Independent Artists in The Covid Era

By Daniel Scochemaro

The life of an independent musician in a year like 2020 is beyond difficult with months of quarantine, keeping everyone inside. The closing of venues, and cancellation of tours has slowed down a lot of the cashflow for a majority of artists. Most musicians, but more importantly, independent musicians, depend on this to live comfortably. Not only is comfortability the issue, but musicians can’t reach as many new fans as they would like to without being able to perform live music.

I had the chance to interview one artist in particular by the name of, “Juto”. Juto is an independent artist that resides in Los Angeles, and he is one of the many artists that have been put on hold, due to quarantine.

“I have garnered a good amount of cashflow from streams,” Juto said, “but not being able to do live shows does have a huge impact on me, especially since I don’t get to connect with fans the same way.”

Juto was just getting started in his career as an established artist, performing at a festival, and opening for legends like, Ms. Lauryn Hill. The unfortunate reality of quarantine has put all future plans on hold for artists in a position similar to Juto.

The absence of live shows has a great effect on artists who practically lived off of it before the pandemic. According to an article by Our Culture Mag, 17 percent of independent artists were able to pay rent off of the money earned from live shows. Covid has put a majority of artists in a place of hardship with great fear of what’s to come next.

Credit: https://ourculturemag.com/2020/05/26/how-the-covid-19-crisis-is-affecting-independent-musicians/

In the streaming age, one might think that something like live shows, or physical sales don’t mean much; however, to independent artists, it means quite a bit. Artists need to live off of CD/Vinyl sales, believe it or not. Artists not being able to properly roll out an album release greatly affects the cashflow. Not being able to perform also affects the artists ability to keep going, since that’s the only real chance to connect with fans.

Japanese singer-songwriter, Haru Nemuri, says, “I’m suffering mentally in particular ’cause when I can truly feel alive is only during my gigs.” Nemuri is one of many artists who are mentally impacted from not being able to physically connect with fans.

Overall, this year has been tough for all walks of life, but it has further emphasized the importance of the self-employed population, such as independent artists. Hopefully in the future, there will be more outlets for careers such as independent musicians for times like this when money is harder to come by.