The coronavirus pandemic has had huge knock on effects on many industries, in particular music. With tours cancelled as borders across the globe close and mass gatherings currently banned, artists are currently losing huge amounts of income. Many festivals including Glastonbury and and Radio 1 Big Weekend are also cancelled. Not only does this affect artists but also their touring crew, stag crew, management, promoters, photographers, Djs, music press, music venue owners and their staff and merchandise sellers.
Ways you could help:
Keep hold of your tickets
Many shows are most likely to be or have already been rescheduled for later on in the year. If you can afford to keep your ticket when there hasn’t been any news of a reschedule as of yet, this will massively help struggling promoters and artists if they don’t need to refund all of the tickets and can use this money to keep venues in a good financial position through closure to reopen again when it’s safe to, protect their staff’s wages, and protect the artist’s limited funds (particularly if they’re an independant band).
Buy music and merch online
With shows cancelled, many artists are now selling their tour merchandise online. It really goes along away to buy a t-shirt and their music too like vinyl record or CD.
Statement from Dreamstate, one of many smaller acts needing your help right now:
Buy from Etsy or support other side projects in other ways
Many photographers are now making prints in a variety of finishes or using them to create other art such as posters or t-shirts and uploading them to online stores or their own website. Please look out for them and support their work while they currently can’t shoot or work at shows and festivals. This also includes those who might make art as a hobby as well as professionally!
Music lessons
Some artists are offering music lessons for an hourly price over skype, paying for these will help them immensely as well as giving you or your children something to do during isolation. Look out for these over Facebook from local musicians!
- Contact https://www.facebook.com/lamece/ for singing lessons over skype
- Jack Kenny who drums in Milk Teeth is offering online drum lessons, support his patreon for the lessons here: https://www.patreon.com/JackKennyDrums?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=creatorshar
Support patreons
Music magazines and artists might use patreons to continue investing in their work and making sure that there are funds available to cover their losses as well as other costs. Patreons are also used by photographers, bloggers and more.
Bandcamp
Bandcamp are currently waiving fees so that labels and artists get 100% of the purchase price so please use this site to purchase any music as well as the artist’s official own sites. This way you will ensure your money goes to the artists and supports them directly.
Even more artists and labels have been added to this list. Thank you for this amazing show of support! https://t.co/Iq3blaupqn
— bandcamp (@Bandcamp) March 20, 2020
Go Fund me / Crowdfunding pages
Music venues and pubs are being kept open by the Boris Johnson while he at the same time, tells the public to avoid going in to them. This means that they can’t claim on their insurance to protect their staff and venue costs while also losing so much from cancelled shows and tours. If you see your local independent venue post a go fund me page, please donate to keep them up and running through this difficult time!
- The Boileroom, Guildford: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-the-boileroom-survive-the-covid-19-crisis-1?fbclid=IwAR04YOmt32CHbE3hGvpKgQTrAuTIYQ2HlyKkGndf4mA2ox6y9P_jbc3ENH8
- The Joiners, Southampton: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-survive-corona-virus?fbclid=IwAR1G3Nz8k9CxHaDCKv9xvHn3wZIjuEn2SE1pGGnsr9rBTFD8imJzB577c14
- The Railway Inn, Winchester: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/railwayinn?fbclid=IwAR0sQ0byr2wwOGrPIfWD4MuAiW9145M5uNlIsWjGyq2llcrSB0kIXyUwXFQ
Djs
DJs are also currently out of work due to the prevention of mass gatherings. Give their soundclouds a listen and share them, buy their merch and mixes if you can, get them some slots lined up for later on in the year or share any temporary work opportunities with them.
A handful of fantastic Djs/ club nights in Hampshire, check them out and support them:
- https://www.facebook.com/rocktailriot/
- https://soundcloud.com/chaosdnb
- https://www.facebook.com/UndergroundAltNight/
- https://www.facebook.com/LightItUpClub/
- https://www.facebook.com/ReverbSouthampton/
Mental Health
For many artists as well as their fans, looking forward to shows and festivals is positive and uplifting for their happiness in general and are the steps they need to progress their career. With so many cancellations and guidelines to self isolate, the losses of income and opportunities may have a huge impact on their mental health. Please keep an eye on your creative friends, support them in any way you can, bring them supplies, help them structure their time, facetime them, play music together over webcam or live streams, look out for temporary work opportunities ( Tesco, Co-Op, and Aldi are offering these right now) and help them look forward to new and bigger opportunities later on in the year.
