Co-Mission is a project started by Folkadelphia during the COVID-19 pandemic to help get money in the hands of in-need artists and musicians during a time of financial, professional, and personal instability and uncertainty. The idea is to commission home recordings (home studio, Garageband, cellphone, whatever!) from a group of artists, non-exclusively license the track for use on a donation-based compilation on Bandcamp, and use any and all proceeds to commission more recordings from more artists, creating more compilations, and continuing the process. All the while, we will be looking for opportunities to highlight these artists’ work, records, and any other ways supporters can spend or donate money to them. Here’s a longer “mission statement” about the whole idea.
We’re trying to be as upfront and transparent about the entire project as possible because we want to give and get financial support to these artists now. The short of it is that we will pay $100 commission for a non-exclusive license to use a newly tracked home recording for inclusion in a Co-Mission compilation. The compilations will be donation-based on Bandcamp and all proceeds will be used to continue the project, so none of it is coming back to Folkadelphia. It’s all going to the artists who are part of the Co-Mission project.
We’re looking at getting money into artists’ pockets in three complementary ways:
Commission – pay a flat $100 fee directly to the artist to create a new home recording with whatever equipment they have available them in a safe space. Alternatively, if they feel financially secure and wish to donate a recording, we will use all proceeds to commission other artists’ works.
Compilations – create compilation albums of commissioned recordings on Bandcamp for a pay-what-you-will donation pricing structure where all proceeds will be used to commission other artist recordings, which will then be added to the compilations.
Support – use the album platforms, as well as social sharing, and any received press or promotion to shine a light on each artists’ specific predicament and the tangible ways people can support them and their art.
You want to get involved? We want you involved! We’re currently paying out commissions for new home recordings on a rolling basis, depending on our current funds and where we’re at in the “album cycle” of the current donation-based compilation release. Don’t want a commission, but want to donate a home recording to pay-it-forward? Great, we want you too! Don’t play music, but want to offer your expertise, knowledge, skills, or hands to help? We want you!
In each case, just reach out to us, Fred Knittel primarily, at fred (at) folkadelphia (dot) com or head to the Submit header.
Short answer: yes.
Longer answer: the point of this project is to get money or direct money to artists, so when you donate to us, you are giving to artists ultimately and eventually. However, instead of donating to us, I would first suggest throwing us some money after you download the compilation(s) [at time of writing, 4/6/20, the first compilation is not yet available] – that will help us fund the next wave of commissions. Secondly, I would suggest checking out all of the contributing artists and purchasing their albums, merch, or straight up Paypal/Venmo-ing them. Thirdly, I would see out more impactful artist-focused charitable organizations doing good works, giving out grants, funds, and emergency payments to people. I will seek to use this space below to highlight those organizations.