We have been trying to stick to the music and avoid this Coronavirus pandemic here, but keep hearing stories from artists on the effect it has been having on the independent music scene now and wanted to give our input on that real quick. It’s impossible to avoid at this point, pretty much world wide, and not a ton of facts are known about it all yet. However, what is known, is that it’s been shutting down the entertainment industry pretty hard. While the major labels and bands will be just fine, what we’re worried about is the effect this will have on the independent music scene. The emerging artists that are trying to live off their music, and a large piece of the pie in their income is the live shows they perform, which now, are being canceled due to this. One of the first things to cancel was the very famous SXSW, which is a huge deal in the music industry. Many other festivals have been canceled as well, such as Coachela, most tours are canceled, and a lot of shows are day to day right now.

We want to make it clear that we do understand that the main goal is to just stop this virus in its tracks, so we can get things back to normal as soon as possible. But while we all mourn the loss of our favorite sports, band tours and toilet paper in the stores, please keep in mind the local indie musicians are hurting too.

How can we continue to support them now?

If their shows are still on, you’re healthy and feel safe, please go and support them when you can. If you’re not able to and they’re canceled, please consider supporting your favorite local musicians another way. Such as buying their albums or merch, or even something as small as following their social media pages and sharing their music on your pages.

With so many unknowns with this new COVID-19 scare, and so many people stuck home right now with no entertainment to enjoy, music can be a huge relief. Try to take a break from the 24 hour news cycles and go find some new music to enjoy. Check out our Spotify/YouTube playlists below or any number of our other playlists, follow and share the songs you like! Look around our magazine for other artists and give some love to the ones you enjoy.

It’s going to be a little weird for a little while here while this thing passes, but stay calm and support these artists that live and dream to entertain us. They just want to bring some joy to this world, and we appreciate it. Before you know it, we will all be able to go and jam out to our favorite bands again like normal!

A quote from an artist affected

“I don’t consider myself qualified to give advice on how to react to, or handle, this virus. All I know is that from my personal perspective, as someone who depends on music and art to support myself, I’m seeing a lot of my peers struggling as these conventions and festivals continue to postpone and cancel their events. Merchandise often accounts for the majority of our incomes. I’ve seen a lot of my artistic friends switching their focus to online avenues. If you can spare the 99 cents it takes to download a song as opposed to streaming it, I’d say now is the time we could all use it most. If not, we appreciate the streams too, anything to keep something trickling in as we figure out our next moves. For artists who create things other than music, check out their pages on Etsy, Amazon, their personal websites. These vendors are all in the same boat as us musicians when it comes to losing revenue. Support eachother. Like and share. The same as it always should be, but with a more dire need.” – Andrew David Weber (click to download latest single) / Independent Artist