secret planet
secret planet
Community Supported Music (CSM).
Borderless, underground & diverse.
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THERE ARE SOLUTIONS FOR EVERYTHING
That’s why farmers invented CSAs, or farm shares. Farming is a stupid risky business. But when the community shores up their farmers’ risk in the Spring, everyone prospers by Summer.
This is a CSA for music.
It’s trying to solve for some of the sticky problems in the live music industry — because presenting live music is often as precarious as farming. I’ll give you an example, because this happens all the time:
You book an amazing artist who no one’s ever heard of. They need to be paid partly up front… for visas, for flights… hopefully the tour they cobbled together is worth the effort for them. And then — six months later, on the day of the show — twenty or thirty people show up.
The presenter loses money. The artist loses some dignity. The presenter thinks twice before continuing to book music that doesn’t play on the radio or has a following. The artist thinks twice before ever coming back.
THERE’S GOTTA BE A better way
And there is.
In Western Mass, where Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is Scripture and people love music, some folks figured this out for jazz a decade ago.
Jazz Shares, now ten years old, is a working example of this idea inspired by CSAs. Jazz Shares concerts are also open to the general public — but most of the tickets are sold months prior to their member base. It’s a primary model for Secret Planet, because it builds community and trust while minimizing risk and stress for both the artist and presenter.
And if it works for jazz, it can work for other kinds of music as well. Secret Planet is a new CSM for a diverse palette of borderless & underground live performances in Western Mass. A successful crowdfund that launched this spring is supporting our first season of music, happening now!
WHAT KIND OF MUSIC ?
Music from everywhere.
Less about genre, more about place, culture, and origin; Music that honors roots and traditions; or starts there but ends somewhere else; or breaks all the rules in search of something new.
I worked for five years at Laudable Productions and curated upwards of a hundred musical events and festivals: Barbès in the Woods; Collider!Fest; Millpond.Live in Easthampton. I’ve learned that it’s very hard to draw a neat box around an artist.
Especially with terms like “indie” or “world” or “global” — they’re meaningless, subtractive, and don’t describe the music. So let me put this to you differently.
Imagine tunnels. Deep, subterranean tunnels that connect together the basements of musicians all over the planet … the tunnels have great acoustics, and the musicians are free to wander through them, into each other’s homes, with krars and Prophet-6s and frame drums and cuatros ... inevitably there are some rowdy parties, probably with lots of clapping and dancing …
that’s Secret Planet.
how DOES it work?
Simple.
If you buy a pack of tickets, you’re a member. Tickets are sent to you in the form of physical tokens, which you (or your peeps) can use at any Secret Planet event. Benefits of membership include: (1) no ticketing fees; (2) RSVP to attend before tickets are on sale to the general public; (3) special invites to member-only events.
We’re in the middle of the first season. We’ve had shows in Williamsburg, Northampton, Brattleboro, Holyoke and Easthampton so far. The Winter/Spring line-up finds us in Amherst, Easthampton, Northampton, and Sheffield.
You will hear new music. You will make new friends and dance with old ones. And you will feel empowered, because none of it will have happened without you.
xoxo, Edo
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Stay connected to hear more about the first season and get updates on upcoming events.
