnetwork.com

I understand that many hosts are affected by the economic situation, so please make sure you and your family are safe and secure before taking on additional responsibility like this.

Grateful for all of you. Please share any thoughts on how we could improve this idea.

Re-Scheduled LRFest offers online performance schedule

The 9th Annual Listening Room Festival has been re-scheduled for November, but festival artists will be streaming live performances on March 27, 28, 29 to give festival fans an alternative way to hear their music as a festival preview.

#LRFest, part of the Listening Room Network (LRN), is a unique festival that promotes concerts in living rooms and other unique, non-traditional spaces. Dozens of house concerts were scheduled around Tampa Bay, as well as a showcase at the Palladium Theater in St. Pete. The showcase is the largest and most public event of the festival, and draws 500-600 attendees.

The upside is that now you don’t need to be a member of LRN, you don’t need a special invitation to hear this year’s festival talent. The schedule is as follows.

Friday, March 27 (all times E.S.T. zone)
7:45 PM Fran Snyder Intro/Comments
8:00 PM Twin Kennedy
8:30 PM Kevin Daniel
9:00 PM Joy Ike
9:30 PM Amy Bishop
10:00 PM The Young Novelists
Saturday, March 28
6:45 PM Fran Snyder – Intro/Comments
7:00 PM The Young Novelists
7:30 PM Amy Bishop
8:00 PM Joy Ike
8:30 PM Kevin Daniel
9:00 PM Fran Snyder
Sunday, March 29
3:45 PM Fran Snyder – Intro/Comments
4PM Twin Kennedy
4:30 Amy Bishop
5PM The Young Novelists
5:30 Kevin Daniel
6PM Joy Ike

Performers:

Fran Snyder – festival founder, organizer, and St. Pete local, will be playing one set Saturday night and giving a little intro and history of the festival 15 minutes prior to the first act.

Joy Ike – performing live from Philadelphia, with her sister Peace Ike, on drums.

Kevin Miller – performing live from home in Brooklyn, NY.

Amy Bishop – performing live from home in Calgary, AB.

The Young Novelists – performing live at home from Toronto.

Twin Kennedy – performing live from their living room in Nashville, TN.

 

How to watch the livestreams:

Visit https://my.listeningroomnetwork.com/events/stream for the list of performances and links to each performance! Performances are technically free, but viewers will be encouraged to donate directly to the artists via paypal or other links.

 

Listening Room Festival’s in person, live events are rescheduled for November 11-15, 2020. Tickets available at http://www.ListeningRoomFestival.com

Sponsored by TrueFire.

Small events will lead the music recovery.

I want to share some of my thoughts regarding the future of LRN, and our independent artists who embrace house concerts and small events as vital to their careers. Of course, at this moment, all events, public and private have been severely hampered or stopped.

In the near term, many commercial venues are likely to go out of business – venues that are unable to weather the drastic and sustained interruption of their business. The ones that go under are unlikely to come back quickly.

However, as covid-19 gets under control, as a large percentage of people become immune to it, music events will make a resurgence. The venues that manage to survive will find themselves with a bit less competition, and a thrilled clientele eager to celebrate and participate in the live music experience again.

House concerts, due to their volunteer nature, don’t become business failures. Although many hosts will suffer financial set-backs, the reality is that house concerts don’t require more than a space, an audience, and a musician. These personal, home-based events will become more vital than ever to re-start the touring careers of independent artists.

It’s also likely that small events will be the most advisable, due to lesser chance of viral transmission. Consequently, potluck dinners may need to stay off the music menu for a while. Hand-washing, elbow bumps, and electronic donations may also cement their place in our live music culture. I’d also bet that live-streaming these events will become the norm… pay little more to be there, chip in a bit less to watch online.

My message, of course, is that music isn’t going away. It’ll float online for a while, it’ll bring us together in small groups eventually, and house concerts will lead the way.

Stay tuned. Join us.We plan to be out front.

Fran Snyder

ListeningRoomNetwork.com

 

Listening Room Festival postponed to November 11-15, 2020

After much research and reflection, I’ve decided to postpone LRFest 2020 until November. (Showcase will be November 13th.)

Reasons:
1. Our audience demographic is the most at risk population for Covid-19.
2. Though there are few reported cases in FL, the severe shortage of tests means we really don’t know where it is at this point.
3. We don’t want to endanger anyone. Music is meant to heal us.
4. We can create an even better festival for November. We hope our snowbird fans will elect to start their Florida season a little early with us.

Tickets:
We’d be grateful and relieved if you’d keep them for the November event, even if you’re not sure yet. The next few months will be incredibly difficult for us and members of our network. If you would like to donate to help us, it would be immensely helpful and appreciated.

If you need a refund:

• If you purchased ($45/35/25 reserved tickets) via the Palladium, call or visit the Palladium box office TU-FR 12-3pm. Regular box office hours resume TU, March 17.
• If you purchased VIP tickets from Fran or the LRFest, and need a refund, please use this form.

I’ll be reaching out to all our hosts, fans, and artists as we re-architect our schedule for a great November festival. In the meantime we’ll start actively promoting online events (livestreams) as this new activity will be critical to keeping music in our lives and to support the artists we all love.

Let’s buckle down, be safe, and get through this critical and difficult period. Life will get back to normal. We are social creatures and there is no way we will let go of live music.

See you in November if not sooner. Thanks for being part of our world.

Love,

Fran Snyder, founder

ListeningRoomNetwork.com and Listening Room Festival