Love in a Time of Quarantine: A Solidarity Project

What?

A solidarity project. Featuring songs by various artists of different musical styles, each one affected by the cancellations of concerts due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Music and culture is so valuable to all of us: it’s part of the fabric of our lives. Unfortunately it’s often seen as “extra” in times of crisis.

Our goal is to generate awareness of the urgent situation in which many artists find themselves since the spread of the coronavirus – and to give you a way to actively support some of them.

With love from Barcelona. 🎸

Who?

Here's a list of the incredible artists participating in the compilation – from Grammy nominees to winners of the European Blues Challenge, from soul singers to rock artists, from summer festival favorites to artists fresh off their tours of Mexico and South America.

Click on their names, below, to check out their websites.

FEATURING

Tori Sparks 
Los Mambo Jambo Arkestra
Che Sudaka
A Contra Blues
Ramon Aragall
Luz Verde
Raynald Colom
Clarence Bekker Band
The Penguins
Alma de Boquerón

Why?

Now more than ever, we depend on music to lift us up in these difficult, uncertain times. We are all worried about the future. In the midst of all this darkness, musicians around the world are offering a little happiness and a little hope – hundreds of free concerts in streaming! Online music festivals!  You can enjoy hundreds of thousands of their songs, also for free (or nearly), via YouTube or Spotify playlists. That’s just awesome, right?   

And while we musicians love that you’re enjoying the music, and we are so happy that we can help make this global emergency seem a little less terrible and overwhelming for everyone, we’re feeling pretty overwhelmed too. 

Spotify, YouTube, online concerts: these ways of listening to a song involve no financial compensation for the artists. (To find out how many streams it takes to make just one dollar on YouTube, check out this article.)  

Music is our livelihood, it’s how we pay our rent. Right now, many of us can’t. Most of us have had 100% of our work cancelled from March through June, which means zero income for at least four months. No partial salary, no unemployment. From one day to the next, all money for basics like gas, food and utilities was simply gone. 

Now you, our friends and our fans, have the opportunity to actively support the people who make the music that you love -- and you’ll get a collection of awesome tunes in exchange. 

How?

You can show your support by being a part of our crowdfunding campaign via Verkami, where we offer a ton of cool rewards depending on how much you’d like to give. (With more to come!)

IMPORTANT NOTE: Crowdfunding usually sets a limit, a quantity that must be reached in order to fund a project — in fact we’ve already reached that number, and we’re thrilled! But the number that you’ll see on our crowdfunding site is NOT our goal. That quantity is the minimum that we need in order to print the physical copies of the record.

All funds beyond that threshold is what will go to support these incredible musicians – 100% of the proceeds beyond manufacturing costs will be divided amongst the participating artists.

When?

The crowdfunding campaign was launched April 2nd, and will run until May 12th. Once we reach our costs threshold, we will print the physical albums and send you your copy as soon as possible!

Music makes us happy. Music gives us hope. The show must go on — and with your help, it will.

FAQs

• If you aren’t familiar with how the crowdfunding platform Verkami works and would like to learn more about it, check out their website. They are a reputable, professional, transparent platform and would be happy to answer any questions you may have. (A woman named Astrid will probably answer your email. She’s awesome.)

• Who’s behind this whole thing? Singer-songwriter Tori Sparks, and all the participating musicians.

• If you would like more information about the private house concerts, please click here, or write to us and we’d be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

• If you’re thinking “why do you do online concerts if you don’t make any money from them?” Like I said, these are troubled times. Many musicians have decided to offer free online concerts just to try to make things a little better for their friends and family across the globe. Check out this article in The Atlantic about what people are doing around the world.

• If you’re wondering “can’t I just give money to one or two of the artists?” No, the proceeds will be divided equally amongst all of us — however, you can support these artists individually by clicking on the link to their websites, above, and purchasing their individual albums or merchandise.

• If you’re thinking “but that’s crazy, there’s got to be government assistance or pensions that you guys can lean on during hard times?” For the majority of working musicians, no. In some countries, the government (Germany) or private institutions (US) have created relief funds for musicians and other professionals from the culture sector. Spain unfortunately has not.


Government workers and many private employees will be paid a partial to full salary while the quarantine is in place, or may take advantage of unemployment benefits. Like most freelance workers, musicians do not have any of these options.

• We would be happy to answer any other questions you may have, please feel free to ask us.



Stay safe, and stay healthy. Together we’ll get through this.