In the ever-changing world of the traveling troubadour, few things remain constant. The only thing a working musician can count on is his next gig, whether it is at the local bar, listening room or coffee house.

It would take a very forward-thinking musician and entrepreneur to break out of this mold, but Fran Snyder might just be that musician. Snyder is the brain behind concertsinyourhome.com, a site that has emerged in the past two years as a bastion for musicians trying to break away from playing exclusively in bars and clubs.

The site allows just about anyone to book an artist in their living room.

“The idea of house concerts has been around since Mozart went from patron to patron performing music,” Snyder said, “The concept is nothing new and with the state of the music industry and the live music scene across the country, why not embrace it?”

Snyder describes the site as a community where an artist and potential host can find each other. Once that contact is made, the artist is booked in that host’s living room, where the host can enjoy a concert with their friends in the comfort of their own home and a musician can enjoy playing for people in an intimate setting.

The idea for the site struck Snyder nearly five years ago, when he said he “hit a wall” both creatively and professionally. He said his performances were seasonal at best and he spent too much time not playing gigs.

He tried to find house concert hosts and listings online and found many to be out of date. Frustrated, he decided to take matters into his own hands and started concertsinyourhome.com. Two and a half years later, the site boasts more than 600 artists and 200 hosts with venues and performers across the United States as well as Canada, Europe and Australia. Snyder only receives money by charging a small annual membership fee to musicians.

“It’s more of a collaborative effort because the host has as much at stake as the artist,” Snyder said, “A performer is just a part of the entertainment in a bar or club whereas in a house concert the performer’s success becomes the host’s success.”

Snyder also said the benefits for the artist far outweigh those from a club or bar. The artist’s payment comes from suggested donations from the host and merchandise sales. According to Snyder, if the donation is just $10 to $15 and the house has just 30 people, that qualifies as a successful night when combined with CD sales, which people are much more likely to buy when they get to know the artist in such an intimate setting.

Snyder said he has become friends with several hosts. Establishing these relationships can also establish annual house concerts or concerts on an even more regular basis. Snyder looks forward to the day when he is not doing a combination of gigs so he can concentrate on playing these regular house concerts.

“If things keep going the way they are I’ll be visiting friends for a living,” Snyder said, “It’s better than playing in bars and clubs because of those relationships. I realized after a while I was making money from alcohol sales and that’s a pretty shallow way to make money.”

Many of the artists featured on concertsinyourhome.com hope to achieve the same level of success in house concerts as Snyder. Bob Sima, a musician based in Maryland, has managed to turn the majority of his show dates into house concerts.

Like Snyder, Sima was tired of competing with televisions and bar crowds. He recalls being skeptical at his first house concert when only 40 people showed up. However, when he realized they were all there strictly to listen to his music, buy his merchandise and donate money, he soon came to find house concerts a rewarding enterprise, both artistically and financially. Sima also realized the potential for networking at house concerts. During his first experience, Sima managed to book his next show at another house before the first one was even over.

“I’m now doing 75 or so a year,” Sima said, “And it’s better paying than anything I’ve ever done. I still do club dates and bars, but they are just to fill in for when I’m not at a house.”

Sima does warn that transitioning from live club dates and bars to house concerts can be a daunting task for some musicians. He recalls that sitting in a quiet room with 40 strangers whose entire focus was on his music was a little intimidating. He was so unaccustomed to this he started out by closing his eyes and shutting the living room and its crowd out.

After realizing he was better off talking to the crowd and getting them involved, his rate of success in house concerts improved greatly. He now only blames himself for concerts that don’t go well. For Sima, it’s all about communicating clearly with the host about what is expected and needed for a good show.

“When people start chatting at a house show, you know you’ve lost it,” Sima said, “You’ve got to get involved and hold the attention; it would be very hard for the artists out there who are a little more introverted.”

Friction Farm, a band based in Greenville, has participated in house concerts for more than four years. The band performs house concerts mainly in the Northeast, but Christine Stay, bassist and vocalist for the group, looks forward to more such shows in Greenville and the Southeast in general.

“Those shows are very common in Florida and in the Northeast,” Stay said, “While they are somewhat less common in between, I feel these shows are breaking into South Carolina. [Our band] has seen a lot more crop up wherever we go during the last couple of years.”

Like Sima, Stay enjoys the intimacy and crowd feedback at house concerts, but she sees the negative aspects as well. She does enjoy club and bar dates because they draw in audiences that wouldn’t normally show up to hear them. She values the opportunity to convert new audiences in such settings, whereas in a house concert the only people that show up already have background information on the act.

Stay is also wary of hosts with little to no experience in managing a house concert. She compares the amateur house concert host to the manager and booker for a new club or bar; they both have the same problems.

“The first few house concerts are kind of rough for the hosts,” Stay said, “They don’t know how to organize it and there is a risk there to make the show a benefit for the artist.”

While Sima sees less of a risk in dealing with concert hosts, he does see a danger in performing house concerts in general because of the backlash against them in recent years. Although he did not want to name specific hosts or club owners, he said there have been several prominent lawsuits against hosts by club owners trying to stop house concerts.

He feels that club owners are upset at house concerts gaining momentum and forcing them to lose local and visiting acts. Sima hopes nothing comes of these lawsuits, mainly because he has gained so much from house concerts.

“It is an unspoken rivalry,” Sima said, “Clubs and bars have certainly lost me, but there’s no credibility to [the bars’] arguments. What’s the difference between selling jewelry door-to-door and selling music? There’s nothing [club owners] can do; there are hundreds of venues but millions of living rooms out there.”

The recent controversy has not held Fran Snyder’s Web site back and has not stopped him from promoting it and allowing artists to benefit from it. If anything, Snyder is only looking to the future of concertsinyourhome.com and how he can allow it to better help his fellow traveling artists.

Snyder hopes to popularize house concerts enough so that there are enough of them to allow block booking of house concerts by artists and hosts. Block booking would allow artists to book mini house concert tours so they wouldn’t have to fill in their schedule gaps with club and bar dates.

“The current model is obviously broken,” Snyder said. “If artists don’t draw 100 people now they don’t survive; there are talented artists sleeping in their cars and it’s not fair. House concerts are a great way for developed and developing acts to break into new markets so they don’t have to work with the limited tools they have now.”