Coronavirus, music and beyond
Article by Sammy Stein
Musicians are resilient. They live on the front line of the gig economy - many of them literally relying on gigs for survival and things have changed remarkably over the past few years. Once, selling recordings was the way a band or individual made a living. The wealth was distributed - perhaps unfairly in many ways - with major bands getting millions of dollars for an album whilst artists just starting out made little but there was a reliance on people going to shops, buying the music and it made record labels, managers and some bands millions.
It also caused problems because sometimes a label would take a punt on an artist, offering them a deal which had hidden clauses or paid very low royalties. The rising star might take the deal only to find later they were signed up for years and couldn't get out of clauses which still allowed their labels or managers to control most of their business. It also meant a few top people had control of the popular music industry. Gatekeepers existed, selecting which bands should be presented to the masses, grooming them to comply with an idealised, fashionable image, catapulting some to stratospheric fame, others to oblivion and some even got dropped from a great height from fame to ignominy in a nanosecond.
Now, it is different. Choice is largely in the hands of the buyers. Labels and PR companies , whilst still having commercial clout and professional prowess, no longer really control the markets. Many musicians handle their output, recordings and PR. They have to be accessible, pleasant and savvy ( mostly). Platforms have allowed music to be accessible and easy to buy and download. Social media means if there is good music, it is shared; if it is bad, the feedback makes this clear. There are more musicians out there than we ever knew or hoped for and the range of material is vast. This way of doing things means that genres like free jazz and improvised music can now have a permanent platform alongside mainstream and listeners have access to genres previously unknown to them. The downside is that the days of making shed loads of money from recordings have largely gone. Many smaller labels are struggling and, whilst there has been a revival of sorts of vinyl and CD sales, the majority of buyers download music now.
However, there has also been an upsurge in live music. Venues which closed or were on the brink of closure have re-opened and larger venues may offer a smaller venue alongside - for example Snape concert hall in Suffolk has a smaller brother in the same complex which live music from lesser known bands is often offered - and people come. Venues like Iklectic, Cafe Oto, The Vortex, Pizza Express Jazz, Live at Zedel, Jazz Cafe, Sunset, The Cut, The Bridge and so many others are welcoming crowds nightly who are enjoying a range of music from jazz to blues and soul, hip-hop and reggae. At these gigs, musicians can sell CDs and other merchandise direct.
I ran a small festival in London a couple of years back and what was important for most of the 14 acts who played was somewhere to sell their merchandise. What this means is that for smaller bands and bigger names alike there is another income, something to keep the ever hungry wolf from the door. Gigs might be door money gigs or set fees but the merchandise is vital. So , for a while it looked like live music was making a stand, people flocked back to live venues and things looked up. Musicians got paid for gigs and sold merch. All good.
Then came Coronavirus - or Covid 19 - and everything changed. Musicians went from regular income to nothing almost overnight. The small incomes made from downloads barely covered the basics and sometimes not even that. In just a few days, gigs months ahead were cancelled. Festivals could not run, tours could not go ahead, it looked pretty dire. Some musicians found themselves seeking other work to tide them over, hoping to have the chance to return one day to their fledgling career and start over. Some gave up altogether, the idea of no income for months ahead just too much.
Then music stepped up. Suddenly venues and platforms remembered who kept them going, who drew in the crowds and people who bought drinks and food, paid for tickets, downloaded music so they could make money. Rather than turn their backs on the musicians they opened their arms figuratively. They thought how to support them and within just a few days of the doors closing on venues and live gigs we had streaming from venues. People could pay a small fee or make a donation as they watched live concerts streamed from the venues but with no audience. This was at the beginning of the epidemic when rules still allowed gatherings of a small number of people.
Tougher rules meant gatherings of any sort are not allowed so once again, creative thinking and a bit of technical know-how saw gigs being streamed from multi-channels. Musicians playing at different locations, solo but also together due to the power of the internet and tech tools. People could still watch and donate if they wanted - and many did - are and I am sure will do.
Some platforms offered to waive their fees on downloads - for a day, a week or longer. All the money paid went to the artists - a welcome generous act. Review sites featured artists with new releases for free, waiving advertising fees and including artists who had new releases they felt should be heard. There are initiatives supporting venues like The Vortex. An example is The Loop connection, who represent artists, who are offering downloads on Bandcamp with all revenue going to support venues - who, whilst generously supportive of musicians are now finding times really tough. That is just one initiative- there are many more spring up all the time.
Musicians themselves thought creatively as ever. Some musicians are now offering on-line music lessons or advice and there are blogs which have been set up where people can discuss concerts, recordings and contribute. There are live chats so people can remain connected to their favourite musicians too. What has happened is more people are involved with music than ever because anyone can join the forums and connect with musicians, discuss things, add their viewpoint, even share a cuppa virtually with musicians. Musicians are all home, and willing to share in creative activity. Radio shows are making broadcasts of a different nature. Jazzbites, the US jazz station, is creating hours of uplifting music, featuring musicians who are just starting out on their career to give them airplay at this difficult time and maybe help sales of their material.
Every creative is stepping up and it is proving positive and fruitful. The incomes generated will not replace the atmosphere and experience of live gigs; they will not pay rents or replace the chance to meet and greet people personally who come to your gigs but they provide interaction of a different kind, a way to support music and the musicians and a way to expand connections, think outside the box, be creative in many different ways.
Covid 19 - a particle no less - has done a huge amount of harm but it has also brought creative minds together to seek new ways of tackling the issues. Those initially despairing are now putting positive tweets and thanks up; those who knew nothing of the creative innovations are joining in, finding glimmers of hope or at least escape in the short term. There is such a sense of 'we are all in this together' . I am just one writer but my twitter feed alone (sammystein111 with just over 6k followers) is packed with people doing innovative, crazy, different things. Connecting, creating still in the face of this tiny, tiny monster we are facing.
What has happened is this crisis, more than anything before - the moans, the groans, the chest beating - has made people realise they value music and venues. They want the opportunities to see live acts there when we get through this. It may balance on a hair string and the venues may be surviving only just but they are surviving and the musicians are also hopefully still going to be there once this is over. It is heart warming to see what is happening - of course, the wish is it never had to - but the strength of support, the creative minds at work - is wonderful and there is much more to come, of that you can be completely sure.
We will get through this, we will survive and perhaps, once we are the other side, we will have discovered new connections and new ways of thinking which will strengthen and renew our arts and industry with a new passion. See you all on the other side.
Musicians are resilient. They live on the front line of the gig economy - many of them literally relying on gigs for survival and things have changed remarkably over the past few years. Once, selling recordings was the way a band or individual made a living. The wealth was distributed - perhaps unfairly in many ways - with major bands getting millions of dollars for an album whilst artists just starting out made little but there was a reliance on people going to shops, buying the music and it made record labels, managers and some bands millions.
It also caused problems because sometimes a label would take a punt on an artist, offering them a deal which had hidden clauses or paid very low royalties. The rising star might take the deal only to find later they were signed up for years and couldn't get out of clauses which still allowed their labels or managers to control most of their business. It also meant a few top people had control of the popular music industry. Gatekeepers existed, selecting which bands should be presented to the masses, grooming them to comply with an idealised, fashionable image, catapulting some to stratospheric fame, others to oblivion and some even got dropped from a great height from fame to ignominy in a nanosecond.
Now, it is different. Choice is largely in the hands of the buyers. Labels and PR companies , whilst still having commercial clout and professional prowess, no longer really control the markets. Many musicians handle their output, recordings and PR. They have to be accessible, pleasant and savvy ( mostly). Platforms have allowed music to be accessible and easy to buy and download. Social media means if there is good music, it is shared; if it is bad, the feedback makes this clear. There are more musicians out there than we ever knew or hoped for and the range of material is vast. This way of doing things means that genres like free jazz and improvised music can now have a permanent platform alongside mainstream and listeners have access to genres previously unknown to them. The downside is that the days of making shed loads of money from recordings have largely gone. Many smaller labels are struggling and, whilst there has been a revival of sorts of vinyl and CD sales, the majority of buyers download music now.
However, there has also been an upsurge in live music. Venues which closed or were on the brink of closure have re-opened and larger venues may offer a smaller venue alongside - for example Snape concert hall in Suffolk has a smaller brother in the same complex which live music from lesser known bands is often offered - and people come. Venues like Iklectic, Cafe Oto, The Vortex, Pizza Express Jazz, Live at Zedel, Jazz Cafe, Sunset, The Cut, The Bridge and so many others are welcoming crowds nightly who are enjoying a range of music from jazz to blues and soul, hip-hop and reggae. At these gigs, musicians can sell CDs and other merchandise direct.
I ran a small festival in London a couple of years back and what was important for most of the 14 acts who played was somewhere to sell their merchandise. What this means is that for smaller bands and bigger names alike there is another income, something to keep the ever hungry wolf from the door. Gigs might be door money gigs or set fees but the merchandise is vital. So , for a while it looked like live music was making a stand, people flocked back to live venues and things looked up. Musicians got paid for gigs and sold merch. All good.
Then came Coronavirus - or Covid 19 - and everything changed. Musicians went from regular income to nothing almost overnight. The small incomes made from downloads barely covered the basics and sometimes not even that. In just a few days, gigs months ahead were cancelled. Festivals could not run, tours could not go ahead, it looked pretty dire. Some musicians found themselves seeking other work to tide them over, hoping to have the chance to return one day to their fledgling career and start over. Some gave up altogether, the idea of no income for months ahead just too much.
Then music stepped up. Suddenly venues and platforms remembered who kept them going, who drew in the crowds and people who bought drinks and food, paid for tickets, downloaded music so they could make money. Rather than turn their backs on the musicians they opened their arms figuratively. They thought how to support them and within just a few days of the doors closing on venues and live gigs we had streaming from venues. People could pay a small fee or make a donation as they watched live concerts streamed from the venues but with no audience. This was at the beginning of the epidemic when rules still allowed gatherings of a small number of people.
Tougher rules meant gatherings of any sort are not allowed so once again, creative thinking and a bit of technical know-how saw gigs being streamed from multi-channels. Musicians playing at different locations, solo but also together due to the power of the internet and tech tools. People could still watch and donate if they wanted - and many did - are and I am sure will do.
Some platforms offered to waive their fees on downloads - for a day, a week or longer. All the money paid went to the artists - a welcome generous act. Review sites featured artists with new releases for free, waiving advertising fees and including artists who had new releases they felt should be heard. There are initiatives supporting venues like The Vortex. An example is The Loop connection, who represent artists, who are offering downloads on Bandcamp with all revenue going to support venues - who, whilst generously supportive of musicians are now finding times really tough. That is just one initiative- there are many more spring up all the time.
Musicians themselves thought creatively as ever. Some musicians are now offering on-line music lessons or advice and there are blogs which have been set up where people can discuss concerts, recordings and contribute. There are live chats so people can remain connected to their favourite musicians too. What has happened is more people are involved with music than ever because anyone can join the forums and connect with musicians, discuss things, add their viewpoint, even share a cuppa virtually with musicians. Musicians are all home, and willing to share in creative activity. Radio shows are making broadcasts of a different nature. Jazzbites, the US jazz station, is creating hours of uplifting music, featuring musicians who are just starting out on their career to give them airplay at this difficult time and maybe help sales of their material.
Every creative is stepping up and it is proving positive and fruitful. The incomes generated will not replace the atmosphere and experience of live gigs; they will not pay rents or replace the chance to meet and greet people personally who come to your gigs but they provide interaction of a different kind, a way to support music and the musicians and a way to expand connections, think outside the box, be creative in many different ways.
Covid 19 - a particle no less - has done a huge amount of harm but it has also brought creative minds together to seek new ways of tackling the issues. Those initially despairing are now putting positive tweets and thanks up; those who knew nothing of the creative innovations are joining in, finding glimmers of hope or at least escape in the short term. There is such a sense of 'we are all in this together' . I am just one writer but my twitter feed alone (sammystein111 with just over 6k followers) is packed with people doing innovative, crazy, different things. Connecting, creating still in the face of this tiny, tiny monster we are facing.
What has happened is this crisis, more than anything before - the moans, the groans, the chest beating - has made people realise they value music and venues. They want the opportunities to see live acts there when we get through this. It may balance on a hair string and the venues may be surviving only just but they are surviving and the musicians are also hopefully still going to be there once this is over. It is heart warming to see what is happening - of course, the wish is it never had to - but the strength of support, the creative minds at work - is wonderful and there is much more to come, of that you can be completely sure.
We will get through this, we will survive and perhaps, once we are the other side, we will have discovered new connections and new ways of thinking which will strengthen and renew our arts and industry with a new passion. See you all on the other side.
