How Musicians Are Responding to the Covid-19 Pandemic And How You Can Help Them

By Hollie McGowan

Amid the global pandemic, artists around the world are feeling the pinch resulting from the coronavirus. With show and festival cancellations happening left, right, and center, musicians who rely on these events to fuel their income are left not knowing when the next opportunity will be. 

There are, however, ways in which you can help artists through these difficult times. As the world bands together to fight the virus and offer support to those in need, Bandcamp is forgoing their revenue share on all sales tomorrow (Friday, March 20th from midnight to midnight PDT, 3 a.m. to 3 a.m. EDT). On their company website, co-founder and CEO, Ethan Diamond, stated this:  

“To raise even more awareness around the pandemic’s impact on musicians everywhere, we’re waiving our revenue share on sales this Friday, March 20 (from midnight to midnight Pacific Time), and rallying the Bandcamp community to put much needed money directly into artists’ pockets.”

In addition to Bandcamp’s generous incentive, fans can also support artists by going directly to their websites where music and merchandise is sold online. Patreon, GoFundMe and other online crowdfunding campaign platforms also continue to be great ways to support artists via virtual means. Resident Advisor has also put together a useful list that will remain an ongoing updated source to help artists in need, assisting those from London to Italy to San Francisco.   

And while you find yourself cooped up in your home on lockdown, there are many opportunities to continue watching your favourite artists and donating money to their causes from around the globe. From electronic to folk to opera, musicians across all genres of music are live streaming shows and sets for your listening pleasure. Notable Canadian performers such as Jann Arden and Neil Young have gone live this week from their own homes, and the VSO has also provided symphony aficionados with virtual concerts. Artists such as The Black Madonna and Addison Groove have been live today (March  19th) via Facebook and youtube. Boiler Room has been “Streaming From Isolation” consistently, providing those who have been tuning into their channel with links on how to continue supporting the global artist community and others during these trying times. 

Looking ahead this weekend, Billboard has just launched its Billboard Live At-Home series with great suggestions of other virtual shows to catch over the course of this indefinite lockdown. New York club Nowadays will also be hosting live-streamed “virtual parties”. Plus, an entire festival devoted to “social distancing” entitled none other than the Social Distancing Festival is already underway and working to support artists across a variety of performance mediums. 

For artists stuck at home looking to make this time useful yet cost-efficient, Moog and Korg have also made their synth apps free to help make things more accessible to those who are losing funds. You can currently find Moog’s Minimoog Model D iOs synth available on the Apple App Store. In addition, Korg is also offering its Kaossilator apps for free. Both Moog and Korg are only offering these for limited times, so act quickly!

When the going gets tough, the tough get going! We are all in this together, so let us unify in support of art, music, and culture. For without these creative souls, life would be but a blank canvas void of colour.