BY JOSIE LUCIANO
The app and website Parlor Shows connects musicians with home venues
inger-songwriters Liam Kyle Cahill and John White played at a recent house concert called “Folk All-Stars.” On the surface it felt like many other house shows: small space, lots of people, very intimate and great sounding.
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But unlike other house concerts, this one played out in front of a backdrop that read “Parlor Shows,” while the Emmy-winning Reno Sessions film crew recorded the concert for … posterity? Novelty? Probably for a short film. Either way, it felt like the beginning of something bigger and cooler than the name “Folk All-Stars” might suggest.
18 | RN&R |
MAY 21, 2015
Step into m y pa r l o r The idea behind Parlor Shows is simple: connect musicians with house venues directly. This is accomplished the way all things are accomplished these days: as a two-part app and website platform. Currently in the beta stages of development, the Parlor Shows app is due to launch later this month. This platform will make it possible for bands and hosts to contact one another and set up shows in private homes, effectively cutting out the middlemen—promoters—and saving time and cash. “It’s the Airbnb of house shows,” said co-founder Ashley Jennings. In addition to creating Parlor Shows, Jennings is a musician in her own right, one-half of a dark and sleepy electronic duo called Agitprop.
“The reason we’re trying to solve this problem is because my husband and I have a band and although I’m pretty connected in Reno, I was still having a hard time booking shows and getting paid,” she said. The idea of starting a booking app based loosely on the Airbnb model came from Jennings’ own experience using Airbnb to save money on lodging while she was on the road. Slowly, the idea of creating a physical community grounded in online interaction seeped into Jennings’ musical brain, and Parlor Shows was born. The app itself is slick. It’s easy to look at, simple to use, and has lots of automated features. Users—whether they sign up as musicians or hosts—can make profiles that advertise their preferred music genre, set ticket prices, and match venues along Google Maps routes. There
