Brown Paper Tickets uses cookies to provide the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy

Cookie Settings

Case Study: The Quarantine Sessions

Music >

How Marina Albero
Uses Brown Paper Tickets
to Keep Music Alive

Who is Marina?

Marina Albero is a freelance jazz musician originally from Barcelona, now based in Seattle. She teaches music and performs in various local and national groups, including her own band. She now runs The Quarantine Sessions, a live streaming music experiment. Prior to starting The Quarantine Sessions, Marina used Brown Paper Tickets to sell admission to intimate house shows.

COVID-19, Gathering Bans, and Social Distancing

In early March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began to escalate in Europe and then in Seattle, Marina watched as her upcoming shows were canceled and postponed one by one. March shows became July shows, and her immediate income dried up. Not only did these cancellations represent a loss of livelihood, but also a loss of community.  She knew that the longer this went on, the harder it would be for artists everywhere to bounce back.

The Quarantine Sessions

The Quarantine Sessions were born from what Marina calls a “survival instinct.” The premise was simple: bring live music experiences to quarantined viewers, while supporting local artists and their communities.

Marina’s first task was to find a venue. While she could live stream from her living room and had done so before, she wanted this experience to be special. She connected with a local studio, The House of Breaking Glass, who agreed to host the performance, allowing Marina to produce a show with top quality audio. “[You can host] a live stream in a house with technology that you have, versus a live online concert with a higher production value,” she says. “For me that is a beautiful difference.”

Her second task was to figure out how to host the event online. Marina wanted the show to be open to everyone, so she decided on a free Facebook live stream with pre-sales and a virtual “tip jar” through Brown Paper Tickets. It was important to her that the performance feel like a concert, not a fundraiser. Listing her event with Brown Paper Tickets provided her with a main landing page for the event that she could use to promote, generate sales, and preserve a familiar event experience for attendees.

I thought that Brown Paper Tickets was my best option. Anybody else who is doing a live stream has the same idea… you have your PayPal, you have your Venmo. But I like the idea of selling tickets to an actual concert.

Marina Albero

On the evening of the show, Marina and her band played an enthusiastic jazz set at the studio and streamed it on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter Live. Throughout the event, viewers were able to contribute to a virtual tip jar through the Brown Paper Tickets event page.

Marina Albero

The Results

The first Quarantine Session proved that if you make it, people will come. Fans watched, commented, and made contributions from homes across the world.

  • 1,600 viewers
  • 1,200 interactions
  • 135 contributors
  • 50% of contributions happened during the event

The Quarantine Sessions have grown into a weekly Sunday series showcasing local talent out of The House of Breaking Glass. Marina has also received mention in the New York Times.