We are all homies now
We have been deeply impressed by the explosion of creativity that this crisis has sparked, and by the empathy and willingness to share displayed by millions of people every day. We are also touched by the rapid mobilisation of both music industry institutions and privately-owned entertainment companies in order to help artists, venues, clubs and bars - as well as all the people who work in them - whose income has mostly or entirely disappeared due to the pandemic.
Searching for the positives in this situation, we love the fact that so many people are seizing the opportunity to do things differently, creatively and in a more caring and sustainable way. These include attending online social events, shows and festivals, a trend born of our current reality that may point to an emerging part of the shape of our collective future.
At the moment our team is busy preparing ADE's 2020 edition, and we are committed to celebrating our 25th anniversary in October with you. In the meantime, we’ve put together some interesting, fun and useful pointers and links, which we hope will help you get through this exceptional situation…enjoy!
The Rough Guide to Staying at Home
If you’re in the mood for a bit of self-improvement, whether it’s as a musician, a working professional, or even as an individual who wants to set up a live stream correctly, we have the links you need. Crack Magazine put together a concise list of resources for musicians with artist advice, a livestreaming guide, a showcase for artists who lost gigs and more. 3voor12 (Dutch) teaches you how to livestream in six steps, and this link (French) from Trax Magazine, details the Minimoog Model D et Kaossilator plug-ins being offered for free.
If you feel the need to up your game in the office, this blog on Soundcloud features career advice from the platform’s artistic team. For anyone interested in the business of composing music, Rick Beato’s ‘What Makes This Song Great’ is essential viewing. His passionate dissections of 80+ classic tracks lay bare exactly why they are so successful, and notably his expert deconstruction of The Chainsmokers’ 2016 hit Closer and Stevie Wonder’s 1970s classic Superstition provide useful pointers for anyone working in the dance genre about what works and why.
If you like to work with music playing, or if your daily activities could simply be enhanced by a bit of rhythm, Deezer hosts a plethora of Stay At Home playlists and shares ‘at home with Deezer’ highlights daily. Boiler Room’s COVID playlist, Clubbing TV’s StayHome playlist, Defected’s Virtual Festival, and this virtual festival featuring Armin, Major Lazer and Martin Garrix are all excellent. Desperados powers Elrow’s Home Sessions, hosting a livestream every Sunday, and for people looking for something musically more relaxed, DJ Mag and Subbacultcha have all put together compilations for the days inside.
Running out of stuff to read? Mixmag has compiled a list of essential books on dance music, and Faze Magazine (German) has also made a list of 13 books about techno. The question of how to usefully fill your time is, of course, on everyone’s mind right now, but for artists who have no shows, it’s a particularly acute challenge. This helpful feature (Dutch) offers twelve tips for artist survival, and if you’re seeking inspiration from great acts in their prime, this Billboard list of music concert movies is updated every day.
More help for artists comes from SoundCloud partnering with Twitch to enable all SoundCloud Pro, SoundCloud Premier and Repost by SoundCloud creators to start earning money from their Twitch streams by fast-tracking Affiliate status. The aim is to help musicians keep their career on track by giving them exposure to Twitch’s vast audience. And if you’ve absolutely had it with scary news stories, MusicAlly is publishing daily positive news bulletins here.
Initiatives around the globe
For those of us whose income has been negatively impacted, there are a number of extremely helpful initiatives now launched by music industry institutions. Spotify has created a fund of up to $10 million for artists and members of the music community, and is also exploring ways to allow artists to raise money directly from fans on Spotify For Artists. Dutch PRO Buma/Stemra has made €2,750,000 available for emergencies and is also supporting artists by paying out copyright funds early, meaning approximately €90 million will be paid out to rights holders months earlier than planned.
German PRO GEMA has created an emergency fund for those affected worth up to $43 million, the UK’s PRS has launched a £1K per writer for PRS’ songwriters, and UK charity Help Musicians has launched a £5 million hardship fund aimed at alleviating some of the financial pressures caused by the pandemic. The Association for Electronic Music (AFEM) and Beatport have launched a fund to support the at-risk workers hit hardest financially by the COVID-19 impact for AFEM member companies. Anyone wishing to make a contribution can do so here.
Furthermore, European festival organisation Yourope, which unites 90 large-scale live events, has launched the Festivals Stand United Across Europe initiative. You can read their mission statement here. And finally for now, Resident Advisor launched the Save Our Scene campaign, calling on collective action from the electronic music community to save our scene. Their open letter has been signed by over 4,000 people globally, you can read and sign it here.