Slowbizz.com Builds Global Home Concert Network
Slowbizz.com is a newly launched social network for music lovers designed to facilitate house concerts for solo artists. They emphasize that they are focused on slowly building a solid infrastructure of hosts before touring begins. The service is free to join for both hosts and artist. Hosts guarantee a basic contribution and accommodations while artists pay when a tour is booked.
Slowbizz.com – "built by music lovers, for music lovers"
Slowbizz.com is in the early stages of what is planned as a slow process of building a "sustainable ecosystem for both the end-user and the artist." Though they are initially focused on recruiting hosts, artists can also apply now.
Hosts pay a basic fee of $205 on booking a concert that will go to the artist along with donations at the show. They provide a performing space in their home and are expected to gather an audience of at least 10 with promotional support from Slowbizz.com. They also provide a meal and accommodations or a fee in lieu of a place to stay. A particularly interesting twist is that they also are required to drive artists up to 75 km (46.6 miles) to their next gig!
Artists pay $135 per booked tour plus $40 per location that covers Slowbizz.com's fees. Slowbizz.com also provides marketing services.
It's an interesting concept and the emphasis on slowly building the network is in their favor given the inherent difficulties of such an approach combined with the attempt to build globally. It's a bit different but has a similar goal as Concerts In Your Home, as previously discussed on Hypebot.
The transportation aspect may run into difficulties in the U.S. where distances between cities tend to be greater than in Europe. That may require adjustments or a focus on regional tours. But the basic concept is solid and will certainly fit solo artists who like a lot of personal interaction and seek alternatives to traditional touring.
Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith maintains his freelance writing hub at Flux Research and blogs at All World Dance and This Business of Blogging. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
I having trouble parsing the economics here. As a host, I have to pay $205 to host a show so what’s the incentive for me?
Somewhere I’m convinced there is a real win for fans/musicians in the house concert scene but I’m not sure there is a business model there. Not every good idea can (or should) turn a profit.
I think that the model is easy to understand: the host is the client and the artist the supplier.
So the client…pays the supplier 🙂
It is a very old school model, I agree, but it’s the dominant one on planet earth.
When you have to pay 500 USD to buy a computer, you don’t ask yourself “where’s the incentive” if you really want the computer. the same applies to almost any product/service.
The fact that you don’t agree with the model doesn’t mean that there is no model.
In the real “business” world (and, yes, for some artists playing is a way of living, i.e. a job) there is always someone who pays & someone who gets paid. And $205 is according to me very affordable to host a professional artist in your living room.
There are a number of things that strike me as interesting about this concept, but I’m not sure how workable at all it will be in practice.
Firstly it would seem that the method used for “building a solid network of music lovers” is that any artist signing up must convince at least 100 of their fans to provide Slowbizz with their e-mail address. Confirming this address leads to the signup page for concert hosts. Obviously the site is expecting the artists existing fans to become its host network, but if that’s the case, what’s the point? Would be just as workable for the fans to get together and pay the artist direct without involving a middleman! After all, if the host doesn’t provide the transport, then the artist is still left with forking out for that themselves.
Secondly comes the question of hosting in the first place as hosts will obviously land up paying way more to do so than the $205 quoted. Given you’ll be expecting a heap of guests, hospitality dictates you’ll be offering them food and drink on top. Add to that the potential for a 100 mile round-trip drive to drop off the artist at their next venue (or money in lieu of that) and I’ll be surprised if the entire experience costs much less than $500 for one concert. Not out of the question, but it does kind of put it more in the “special occasion” category than something you’d want to do on a regular basis. And if it’s a special occasion, would you really just invite any old artist to play or only ones you already knew and loved?
I therefore have yet to be convinced there’s a real market for this for artists outside of their own fanbase.
Hi,
You’re right: on top of the artistic quality we want to check the engagement of the artists. Too many artists sign up to any new community on the internet without any kind of commitment (click&forget) and we want to avoid “sleepy” artists. So yes we ask them to prove that they’re engaged and the best way to prove it is to show that they’re able to motivate their existing fanbase (100 people is not the end of the world). The artists who understand the purpose of this “test” can make it in 24h.
Moreover, we re-share the data with them.
The idea of converting some of these fans into hosts is that potential hosts will be more easily found among people who already have some kind of affinity with the concept. The purpose is not to set up gigs for the artist with the potential hosts he already knows, the idea is that these hosts will also be potential hosts for artists they don’t know yet, including overseas artists.
For instance, 5 friends/fans of a French artist will be potential hosts for US artists, etc. This makes sense. If 100 artists bring 10 hosts, you already reach a 1K hosts community. But, don’t be mistaken, this means HUGE work on our side to screen the hosts, motivate them to give the basic info we need, etc. Hence the final value of the network and the interest for the artists to have us manage the tours inside the network.
Re: the cost, it’s up to the host to see how they want to approach the guarantee. Some people will take all the costs, some won’t. Some people will split the guarantee between 5 co-hosts prior to confirming the gig, some will pay it on their own. Some will suggest a donation, some won’t. Our intention is also to give to the hosts the tools to crowdsource the financing (even if we’re not speaking of thousands of $) of their event, the way crowdsourcing platforms pre-finance the release of a CD for instance, but with a much lower amount to be found.
So yes, it’s innovative, it’s still in its infancy but as any disruptive structured concept it needs some faith & a bunch of pioneers to make it happen 😉
I hope you’ll be one of them and you will keep on sharing your thoughts with us.
Best,
Frédérick
Slowbizz.com
Ah, I didn’t state my question clearly and I may be a total outlier here.
I already run a house concert series. I have absolutely no trouble finding amazing artists to play. The artist at our shows get 100% of the door.
Don’t get me wrong I TOTALLY SUPPORT THE CONCEPT HERE – I’m just thinking through the economics. Why should I do it this way instead of the way I’m already doing it. Like I said, I’m probably an outlier here.
Sarah writes
Good questions – other than my time spent marketing (which is free) I probably spend $50-100 to put on a house show. This is used to feed the band (we often have bands not just individual artists. We do NOT feed guests – they bring snacks/drinks to share with others if they want.
Also, maybe it’s a European view but everyone here has there own transportation so driving them around doesn’t make much sense.
Hi there,
Thanks for your comments. It s great to open debates around the concept.
I would say that we all live in a free world 🙂
If you are happy on your own, you can keep it as it is. Some people don t like to be part of a community, no worries. The main advantage is not to give you access to the artists you know, the purpose is to create something strong as a global movement, not limited to the US.
If you want to promote the concept, you can join for free since, in the end, you can ask your attendees to offset some of your efforts and basically it won t change anything to your economics since I presume that the door delivers at least 205 usd for the artist.
Re: the transportation, it is indicative and in the US it would only apply to the artists playing a few gigs back to back in the same region for instance.
The concept is not in the little details which can always be adapted, the idea is to build something stronger as a community than as isolated individuals.
The exposure offered by a well promoted global community is for me a genuine value added for the participating artists. It will create a real alternative to the usual circuits for solo artists. The hosts are partnering with the artists on a non-profit basis so they don t need incentives beyond the quality of the service and the talent of the artists promoted by the network.
Cheers,
Frederick
@Billsville (and any other person who just wants to support the concept),
I have developed a special category for you: PROUD SUPPORTER
(not a host, not an artist but someone who loves the concept & wants to join the movement with a limited involvement).
You can register as a proud supporter right here:
http://www.slowbizz.com/p/join-supporters-club.html
Cheers,
Frédérick
You say: “The purpose is not to set up gigs for the artist with the potential hosts he already knows, the idea is that these hosts will also be potential hosts for artists they don’t know yet, including overseas artists.”
And that relates to one of the points I was trying to make. I think you are overestimating the appeal for people to invite artists into their own homes that they are not already familiar with. Let alone pay for doing so.
To take a quote from Bilsville’s website….
“It’s one thing to invite people out to a concert — it’s another to say, ‘This is a band I love so much that I’m having them play at my house,’”
The appeal to a music lover is for them to be able to see an artist they already know that lives in a different country to them in an affordable way. Outside of that, I’m inclined to think you’d be better concentrating your efforts on signing up existing (small) venues.
Is there a similar venue for unknown artists who don’t have a strong local fan base? I would love to participate in something like this as an artist, but I don’t gig b/c I’m a fulltime school teacher and spend most nights grading papers, therefore the strong local fanbase is not happening for me yet. Devora Clark