Artist's Heart Breaks For St. Pete Musicians, Creates Opportunity

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Katie Talbert usually booked over a hundred gigs a month for musicians around St. Pete for the last almost 10 years. When the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. in March, Talbert already had at least six months of future gigs booked for many musicians she regularly booked for plus herself. She did not look forward to telling them that all of their booked gigs had been cancelled for the foreseeable future due to the temporary restaurant/bar closures because for many of them, this was their main source of income.

"This broke my heart so much," said Talbert, "because a lot of the people I book for have kids. I wasn't going to just send out cancellation texts of, 'Oh, you're not going to work and I don't know for how long.' I called each one of them on the phone, and there was so much crying."

Talbert couldn't sit around and do nothing for musicians she has developed close relationships with throughout the years. With limited knowledge of how to do a livestream, she started to work on a plan to help musicians earn money during the pandemic.

Talbert, who also experienced a financial loss of stability due to the pandemic, took all the money out of her savings and built a studio in her St. Pete home so that she could provide a way for musicians to get paid by hosting their performances via Facebook Live. Not having the money to pay musicians when she booked them in her studio as one normally would for bookings, she opened up donation options for the viewers on her streaming channel hosted by Facebook, DTSP Live: Saved By Streaming.

The livestreams kicked off the day after executive orders closed down restaurants/bars. Talbert said some bands are open about how much money they've received in tips. At the beginning, some artists were making enough tip money to put food on the table and pay for their mortgages. But that's not been the case since restaurants have reopened, and the financial security of musicians is still in jeopardy.

"What people are being misled on is that even though musicians are back performing, it doesn't mean they're getting paid," said Talbert. "They're either playing for tips or half the pay they would normally be paid, and there is no way they can make an actual living off of that. I don't want people to stop donating to these livestreams and helping the artists because they think we're back to work, because we're not."

Patch was in the studio with some livestream-booked artists over the weekend, and one of them who said he was grateful for the generous tipping in March said Sunday after he finished playing in the studio that he hadn't received enough tips from his one-hour performance to pay the water bill or put food on the table for his newborn baby girl.

Talbert, a musician herself, said that she used to play 31 gigs a month pre-pandemic. A lot of musicians are only booking two to three gigs a month at decreased pay. She said she doesn't take from the tips from the musicians' livestream donations — she just wants them to have it all, and hopes that she can soon start making money to live off of from the livestreaming service.

Through laughter, Talbert said that she didn't know what she was doing when she started to set up for livestreaming. She watched a lot of YouTube videos and read a lot of livestreaming forums on Reddit to learn. She was determined to make this opportunity happen no matter how much trial and error was involved.

"She felt a really deep responsibility because she was in charge of booking a lot of venues, like seven or eight, so she's provided hundreds of jobs for musicians," said local musician Geri-X, who has been featured on the streaming service. "A lot of these venues book two bands a night, so look at how much was lost for local musicians and for Katie."

Geri-X is scheduled to perform on DTSP Live: Saved By Streaming at 7 p.m. on June 1. This will be the 68th livestream episode in its two-and-a-half-month existence.

One of the featured bands over the weekend was the bluesy, soulful Betty Fox Band. Every Sunday evening the group performs at the studio starting around 5 p.m. (A video featuring the Betty Fox Band performing their original, "Peace in Pieces," is featured at the bottom of this article).

"I anticipated us going back to work within two months after March, but that hasn't been the case," said Betty Fox. "This is more of a community effort, with love and support for each other. I'm grateful for the tips but I'm also glad that we can just play music. Thanks to Katie doing this for all of us, she is providing a way for us to cover our basic subsistence."