"Make money playing a house concert"

I feel for struggling musicians, but I have to admit, having Pepsi sponsor your house party seems kind of sick (though of course that's in essence exactly what top bands like The Rolling Stones are doing).

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/11/house_concerts/

Renita Jablonski: Aspiring artists often turn to residential venues like garages, basements and living rooms to get their sound out to live audiences. Shows like these are typically a labor of love. But as Lisa Chow reports from New York, some enterprising musicians are finding a way to profit from grassroots concerts.

Lisa Chow: You almost get the sense sometimes that musicians enjoy not making money. Violinist Joanna Frankel is a Juilliard graduate and has performed at Carnegie Hall.

Joanna Frankel: I mean, I guess to a fault, I'm not thinking about money, because this to me is something very pure, very honest.

Frankel and five other musicians recently performed in a grand apartment overlooking Central Park. They played for dozens of people, but they didn't make a dime. Michael Reingold organized the event. He says he doesn't charge guests because his main goal is getting people turned onto classical music. And that's hard enough.

Frankel: When I package it with the social element, with the intimacy of it, the food, all these elements put together, it becomes more attractive.

At the other end of town, singer-songwriter Ruth Gerson has found a way to make house concerts pay. She used to play at clubs but switched to house concerts when she realized she could make more money that way.

Ruth Gerson: And the first person was like, OK, and got, whatever, 60 people in a living room and between CDs and people throwing something in, I did, you know, over a thousand dollars and I said, ''Oh, I can do this and make a living.''

Now, corporate interests are catching on. A marketing agency working with Pepsi approached Gerson last year about using her concerts to promote a new zero-calorie drink, Tava. Cassie Hughes is with Grow Marketing. She says house concerts are a perfect place to introduce Pepsi's drink to consumers..

Cassie Gerson: The drink Tava is being targeted at someone who, you know, is in their mid-30s and older who loves to entertain at home.

Gerson says she doesn't feel that she's selling out.

Gerson: Making a living, making music involves thinking outside of the box -- you know, being a creative business person.

Pepsi catered one of Gerson's recent house concerts. The company laid on shrimp and sushi, and, a waist-high bin filled with Tava. Not everyone loved the drink. But it did get them talking about it.

In New York, I'm Lisa Chow for Marketplace.