musicians woes CV19

[Deleted]

Please remove if not appropriate MM.
What are the self employed musos doing to to keep in business during these times?
What about the part timers like me? (I'm being cancelled for and considering cancelling gigs).
What about the venues / festival organisers? It might be catastrophic.
What if you've got tickets for an event - do you ask for a refund, or what's best?
TT

[coach]

Could be a good time to make that recording...
release as downloads for a modest fee to cover losses. This could be something venues and organisers could help with. We have the internet and the means to get this across - even live streaming. Just needs some positive thinking.

The outbreak is serious and everyone who can needs to limit travel and contact as much as possible. Yes this will mean financial damage to some but none of it is more important than people's lives.

[Deleted]

Just read the Artrix in Bromsgrove (where I've seen MM a couple of times) is shut for business.
TT

[Michael Messer]

It's fine TT, I was considering starting a thread about this too.

I have just cancelled my Spring/Summer tour for late May, all of June and early July. So like everyone in the entertainment business, it is going to hit very hard. In 40 years of touring I have never done anything like that before and it is most upsetting and distressing having to make that decision and then make those calls. The scary thing is that we don't know when we can start booking again and when we do there is going to be lot of people pushing to get the bookings, so it will be extremely competitive.

As well as musicians, I have friends that run recording studios that are going to be devastated by this situation and I don't know if or how they can be helped by their friends and clients.

My UK booking agent, in fact all my European agents too, have just had their lifelines/income cut off indefinitely and are desperately worried about how to continue.

My brother, David Messer, is a music promoter in London. As well as putting big shows on in the capital, he also occasionally books and promotes UK tours for artists that he works closely with. One such band is Toots & the Maytalls. David has just cancelled their UK tour, which is going to be a massive financial loss. He has cancelled shows at the Southbank Centre, Union Chapel, Dingwalls and many other venues. Last week, before all this really took hold, he lost a large chunk of money due to cancellations.

My other brother, Alan Messer, is a music photographer/designer. He works closely with musicians and record companies and has also just had his income stopped.

Yes... all three of those Messer boys are in the music business! ....or were :-(

I think it is time to work with the Internet in ways that have previously been unsuccessful, such as doing performances from home and asking people to pay to view. I also think that people can help musicians by buying their music - CDs and downloads. The problem with the Internet is that it has become an accepted thing not to pay for music.

Teaching is another way the Internet can work for us. I have successfully taught guitar students on Skype for quite a few years. Forum Member, Slide496 - Harriet, did regular lessons with me for two or three years.

Luckily, I have just started writing and working on an exciting new album project, so I can get my head down and into that, but we can't record together or release it until this is all over.

I think it is time for some creative thinking, but not to lower our standards and start doing things that we are not comfortable with.

Hmmmm....

Shine On
Michael

[washboardchris]

iit seems that promoters gigs ect cant claim on there insurance as the government only suggest that they cancel !!!

[stevie2sticks]

Difficult times.

"This too shall pass" as they say.

For me, I'm going to & do something positive, I've decided to try learning a song that's way above my current ability. It's a song from Eric Bibb's Guitar Songbook.

Stay well folk.

[leeophonic]

Once this passes there should be some sort of celebratory gig/concerts/street party/or online live thingy.

The definite to come out of this is the inspiration for new material.

Lee

[Michael Messer]

This is something that my website provider, Bandzoogle, has posted on its site. Some may be of interest and some not, but I think it may be worth a read.

Bandzoogle is a company that hosts websites for musicians. I have been with them for five years and I find them excellent.

The Copy&Paste may have jumbled a few parts, but you'll get the idea.



The situation around the coronavirus pandemic is changing by the hour, let alone by the day. First SXSW was canceled, and many other festivals and conferences followed suit. Then thousands of live events and tours were postponed through March.

As of March 15, the CDC is recommending that all live events with more than 50 people be canceled or postponed for the next eight weeks. This will have a huge impact on the smaller venues, clubs, and bars that are vitally important for performing artists and bands to earn an income.

Use your email list and social media to ask for help

Some music fans have the impression that all musicians are rock stars living out lavish lives. As you know, this is simply not the case for the overwhelming majority of artists who rely on regular gigs just to make ends meet.

So don’t assume fans know that you need support. There’s no shame in letting them know that this is a potential crisis for you and your financial well-being. Leverage the online tools you have to communicate that you need their support now more than ever.

Send a dedicated email blast with specific actions your fans can take to help you. (For Bandzoogle members reading this, don’t forget that your account comes with a built-in mailing list.) You should also take to social media to share the same information, and ask your fans to share your posts and help you spread the word.

Here are some of the best ways for fans to support musicians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Buy your music

If you have music for sale, whether it’s digital downloads or CDs, let your fans know where they can purchase it. Even if they prefer to stream music, they might still buy your music to support you.

You should also let them know that while streams and playlists are great, streaming revenue is measured in fractions of pennies and it takes a lot of time to accumulate to anything meaningful. Directly purchasing your music means much more money in your pocket — when you need it most.

Where should fans buy your music to maximize revenue?

Bandzoogle: If you have your website on Bandzoogle, you can sell your music with zero commission on music sales. The money goes from the fan’s account directly into the artist’s account, minus only the processing fees from PayPal or Stripe.

CD Baby: CD Baby’s retail store takes 9% of digital sales and $4 from CD sales (for fulfillment). Note: You can sell through CD Baby until the end of March, after which they’re retiring their retail store
Bandcamp: It’s free to set up an account, but they keep 15% of sales.

iTunes, Amazon, Google: These popular online retailers take a much higher percentage of music sales (iTunes take 30%), but may be the most comfortable option for your fans if they’re already used to buying from those stores.

Learn more: The complete guide to selling your music online
bandzoogle.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-selling-your-music-online

2. Use pay-what-you-want

When selling music on either Bandzoogle or Bandcamp, you can take advantage of “pay-what-you-want” pricing. So instead of selling individual tracks for $1 or albums for $10, you can set a minimum price and let fans know that they can pay as much as they want for your music.

This can be a great way to let fans support you even more while purchasing your music. When you set the price, that’s as much as you can get. But when you give fans the option to add more, there’s a good chance that you’ll make much more revenue, especially if your fans know that you need their support.

3. Buy your merch

Have any band merch in stock? Let your fans know that buying a T-shirt, poster, hat, or guitar pick would also really help out. You can sell merch directly through your website with Bandzoogle, and you can also sell merch through Bandcamp.

Note: You may want to give your fans a heads up to expect shipping delays due to the pandemic, but that you’ll get everything mailed out as soon as things are more under control.

4. Pre-order your album

If you were planning to release new music sometime this year, now might be a good time to launch the pre-order. Even if you don't have all of the tracks mapped out, you can create some artwork for the album and set up a pre-order campaign through your Bandzoogle website or Bandcamp. Just be sure to be honest about the timeline for the new music to be released, and explain why you’re launching the pre-order early.

5. Contribute to your crowdfunding campaign

If you want to take the pre-order strategy even further, consider planning out and launching an extended crowdfunding campaign. This way you can offer not only your music for pre-sale, but other deluxe packages and rewards for your fans.

You can now use Bandzoogle to run a crowdfunding campaign for your music, and all revenues are commission-free. Generic crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are also solid options, but you’ll need to factor in the percentage they take out from the money you raise (5% + processing fees).

6. Subscribe to your online fan club

An online fan club — where people pay a monthly fee in exchange for exclusive rewards and access to your music — is a great way to let fans support you on an ongoing basis. You can set up fan subscriptions directly through your website on Bandzoogle, and all the revenues are commission-free.

Here are some resources to help you get your fan club set up:

How to sell fan subscriptions on your music website

71 ways to reward your music fan subscribers
If you’re already using a service like Patreon, this is a great time to remind fans about the rewards you’re offering and encourage them to become a patron.

7. Make a donation through your website

We would normally steer musicians toward setting up a pre-order or crowdfunding campaign to give fans more options and context for giving, but under these circumstances, adding a donation button on your homepage definitely can’t hurt.

Include a message about any canceled shows, and that you likely won't be able to play gigs for the next few months. Be sure to emphasize that any amount helps if they’re able to donate.

Sell music, merch, and tickets, take direct donations, pledges for crowdfunding, and create monthly fan subscriptions from your website, all commission-free. Try Bandzoogle free for 30 days to build a website for your music.

8. Live stream concerts

Between tours getting canceled and local venues closing until further notice, many musicians are turning to live streaming shows from their homes and rehearsal spaces. It could be as simple as using Facebook Live or Instagram Live, then asking fans to make donations through your website, Venmo, or PayPal.

YouTube Live allows you to broadcast for free, but their terms of service seem to indicate that selling or monetizing live streams outside of YouTube is prohibited. (If anyone can provide more clarity about this, please leave a comment below.)

StageIt is a great choice if you’re looking to sell tickets and accept tips during your performance. (They also recently announced that they’re upping artist payouts to 80%.)

Consider looking into Twitch as well if you’re interested in streaming shows, rehearsals, songwriting sessions, Q&As, and more. Those live streams can be monetized through tips/donations, subscriptions, and even sponsorships.

If you plan on doing a lot of live streaming in the upcoming months, it might be worth investing in a paid platform that can give you more options, like selling tickets and putting the videos behind a paywall:

Zoom (free for 40 minutes up to 100 participants + paid options)
Crowdcast ($30/month)
Vimeo ($75/month)
Dacast (monthly or per-event pricing available)
BoxCast ($119/month)
Further live streaming resources

YouTube Live
The complete Facebook Live toolkit for musicians
Instagram Live for musicians
How musicians can use Twitch to build an audience
Twitch for musicians
Tips/donations: Venmo, PayPal.me
Live streaming on Bandzoogle

If you have fan subscriptions on your website (or plan to set it up soon), you might be looking to offer exclusive virtual concerts for your subscribers.

We’d recommend investing in a platform like Crowdcast or Vimeo, and embedding the live video stream on a paywall page. Just give your subscribers the link and let them know the date and time for the event.

If you aren’t using subscriptions, you could even use the Calendar feature to sell tickets commission-free to an online show, then send out the link to everyone who purchased a ticket.

9. Take online music lessons

If you feel comfortable teaching your musical skills online, offering lessons is a fun and unique way for fans to support you, while also getting something of tremendous value in return.

You can teach via Skype, Google Hangouts, or even offer group lessons using one of the paid streaming platforms we mentioned above. You can have people pay you for sessions directly through your website’s store or on PayPal.

Reach Summit - Bree Noble

Our friend Bree Noble of Female Entrepreneur Musician is very passionate about this potential revenue stream for artists, especially when it comes to earning passive income from online courses. She recommends checking out Reach Summit, a free online conference hosted by Teachable, where artists and creators learn how to put together an online course and monetize it.

Each day of the summit is tailored to different types of creators: content creators on March 24, freelancers and consultants on March 25, and coaches and tutors on March 26. You can register for free here.

Further resources:

10 ways to make more money selling music lessons on your website
How to build a music teacher website
Bonus: other ways to support

Countless industries and livelihoods are being affected right now, and the reality is that not all of your fans will have the capacity to support you financially during this pandemic.

Feel free to suggest small gestures like these that are still helpful, even just for boosting morale and showing solidarity with artists:

Play and share your music with their friends
Make a playlist of your music and share it with their friends
Add your music to their existing playlists
Play and share your videos with their friends
Like/follow/subscribe to all of your online profiles
Send an encouraging note to you and their other favorite artists
Credit to Kevin Breuner from CD Baby for many of the suggestions above!

Helpful resources for musicians

We want to thank our friends at Folk Alliance for sharing this list of resources for freelance artists dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and loss of revenues. Folk Alliance are also co-hosting a free webinar on March 18 called “We Are Stronger Together: Navigating Crises and Sustaining Healthy Relationships in the Era of Coronavirus”

Here’s a list of resources for Canadian musicians from the Unison Benevolent Fund in Canada.

Sound Royalties announced a new $20m fund from which music creators impacted by coronavirus can get no-fee royalty advances.

The Recording Academy and its charitable foundation MusiCares have established the COVID-19 Relief Fund

Some great advice in this post from Ari Herstand: 9 Things To Do Now That Your Gigs Are Cancelled Because of Coronavirus

Bandsintown post on communicating with fans about cancelled gigs: How To Keep In Touch With Fans During These Difficult Times

You also might find (or be reminded of) some creative ways to make money with our blog post, 26 ways musicians can make money.

Final thoughts

Hopefully all industries will be able to get back to some semblance of normalcy soon. We want nothing more than to see musicians back to packing venues to perform live for their fans. But in the meantime, we hope that all musicians stay safe, healthy, and are able to weather this storm with the help of friends, family, and their fans.

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[Deleted]

The following is the text of a message I received from Fred Oster / Vintage Instruments in Philadelphia. It has some good ideas.

Best to you all.

We are very much aware of the trauma caused to our friends, family, and clients, by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have been faced with professional cancellations, creating an extraordinary financial crisis. We've put our collective thinking to the task of coming up with some constructive ideas to offer. We send these out hoping that some may be helpful. If they are, please pass them along, and add any ideas that you have to share.
To all, we ask you to stay safe and healthy.



If your jobs have been cancelled, apply for unemployment compensation through your state. Every employer and ever state will have different eligibility rules; however, go ahead and apply.

If you enjoy teaching, look at some of the online platforms and put together video lessons that people can either subscribe to or take "a la carte". Keep in mind, there are plenty of people needing a distraction, and learning a new technique or new tunes could be very helpful. There are many sites online but here are a few to consider:
lessonface
livemusictutor
musikalessons
takelessons

Take care of your gear. Your instrument will benefit from a good spring cleaning. Empty the case, vacuum it out, and let it sit open in a sunny window for a long afternoon. Remove from your case the extraneous odds and ends that rattle around and might scratch your instrument. Clean your instrument!



Babysit. If you have a good relationship with families for whom you teach, and you are so inclined, offer babysitting services. This could be a big relief for families whose children are not in school.

Follow the example of the Italians and send your music out into the wind. Find a niche at an appropriate distance, an open window, your apartment lobby, wherever!... and share your music.

Musicians are typically multi-talented people with a diverse toolkit. Assess your skills and experience, then check out sites such as Fancy Hands or Rev that list job projects that can be done remotely, such as accounting, transcribing, writing, marketing, etc. Various tutoring services also offer virtual lessons. Check out websites such as:
Cambly
QKids
Tutor.com

[Deleted]

I'm now inundated with streaming videos, many of which are IMO not very good.
On top of that, a couple of isolation music groups I've been added to won't even play my videos - I think they are chancers and in due course the group name / purpose will change to some sort of bland advertising platform.
Anyway, I'm in the process of getting my Titchy Trailer Stage underway - 5x3ft trailer, with a welded cage of sorts to put a back and roof on. Lights and glitter balls etc too. Should be ready this week. I intend to park up and drag it into parks / market squares etc and play what I f'ing well like, and stream it.
TT

[Michael Messer]

TT, At the moment everybody is posting/streaming and as you say, a great deal of it is really not great. If someone that is a professional is going to stand in front of their phone, do their stuff and broadcast it to the world, they had better be good at it, because when they're not it really shows. However, as someone who doesn't post themselves performing on social media, I am not sure I have the right to criticise, because at least they're doing something and we can always scroll passed them.

The benchmark for this sort of thing has to be Larkin Poe, and the reason it works so well is because they are really good at what they do and don't require any trickery to get that across. In fact I far prefer their iPhone videos to their proper recordings.





Shine On
Michael

[bonzo]

That certainly cheered me up!
Never really watched them before, I will now!
Best wishes and good health to you all, John

[ken1953clark]

Got tickets to see them in May but...

[Kris]

Mar 20, 2020 13:14:57 GMT ken1953clark said:

Got tickets to see them in May but...

I hope this all lifts by then! Larkin Poe are fantastic live. Sigh....

[Michael Messer]

Mar 20, 2020 18:50:08 GMT Kris said:

Mar 20, 2020 13:14:57 GMT ken1953clark said:

Got tickets to see them in May but...

I hope this all lifts by then! Larkin Poe are fantastic live. Sigh....

Sadly, I don't see this lifting for quite a few months because everyone is cancelling from all sides. The world of live music is going to have a very difficult time and some will not be able to hold out, but I hope that after the darkness people will want to go out and that may give the industry a boost. There is no doubt this is going to have a dramatic affect on our industry. As it will for almost all others, but let's keep this on the subject of musicians woes

I can see a boom in solo recordings too. Social distancing and self isolation will push artists into doing projects on their own. Some will work together using the internet to send each other tracks, but many artists will just get creative on their own.

Two of my favourite multitrack solo recording projects, for completely reasons at opposite ends of the pole are these; Paul McCartney - That Would Be Something. Paul is in Scotland with a stereo Revox reel to reel and a couple of mics. This was an original way of working in the baby boomer world of 1970, it harked back to the 50s with Les Paul and Mary Ford and is stunning piece of work. Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground is an all-time classic. This 1973 recording is a solo artist's multitrack masterpiece in every way, even by today's standards and with all the technology available. It is superb.

Both artists are geniuses and both tracks are very cool indeed!





Not really off subject because it should inspire us all to start recording on our own which maybe a bit of an antidote to the musicians woes.

Shine On
Michael