Established in 2019, 3 Tbsp Refugee Music Studios & Demos is an indie not-for-profit based in Durham, North Carolina, USA. 

3 Tbsp launches refugee-owned recording studios in communities affected by displacement, releases compilations of select tracks, and sends 80% of music sales and licensing-related profits to the music creators. While doing so, we aspire to create small businesses, enable people to receive training and experience as audio engineers, help musicians land paid gigs, provide informal outlets for music therapy, and for the general public of both today and future generations, reveal the real voices and zeitgeists from within and around refugee communities as experienced during this tumultuous first third of the 21st century.

Our goals by 2025 are to:

    • launch 5 successful recording studio businesses (including mobile operations), 
    • enable 500 musicians to walk away with a demo recording of one or more of their songs, 
    • release 5 compilations,
    • sell 50,000 copies of our compilations.

 

The idea for this not-for-profit came to founder Marc Alan Sperber soon after a work trip to Uganda during which he interviewed refugees and others as part of an effort to better understand the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. It was on this trip he met Elvis D., who, as a side-note, mentioned his music and his dream to one day start a recording studio. It was a topic and conversation that would continue over WhatsApp in the following months.  

Since 2017, Marc has been designing and implementing educational programs for refugees and host communities on a team that works in several countries around the world. In this role, which he continues to maintain, he has a level of access to refugee camps and refugee populations generally unavailable to the public.

20 years ago, Marc moved on from his first music-related venture, a small magazine for musicians he started and ran for 3 years that peaked at a staff of 30 and monthly readership of 80,000. Since then, his career has spanned fields including marketing, film, technology, design, and education. On the side, he tries to find the time to exhibit his photography and play music.

From our founder:

“The name comes from a story… from a long conversation I had with a refugee in Rwanda, three years before the idea for this organization came about. At one point, he was telling me about the sacrifices his family made to send him to high school, including selling some of the food rations provided in their camp so they could afford his school and book fees. I asked about these food rations and learned that his family received 3 tablespoons of beans, per person, per day – when they were lucky. I was trying to imagine myself living on 3 tablespoons of beans a day. I wouldn’t be able to function. Even after a few hours, I’d be shaky and hangry. In fact, he told me that many of the kids in his school “would fall down, dizzy, because they were without food.” Many of his friends’ families did the same thing – they sold some of their 3 tablespoons of beans so they could afford to send one of their children to school. Entire family units are willing to starve, even more than they already are, in the hopes that one of their children could have a slightly greater chance of having a better life.

“The guy I was speaking with was 21 years old. He made it through high school. Then, he made it into a local university, which is incredibly rare for someone in his situation. I was speaking to him at a local tech startup’s office where he was interning and learning to build websites. He told me that all he wanted to do was to make his family proud so they knew their sacrifices were worth it. Once he started to earn some money, he said, he wanted to give most of it to his family and community back in refugee the camp so they would never have to go hungry again. And the skills he was trying to learn during his internship, he wanted to use them to develop an app that would improve the quality of life for everyone back in the camp.

“In country after country, I continue to hear a range of stories that similarly illustrate tremendous sacrifice, strength, resilience, and hope. I find these stories deeply moving and inspirational. With this indie not-for-profit music organization, I want to be able to share these types of stories with the world, through music and song, and in these people’s own voices and written word. Of course not every story will be a positive one. Some will be full of sadness, some of anger, some might simply provide a snapshot of life in and around a refugee camp and on the margins. Some will be from host community members who graciously live side-by-side with a large number of refugees. Art provides people with the opportunity to express themselves in ways they may not in conversation. It’s important for people with pent up emotions be able to express themselves in this way, to write about these things, and to sing about these things. Likewise, it’s important for others around the world to be able to hear what is being said.”

Being a part-time endeavor, and given COVID-19 travel restrictions and social distancing guidelines, 3 Tbsp will be moving at a relatively slow pace (the 5-year goals listed on our home page reflect this pace). Another reason we move slow, there is inherent risk in providing near-strangers in impoverished communities with relatively expensive equipment, so we will continue to try our best to vet people, check references, build-relationships, etc. This takes time. Lastly, we are not taking a “go big or go home” approach down any one path. We will do little experiments down multiple paths until we’ve figured out which path/model works best for us and our limited time and your generous (but still limited) donations. We want to use what we have wisely. We’d rather grow slowly and steadily than burn out quickly.

With this philosophy in mind, instead of actively pursuing a large amount of funds we do not immediately need, and trying to take on more than we can realistically handle with our current capacity, we will start out focusing on bite-sized, short-term goals and raise just enough money to allow us to take our next couple of steps. For example, to release our first compilation, we estimate needing a few thousand dollars, which includes modest promotional costs. And to first help us acquire enough quality music that we will be excited to release, we want to purchase a few handheld recorders and accessory components and get them in the field, recording, which will complement the music we get from the first studio we funded, Mwana Mama. The costs of these devices and releasing and promoting our first compilation will make up the bulk of our initial fundraising efforts.

Once our first release is out there in the world, being promoted, we hope thousands of new eyes will be on this website, many will purchase an album, merch, and/or donate, and that will provide us with enough money to 1) fund the next round of new studio(s), 2) release and promote some of the new music we receive from the growing base of studios we help to establish. This next round of promotion, we hope, will once again attract new visitors to this site, purchases and donations will be made, and we’ll again be able to fund new studios, release a new compilation, and do more promotion. This is how we envision the cycle will go.

Each new studio means a new refugee-owned business, people could be trained and employed, and hundreds of people could have their songs recorded. Each compilation released means more artists can collect ongoing royalties. You can help by supporting 3 Tbsp.