Why Everyone Should be Hosting House Shows
Venues – especially independent ones – have disappeared; this is an issue for everyone.
To not bury the lead:
I write this because house shows might be the only way live music as we know it is preserved for future generations. I am not being hyperbolic. Music Venues are disappearing[1]. This article is an attempt to sound an alarm. After reading this, Reader, I am hopeful you will consider hosting a house show. Your role in this is crucial. House shows could become a regular part of how every American supports and experiences live music.
For this to work, a network of hosts must exist throughout the country. One way to do this is through Couch Concerts[2], an app I have advised on over the last year. Whether you are a fan or a musician, if you care about live music, I hope you download and try it.
Musicians: It is a “no-brainer”. The app will give you an opportunity to (1) play that does not currently exist, (2) build a fan base, and (3) receive money along the way.
Fans: Doing so will allow you to host and attend shows in your or someone you know’s home, apartment, dorm room, backyard, or anywhere in between. You’ll be helping build a “grass-roots” movement – that looks a lot like how live music used to look before the rise of the modern-day venues we all know. This movement could make all the difference to the local and national music ecosystem. For those of you who decide to host, your friends will love you, and you won’t have to drive to or from the show (cheers to being first in bed after a night of enjoying music). Also, you will have a Live. Music. Show. In your house!
Background:
I moved to Davis, California, in 1998. I lived there for more than twenty years. In 2019, I started an organization aimed at helping local musicians and bettering music in the area. Around the same time, folks who played music started coming to me regarding a need for music venues and performance opportunities. The echo I would (and continue to) hear is: “There is nowhere to play.” Turns out this is true. For the last year, I have dug into why that is.
There may not be one answer for why venues are disappearing, but Live Nation plays a significant role; COVID-19 exacerbated the issue. I guarantee you know their work if the name Live Nation is unfamiliar. They call themselves music promoters. They evolved from Clear Channel and own Ticket Master[3]. Live Nation has been acquiring venues for years, and it bought/acquired the rights to even more during the pandemic when commercial real estate was cheap. These acquisitions have a devastating impact on independent venues of all sizes.
While I would not say Davis is a “music town,” there were undoubtedly more venues when I arrived than today. In 1998, there were at least seven places where people could regularly catch live music shows[4]. Currently, there are zero. What’s more, back then, nationally touring bands stopped through often. That does not happen anymore.
You didn’t hear much about Live Nation in 1998. Today, it is hard to talk about music – especially live music – and not talk about them[5]. As mentioned, Live Nation[6] calls itself a music promotion company. This is curious because Live Nation is not a music promotion company. It is a real estate company. And, if our world were a real-life game of Monopoly,[7] Live Nation would be declared the winner. It has cornered the market in “venue” real estate in the United States. In 2019, before the pandemic, the company’s CEO, Michael Rapino, effectively said they had sufficient control of the United States live music venue market and had now turned to other countries for future growth[8]. Again, they have acquired even more in the US since then. This control makes it difficult—if not impossible—for big-name acts to support independent venues even if they want to since they need Live Nation to reach all of the major music markets in the United States.
Davis is part of the Sacramento, California region. Sacramento and Davis are fifteen minutes apart. Sacramento is an excellent example of how Live Nation has impacted local music - like Houston, Texas, and many other cities, Live Nation now controls it. Live Nation services Sacramento music venues of every level, from rooms for 100 people to 20,000+ seat arenas— the mom-and-pop venues of old, where musicians honed their craft and cut their teeth to have a better shot at getting to such arenas are close to extinction. There is now only one independent venue in Sacramento capable of hosting a nationally touring band[9], provided the band is looking for a room with about a 150-person capacity.
This makes it extremely difficult for a start-up band/artist to get a show, cut their teeth, and grow their fan base. Further, it is tough for any independent venue to stay in business because they can't attract national touring acts. Those acts HAVE to play Live Nation venues if they want to play every other major market in the country where Live Nation inevitably also dominates. Thus, those independent venues have a more challenging time finding bands that can fill their spaces because those would-be bands need more opportunities to play and grow their fan bases. Independent venues need high attendance to stay open and viable! The cycle goes on and on.
This is why Davis, California, will likely never have a proper live music venue. Unless Live Nation owns it, it will be unable to attract the national touring acts necessary to stay in business. There is an excellent chance, Reader, that this is happening in your city too.
I do not intend to bag on Live Nation. They found a niche and exploited it[10]. Good for them. However, I see a long-term problem for them[11], and there is already a problem for 1) those of us who enjoy seeing a variety of live music and 2) musicians trying to start careers or build careers as musicians; there is nowhere to play or see it.
To highlight this point, I look to none other than Taylor Swift: hundreds of thousands of young women saw Ms. Swift perform this summer. I am confident that a non-insignificant percentage aspires to be a musician like her someday. However, they need somewhere to play, and those places do not exist.
Importantly, musicians can only gain recognition for their art and make a living as artists with places to play. This means that there is less music for everyone. While anecdotal, I have yet to talk about this issue with one person who finds this current trend/state of live music a “good” thing.
Potential solution: Houses.
In researching the traditional music venue industry and considering how to solve the problem of getting more gigs for my friends, I realized that residential spaces (houses and apartments) are the most underutilized resource of potential space to host live music in the United States; they can be found anywhere that people are.
Coincidentally, seeing music in houses is a lot closer to how composed “live music” was experienced in the first place. It began in churches and cathedrals with the Ancient Romans and Greeks, then moved into Parlors in the 18th century, salons in the 18th and 19th centuries, and, with the rise of capitalism, into what we know today as venues[12].
The premise is simple: musicians are invited into private spaces to perform for the host and the host’s friends and family. A network of willing hosts around the country would instantaneously change live music as it exists today and create an ecosystem where musicians and a variety of live music could flourish.
I have been to, played in, and hosted house shows. Davis, California, has a house show scene. It tends toward the avant-garde, but there is a mix. While there are not enough house shows in Davis to offset the venues lost in the last twenty-five years, it would take little to get there.
Conservatively, forty house shows a month would get close to the level of live music shows happening in Davis in 1998, when the seven venues that used to exist were in town. Further, if each of those shows had 20 people in attendance donating $20 each to the musicians, this would mean that 800 people per month in a town of 80,000 were collectively putting $16,000 into musicians’ pockets[13]. Further, I would estimate that this amount of money is more than twice as much – even adjusted for inflation – as would have been generated for these same musicians at actual venues in 1998. See this article I wrote a couple months ago called Music Living Ain’t Easy that deals with this subject in more detail.
All of this leads me to believe that perhaps the only viable path to a future that includes a diverse and thriving live music scene is a thriving house show scene; in tech jargon, this might be considered a “disruption” of how live music is consumed.
Where to Start?
Last year, I started talking about this with anyone who would listen. I hoped to speak this concept into the collective consciousness of society. It is not there yet. However, one of the people who kindly listened to me is a friend and software developer, Ted Dimbero, who built an app, “Couch Concerts[14],” probably partly to get me to quit talking about house shows. It connects hosts and musicians like Airbnb connects hosts with travelers.
To prove the concept, I helped launch it. Below, I compare two music gigs – one at a public and reputable venue in Chicago, Illinois, and the other two house shows in Austin, Texas – as a “case study.” (i.e., what’s in it for musicians):
I played a show at a well-known Chicago, Illinois, club on November 8, 2023. I don’t have a following in Chicago (I told the club this is going in), and I knew I would not make anything. Still, I paid a $91 bar tab and made $29 from the bar (I brought about 25 people to the club). It was a net loss of—$62 for me.
The following weekend, I played two house shows via Couch Concerts and made $1,000 in donations (approximately $500 per show). I did not have anything to sell. There were about 25 people at each show, and I knew how much money I would receive before I got to the shows. From a musician’s standpoint, this is amazing. It is life-changing.
While the comparison between the Chicago show and the house shows is not entirely fair, it’s also not dissimilar to a lot of experiences that musicians have playing shows when they can get them, and as I have discussed, getting them in the first place is tough these days.
Importantly, I now have 50 people in Austin, TX, with whom I could directly connect during the house show performances. On my next trip, I will not be selling out ACL Live, but I am sure that many of these people will come to see me and bring friends. This is how fan bases are built.
Here is a video that was filmed at the Couch Concert’s launch, where Ted and I talk about a lot of the issues I discuss in this article:
Here is how Couch Concerts works[15]:
1) A “host” has a space (i.e., they rent or own a home or have access to some other spot).
2) The Host chooses to host an event in their space (music, comedy, theater, whatever).
3) The Host contacts a performer to inquire if they are interested (performers can’t contact hosts).
4) Performer agrees.
5) The Host (and Performer if the Host allows it) invites people to the event and asks the attendees to donate to the performer.
6) The event happens.
7) Everyone has a great time. The audience experiences something they will never share again, and everyone has an opportunity to connect in a more meaningful and intimate way.
8) The performer receives the entirety of donations apart from a small platform fee to keep the app running, which supports their ability to bring more music to all of us.
If there is any chance for a musician to reach the level of the Foo Fighters[16] or Taylor Swift, they need places to play, and the one place available in every single part of the country that any performer can access is a home or apartment. This is how independent live music has a future.
None of this is intended to hurt existing Independent Venues. It should help them. As Live Nation cannot support every band in existence (nor does it want to), neither can the Independent Venues around today. House Shows will provide opportunities for bands/musicians to continue making music, refining their skills, and building fan bases. The more musicians with viable larger fan bases, the more independent venues can count on booking those bands for revenue-generating shows, which will allow them to stay in business and possibly enable new venues to open.
Importantly, for this to work, hosts nationwide must open their homes and invite their friends for a show.
What’s in it for Hosts?
I suggest everything. This is how live music began – among groups of familial people. It is an intimate, lovely experience. It is a way to connect with your friends, connect with a musician, and connect with the community, which is something increasingly lost and something that Live Nation would love to disappear for good. Plus, hosts get to Have. A. Live. Music. Show. In. Their. House.
Further, house shows (even in small spaces) are way more comfortable, affordable, and convenient experiences than going to a far-off venue. You can control when the show happens and how late it goes. And (a big plus for me) the host will almost certainly be the first to bed that night if they want!
Note re: kids. If you have kids, this is a fantastic way to show them what it takes to have a community (i.e., various people contributing what they can, space, services, art, etc.).
It does not take much.
You would be surprised at how many people can fit in a 10 x 10 space – certainly more than enough to allow a musician to eat dinner that night. You do not need to own a mansion or a palace to host a house show! I sincerely say that any living room will suffice, just as a dorm room or a garage would. Most house shows I have attended have involved some level of floor seating. This is part of the fun and experience.
Here is a link to a video of me playing the launch show of Couch Concerts:
You can see it is in a living room. The host did have some food, but that was unnecessary. Hosts can do BYOB or allow no food and drinks; it’s their (your) house or backyard. Do whatever! Often, the musician plays 100% acoustic at these types of shows[17], though if you have a fantastic outside or inside space suitable for a loud punk show – by all means – hosts will agree with the artist on all of this ahead of time! Regardless, the musician will bring everything they ultimately need. A host only needs to provide the space and invite some friends over.
Other companies/organizations are trying to do work in this space. One I like a lot is Undertow Music. It is a promotion company that books tours for some rad musicians. I hosted one of them, John Vanderslice, at my place in April[18]. Unfortunately, their model allows them to only work with a select and limited number of musicians.
Similarly, SoFar Sounds is a promotion company that creates shows in unique spaces where the audience buys tickets without knowing whom they will see[19]. Unfortunately, they pay musicians terribly, and the fans I have spoken to (including me, who has attended a couple of their events) need help remembering who they saw at the show. As Liz Pelly writes in The Baffler, “And yet, it is largely another creation of tech middlemen where music is devalued to bolster a brand: participating musicians are paid poorly (generally one hundred dollars per set, while the company can make from $1,000 to $1,600 per show), sets are twenty to twenty-five minutes max, and it’s ultimately quite easy to leave without ever learning the names of the artists at all.”[20] It is the experience versus the music that they are selling.
What I like about Couch Concerts is that it democratizes the process and does not require a middle person – merely a host who wants to open their home, invite their friends for a night of music, and support musicians and live music, more generally, along the way. This allows everyone to benefit from what house shows can offer. If enough hosts open their homes, a network could be created around the country and the world, disrupting the current consolidation and pricing exploitation in the live music industry and improving every musician and fan’s life.
Importantly, if a change in how we consume live music is not made, I fear for the future of live music; I am not alone in this concern.
[1] https://www.musicradar.com/news/live-music-performances-down-by-167-in-2022-says-uks-music-venue-trust; https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/why-the-struggle-of-small-venues-will-affect-the-entire-music-industry; https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/story/2022-10-02/gone-but-not-forgotten-san-diegos-five-best-concert-venues-you-can-no-longer-visit
[2] It 100% works currently, but the name may be rebranded in the near future.
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Nation_(events_promoter)
[4] The Palms, Café Roma Campus, Café Roma Downtown, The G Street Pub, UC Davis (actually had three spots: the CoHo, Freeborn Hall, and the Rec Center), Delta of Venus, and the Teen Center.
[5] https://www.economicliberties.us/our-work/the-depth-of-live-nations-dominance/
[6] AEG, another Live Nation-like company, owns a lot of Los Angeles, California, and some other entities on the Western Side of the Country. I wanted to include them for completeness here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschutz_Entertainment_Group
[7] It kind of is.
[9] Harlows
[10] This is also why ticket prices regularly cost thousands of dollars. Those musicians can’t play anywhere else. Live Nation and Ticketmaster (owned by Live Nation) can charge whatever they want, and with the assistance of AI (i.e., “dynamic ticket pricing,” they do. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2023-002400_EN.html#:~:text=Companies%20like%20Ticketmaster%20and%20Live,exponentially%20as%20the%20demand%20rises.
[11] This is a problem already; for the last decade, when the festivals announced headliners, they were the same bands. This is partly because there aren’t any new bands and partly because those bands don’t have places to learn and grow into festival headliner bands.
[12] https://houseofmusicproductions.com/2023/01/the-history-of-live-music-and-concerts/; https://thesalonmusicblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/02/the-parisian-music-salons/
[13] 3 or 4 families of four could also spend the same amount seeing Taylor Swift or Bruce Springsteen from the ”Nose Bleeds”.
[14] This was initial called “Sonic Mixer”, but has been renamed to Couch Shows.
[15] Importantly, though we have talked above me being involved more than being an ambassador, I have ZERO financial interest in the app. I have ZERO reason to think that Ted’s interest in this is not – primarily – altruistic in intent (I am sure he is not opposed to making a few bucks), but he is a fan of music and had long wondered how to tip musicians digitally at live shows; the concept has evolved a bit from this premise.
[16] They put out their first record in 1995 (30 years ago) and are likely the most recent rock band that can sell out an arena. This seems like a problem. No?
[17] Bands, if you are super loud, maybe this is not for you, BUT, it might also be an opportunity for you to recontextualize what you do. Consider Nirvana’s unplugged album and shows. I cannot think of a band that it would not be cool to see try something like that.
[18] Come if you want!
[19] While I love the concept, they don’t pay musicians very well, and I find there is no real connection made between the artists and audience, because the audience is really ONLY there for the experience.
[20] https://thebaffler.com/salvos/sofar-so-bad-pelly#:~:text=And%20yet%2C%20it%20is%20largely,max%2C%20and%20it's%20ultimately%20quite
This is the way.
I'll be going to a house show later this month, and as I was reading here, realized I'm more excited about that one that some of the other "big" shows I'm going to this summer.
I kinda endorse this idea. The bands I'm in probably won't 'fit' there; but I see a lot of younger bands doing this and making strides in places like Bowling Green, OH. In larger cities, however; house show scenes become very cliquish very fast, and they tend not to grow like scenes that have independent venues.
There's also the "neighbors and cops" thing.