On the 23rd of March 2020, life changed for every single person in the United Kingdom. It was on this day that the Prime Minister gave a pre-recorded television address giving the nation “one simple instruction – you must stay at home”.
While it is impossible to overstate the devastating economic impact the Covid-19 crisis has had worldwide, the music industry and live events business have unarguably been two of the hardest hit.
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected live music and events in an unprecedented way. Weddings have been cancelled or rearranged. Mass gatherings (like concerts and gigs) were banned.
As of writing, neither industry is even close to achieving full recovery. However, it is often the worst of circumstances that forces innovation, and there is no group more creative than musicians.
From live-streamed gigs, to remote sessions, musicians have been coming up with various work-arounds and innovative solutions.
In this blog, we’ll attempt to compile a selection of experiences on how the pandemic has affected your work as a musician.
Personal Stories
Daniel J Logan
Producer, Sound Designer and Session Percussionist
I was literally in a meeting with a session player friend of mine; planning our work together for 2020, when the news came through. Lockdown across the UK and, in an instant, the closure of venues, theatres, recording studios and anywhere else that we’d hoped to earn our living in the coming months. Like that, the meeting was over.
To be honest, the first 3 weeks or so were bliss – I’d just finished recording 3 albums, all of which now needed mixing, so I was left in splendid isolation to get on with my work without interruption or distraction. However, after those projects finished, the impact of no one being able to work began to hit. My phone fell silent and my email inbox only presented me with discounted software deals.
As a full-time producer, sound designer and musician, the world was very much against me. I was able to keep one solitary drum student on my books via Zoom.
Daniel J Logan
I did find some success by starting an online recording/mixing course; embracing the fact that no one could get into a recording studio, even if they wanted to. With the partial lifting of lockdown I have, in recent weeks, had a few tentative studio sessions, even if they have mostly been short and with solo performers. I have some new projects booked in to start soon, but I’m very much hoping new restrictions don’t come into force before they begin
Cat Hanson
Freelance Saxophonist
I’m a saxophonist who usually gigs 2/3 times a week at weddings with DJs and bands, and I also dep on tours around the UK for various George Michael tribute acts. I’d had the busiest January, February and March, and this year was set to be a great one for my income. I had gigs in Italy, Spain and the Maldives all booked, but are now cancelled or postponed until another time. Luckily, I manage part of the Blue Lion Band, so rearranging weddings and parties for clients kept me busy, and the admin fee I got from that kept me going for food and bills. My landlord was kind enough to let me off rent for 2 months, as long as I paid him back eventually (which I did!).
I was also fortunate enough to get some money through the SEISS scheme, but because I haven’t been fully self-employed for enough years, and so I only received about 40% of my usual income. I teach at Macclesfield Music Centre on a Saturday morning, so a handful of my students were prepared to learn with me online. After a little while, I started to realise that the pandemic wasn’t going away anytime soon. Since then, I’ve been in the frame of mind to say yes to anything really! I was commissioned to do a huge project for my music centre. It involved arranging the music, creating an instructional video, and editing footage of around 80 musicians.
I feel like I’ve learnt a lot from the pandemic. Things like; how to interview people, edit video, record myself properly and (most importantly) I’ve figured out what I need to stay healthy, both mentally and physically.
As for the next 6 months? I’m going to have to figure out what to do. I may have to have a big push for more online teaching, or I could get a bar job. Maybe I’ll be creative and find another business venture, so I can do it alongside my music when everything gets going again!
@saxophonique
Gary Edward Jones
Performer and Co-Producer of Something About Simon
I perform in, and co-produce, a theatre show about the life of Paul Simon. We’re a small production that got together relatively recently. However, we’d had a great 2019! We’d done several shows around the UK, culminating in a successful 30-date run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. While there, we were selected to perform at a fantastic venue in New York City, USA. We performed a successful two week run, and we had a lot of momentum running into the start of 2020. We tried to capitalise on this with a short tour of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland at the start of the year.
Then the pandemic hit. Virtually every booking we had got cancelled, or moved later into the year. We were due to spend two months in New York this year, in an off-broadway venue residency. We were also in discussions for a short tour in the Netherlands, sadly also postponed. While we have recovered a few socially distanced shows post-lockdown, Covid-19 has set our plans back by at least a year, possibly more.The pandemic has had terrible repercussions for both the live music and theatre industries. I believe it is clear both require more support moving forward.
The Paul Simon Story
Jon Fellowes
Session Musician, Producer and Music Journalist
My current situation is, perhaps, the best summary of how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected my professional life. Right now, I’m supposed to be sat in New York City, producing an off-Broadway show about the life of a music icon, Whiskey Sour in hand. Instead, I’m sat at home in the North-West of England, in my office/ studio space, with a cup of tea.
After years of playing in bands, I took a bit of a step back from playing live towards the tail end of 2019, which probably proved to be a good decision. I focused more on session playing, music journalism and producing, while still playing the odd dep gig. At the onset of the pandemic, I was quite surprised to see what work continued and what did not.
Obviously, the ban on mass gatherings has hit the theatre industry hard, and the shows that my theatre production had been planning for the latter part of this year were virtually all cancelled or postponed. This was a huge blow to us, as we were hoping to capitalise on a very successful 2019 and a promising start to touring in 2020.
I’d assumed that, work that took place entirely online and from home, music journalism would continue. However, many large music industry companies no longer had the budget to commission articles and blogs. On the flip side of that, I’d assumed that all studio work would be put on hold, but several remote recording jobs were still coming through.
I was even able to focus some time on composition, learning much more about recording at home. In summary; I’ve managed to stay productive, but Covid has set my career timetable back by at least a year, probably more.
Jon Fellowes
Tom Kinton
Professional musician. Member of The Pedal Tones.
As a regularly gigging musician, I’ve been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The weekend lockdown came into effect, I was due to have 4 gigs alone! I also run a wedding band (The Pedal Tones) and we went from having over 50 weddings booked in (along with a lot of public/festival dates) this year to nothing, within the space of a few weeks.
Obviously, this had a severe impact on my income during what is usually the busiest and most important of a gigging musician’s year – the months of April, May and June.
Luckily when the lockdown restrictions were lifted slightly, I was fortunate enough to be able to get out and play a lot of private parties and events in gardens, including for some famous ex-England football players!
Tom Kinton – The Pedal Tones
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Loading ...Four ideas for alternative work during Covid
1. Make money from teaching online
Technology has meant that teaching has continued solidly throughout the past months. Consider signing up for a site like Music Tutors Online to get some new online students.
2. Sell your sheet music arrangements on Score Exchange
If you’ve composed or arranged music in the past then you might be sitting on a gold mine! Sites like Score Exchange allow musicians to sell their digital compositions, arrangements and more online. If you’ve used Sibelius it might be even easier as you can just hit the “export to score exchange” button directly in the software.
3. Improve your online presence
Gigs might be few and far between at the moment but it could be a great time to record some new demos or get some new photos. Even just giving your repertoire list a quick spruce up can help attract more future gigs.
Also, consider signing up to Gig Heaven or Last Minute Musicians. Gig Heaven is a brand new platform which is completely free to join!
4. Offer sessions online
The online recording industry has grown massively since the first lockdown. It’s a great time to invest in a small home recording setup and advertising yourself for paid sessions.
Related resources
- The Musicians Union coronavirus advice page
- NHS Coronavirus guidance
- Government guidance on social distancing and staying safe
- The Guardian – ‘Third of British musicians may quit industry amid pandemic’
- Music Tutors Online – Teach music lessons over skype and zoom
- Music Tutors Online – How to configure your online teaching setup
- Gig Heaven – Free International Event Suppliers’ Directory
- Sell your compositions and arrangements at Score Exchange
How has your experience been during the past few months?
Let us know by adding a comment below. Take care and stay safe!
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