Trackage Scheme is a hub for alternative music that went from a small closed group of musicians sharing music they love listening to to a 2,000+ strong community on Facebook. In the three years that they’ve been around, they have organised various gigs, parties and even festivals around the island, also supporting a multitude of others through their website which also boasts an online shop for band merchandise and event tickets. 

“It looked like Malta didn’t want to give us funds to export Maltese talent… that didn’t make any sense to us, so I said fuck this.”

Speaking to Lovin Malta, Trackage Scheme founder Ben Vincenti opens up about this frustrating situation. “It looked like Malta didn’t want to give us funds to export Maltese talent abroad. That didn’t make any sense to us, so I said fuck this.” And fuck this is exactly what Trackage Scheme did, thanks to their newest project launched this week.

It will now be possible for any aspiring artist, musician, event organiser or cultural operator to raise funds for their project through crowd-funding. The beauty of this concept is that there really is no limit to what the project can entail. It could be a new album, an event or a trip abroad for a performance!

Earlier this year, alternative sweethearts Plato’s Dream Machine showed the island that this idea can really work; after having set up an Indiegogo page to raise funds for their new album, the scene responded, raising an amazing €1,200 that would otherwise have taken more than half a dozen gigs to achieve!

So why did Trackage Scheme feel it had to launch its own platform, instead of push forward ones like Indiegogo? “I want to consolidate the scene as much as possible,” Ben explains. “The goal of Trackage Scheme was always to be a one-stop-shop for the whole alternative scene, so we want to ‘walk the talk’ of supporting local talent from all possible angles.” And with a community that boasts event hosting, artist promotion, artist services, event ticketing, design and marketing and even music schooling, crowdfunding definitely was the latest point for Vincenti to tick off his list. 

“We want to ‘walk the talk’ of supporting local talent from all possible angles.”

And unfortunately, with the current system that’s being used (and at times abused), it seemed like there only really was this option all along. “The reality is this: if we kept waiting to get funding for Trackage Scheme and the alternative scene without actually doing something about it ourselves, we would still be waiting,” Ben trails off. Here’s hoping that with this new system in place, everyone gets the chance to actually reap what they sow.

Trackage Scheme’s Crowdfunding Platform is now up online, and its first collaboration is with Malta Takes London, which is now in its 4th edition and is planning to take over 10 Maltese musicians to Camden to perform there.

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).