In a previous post, I shared 4 Platforms Musicians Can Use to Book House Concerts. HomeDitty was one of them. What really intrigued me about HomeDitty was the platform style and booking access that could potentially help musicians to break long upheld barriers in the house concert realm. Katie Byers, the founder of HomeDitty has a really interesting story about hosting house concerts and how she first became passionate about helping musicians build success with house concerts. We’re honored that Katie stopped by to share some behind-the-scenes details about how HomeDitty started and how it can help musicians gain access to booking house concerts like never before. Check out our interview with Katie Byers below…
Tell us about your background and why you started HomeDitty? How did you come up with the idea?
I am a former attorney turned entrepreneur, and I love to host house concerts. In 2014, my husband and I began hosting a monthly concert series in our home to benefit local and touring independent musicians. Through hosting, I discovered how much house concert revenue helped musicians and began to understand the financial struggles of being an independent musician. I also realized that there was an unmet need for more house concert hosts. It became clear that most people don’t know how to host a house concert or how to connect with musicians. As a result, I decided to create a way to get more people hosting house concerts and launched HomeDitty to teach people how to host a house concert. By using technology, HomeDitty is creating the next generation of house concert hosts.
How long has HomeDitty been live and what challenges have you faced making it a great platform?
HomeDitty launched into BETA testing in February 2017. The greatest challenge has been recruiting enough hosts to meet the needs of musicians as well as maintaining the right balance between the number of musicians and hosts. I am flooded with requests from musicians to join the site but need a lot of hosts to support just one musician or band. Many people have not heard of a house concert, and the concept of a home concert is foreign to most people. Getting people to host their first show is the hardest part but once they try it, they are hooked. It is such an incredible experience!
Tell us in a nutshell how HomeDitty works and how is it different from other house concert platforms?
HomeDitty is an online marketplace where hosts and musicians can create free profiles and can search for each other through various search functions. This allows musicians who are planning tours to search geographically and contact potential hosts to fill empty days between venue gigs with house concerts while they are passing through that area. Hosts can also search for and contact musicians based on music genres, location or name.
Here’s how HomeDitty works:
- Hosts and musicians sign up on the website and create profiles for free (musicians also create a Stripe account, our credit card processor).
- Hosts and musicians connect via the site’s messaging system to discuss a possible booking and book a show using an easy online booking tool.
- Hosts invite friends to the concert through electronic invitations created by the software.
- Guests RSVP and contribute a per person amount via credit card through a link in the invitation to a password protected, private event page on HomeDitty’s site. If the host is paying for the cost of the concert, then the invitation simply contains an RSVP link for guests and concert details.
- Host and guests get a private, VIP music experience complete with storytelling.
- Musicians get paid directly and electronically minus a 10% HomeDitty app fee (and credit card fees) after the show. Guests feel good about directly supporting the artist.
- Musicians also sell merchandise directly to guests during intermission or after the show and keep 100% of merchandise sales.
- Host and artist both complete a brief, post show survey to gather important feedback and reviews.
Hosting a house concert is not a commercial venture for hosts, and they do not receive any monetary compensation for hosting. The key benefit for hosts is that they get to experience a private concert with professional musicians in their home with friends and share the cost of hiring the musician. It also makes hosting easy by automating the entire process. Our advance reservation system is much more beneficial than passing the hat at the show and removes the uncomfortableness of hosts asking friends at the concert to contribute (not to mention potential zoning and insurance issues). House concerts are strictly private events via invitation only from the host.
+Related: How to Book House Concerts
HomeDitty has many competitive advantages over other platforms. HomeDitty’s software was the first of its kind in the US market. It is a self-service platform for hosts and artists with a sophisticated reservation system and payment processing that was designed to replace ‘passing the hat.’ When guests RSVP for a show, their reservation is secured by pre-authorizing their credit card. Once the show occurs, then their credit card is charged. This greatly increases attendance at shows and solves the problem of no-shows.
Anyone, anywhere within the United States can host a concert through HomeDitty. A host does not need to be in a major metropolitan city to attract a quality musician to their town. The host chooses which artist they would like to host and sends electronic invitations to their personal guest list. HomeDitty house concerts are strictly private events. There won’t be any strangers in your home!
The HomeDitty platform teaches hosts how to host and makes hosting easy by automating the entire process for booking musicians, inviting guests and collecting contributions and ensures compliance with music licensing and other legal considerations by following prompts on the site. There are no financial barriers to entry for musicians to use the site as there are no upfront costs or subscription fees. Musicians pay a 10% app fee to HomeDitty for any bookings as well as credit card fees to Stripe, our credit card processor.
All profiles for HomeDitty hosts and artists display their history which contains important qualitative information such as the number of shows booked, average number of guests, average merchandise sales, reviews, etc. Hosts and artists can also message each other for a private conversation about past experiences with specific hosts or artists.
What types of music genres do hosts in your network present?
Americana and singer/songwriter are probably the most popular music genres on the site but I like to have a variety of music genres offered as the long as the genre translates well to a house concert setting and can be stripped down. We even have opera as an option!
What’s the booking process like on HomeDitty?
The booking process starts with either a host or musician reaching out through the private messaging system to inquire about hosting a show. If both parties are interested in moving forward with a show, they discuss and decide on the show details (e.g. date, time, set length, per person payment amount or flat fee payment amount, etc.). Once the details have been decided, the host fills in and submits a formal booking offer through the website which summarizes the details. The musician then accepts or declines the booking offer. If the offer is accepted by the musician, then the show is considered booked, and the host is then prompted to enter payment for flat fee shows and to send out invitations to their guests.
Each musician sets their own pricing on a per show basis. There are two payment options 1) flat fee payment by the host or 2) per person amount by the guest (with or without a guarantee).
+Related: Read this Before Applying to Concerts in Your Home
What does it take for a musician to get invited to your roster? Is there a submission process?
Yes, there is a submission process for musicians to join the site. Any musician who is interested can submit the following information to inviteme@homeditty.com: 1) 2-3 videos (preferably live and acoustic) or link to YouTube channel 2) Links to website and social media channels and 3) Bio including any house concert experience.
How can a musician join? Is there a wait time? Fees?
Currently, it is invitation only for musicians to join the site, and there is a waiting list for musicians to join the site.
We receive a high volume of requests, and we invite new artists to join on a rolling basis as marketplace demand increases and as a space opens up in the HomeDitty community. We also want to maintain a balance of different music genres. Not every invitation is issued in order of receipt to prevent over-saturation of the market and not every artist is guaranteed an invitation.
It is free for musicians to join the site, but fees are automatically deducted for any shows found through the site. Stripe, our credit card processor, collects 2.9% + .30 per transaction and HomeDitty charges a 10% app fee. We don’t get paid unless the musician gets paid!
What are some of your best tips for a successful house concert?
- Play your show as stripped down as possible or completely acoustic. You don’t need to bring in a bunch of production equipment. People won’t be talking during your set and the size of the host’s living room will likely be pretty small. Keep it simple. If you’re using some sort of PA, check with the host about the sound level. Err on the side of too quiet rather than too loud.
- Engage with guests as much as possible. Tell stories during your set about your life and music. Stay away from talking politics during your set. You could potentially alienate half the audience. Mingle with guests after the show and at the merchandise table. You’ll make life-long fans.
- Remember that hosts are not ‘venues,’ and this is not their job. This is something that hosts do for a hobby or for philanthropic reasons. Give your host one free piece of merchandise as a thank you and write a nice note. That small gesture will mean a lot to the host for their efforts in putting together the concert.
- Always remember to be professional and treat this as a job. As a general rule, musicians should not invite their friends or fans to someone’s private house concert. Always check with the host for their ‘house rules.’
To learn more about HomeDitty, see their website here.
Get the House Concert Resource List Now
Get a listing of House Concert Hosts and Series across the United States and Canada. Each listing provides a name of the series and a website address to learn more about them. Great for musicians looking to add house concerts to their gigging rotation.
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Read this Before Applying to Concerts in Your Home
