MUMBAI: The musicians are suddenly left without any platform where they can earn through their performance. Some of them aren’t even left with money to be able to recharge their phones because the lockdown was sudden and they had no savings.

An independent musician in pursuit of their craft is often bogged down by multiple hardships. In India, these artists often make ends meet through live performances, mostly as part of local shows in public venues. With public venues shut due to the lockdown, their sources of income have been slashed completely. The crisis at hand that nobody seemed to realize was that ignoring independent musicians at a time like this would force them out of their craft, causing irreparable damage to the future of music itself.

“The musicians are suddenly left without any platform where they can earn through their performance. Some of them aren’t even left with money to be able to recharge their phones because the lockdown was sudden and they had no savings. We knew we had to do something to give them respite during the period of lockdown,” Kaushik Barua, Qrated founder.

Qrated, a community organization that promotes independent artists, was formed about three years ago with a group of friends looking to find a venue for a touring band to play in. With cooperative venues in short supply and sponsors seemingly uninterested, the group ultimately found itself putting together the show on their own.

Putting their faith in an organic solution to the problem, Qrated decided to host a pay-what-you-want campaign around their music festival.

“Kerplunk is our most successful indie event property under Qrated and its 7th edition supported by SkillBox and The Indian Music Diaries was live-streamed online across platforms straight from the artists’ houses in April. This was highlighted by an online fundraising campaign bringing together the collective indie music enthusiasts in India to step up and pool their resources in recognizing the value of music and artists” said co-founder Vikram Singh Kushwaha.

With 53 artists’ performances spread over seven days, Kerplunk 7 wrapped up its contributions campaign with a total collection of more than Rs 1.50 lakhs. While all of the contributions will be split equally among the entire artist line-up, a few of them have opted to forego their part of the benefits for those who need them more urgently. A complete list of the contributions along with the names of the contributors has been released to the public, with the artists who chose to give away their proceeds receiving a special mention.

The event was kick-started by performances from seven acts including Mumbai based singer-songwriters Aarifah Rebello and Anand Bhaskar on the first day with some of northeast India’s most loved musicians joining in the fray later on. These included Guwahati’s viral YouTube artists Mihika Sen, Suryaprakash Medhi, and Pujaarchana Talukdar. Bottle Rockets India, whose vocalist Arghadeep Baruah has garnered widespread acclaim for his recent role in the movie Aamis, was one of the most-watched acts.

In addition to artists from northeast’s local circuits, the line-up for Kerplunk 7 also comprised some of the most promising musicians from around the country including singer-songwriters Takar Nabam and Hanita Bhambri along with Bhopal’s virtuoso fingerstyle guitarist Samar Mehdi. Kranti Art Theory showcased the prodigious talent of electronic artists Yung Raj and Brijplease while OAF Record’s Tangents, Inalab and Cinema of Excess also made notable appearances.