“The losses are incalculable”: COVID’s Australian music songs have succeeded | Arts and Culture News

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Melbourne, Australia – Peter Noble remembers the time when he had to close his music festival a few hours before it was to open.

“It was a situation of trauma and terror, not just for me, but for my whole team,” he told Al Jazeera.

Noble is the director of Bluesfest, an annual Australian music festival that has seen stars such as James Brown, BB King and Norah Jones perform on stage.

Held in the popular coastal tourist destination of Byron Bay, north of New South Wales, the award-winning Bluesfest attracts close to 25,000 people to the region, generating millions for the local economy.

However, the effect of COVID-19 caused the festival to be closed by Australian health authorities the night before the inauguration, based on a single case in the region.

Peter Noble had to cancel this year’s Bluesfest the night before it started [Courtesy of Peter Noble/Bluesfest]

“We were ready to go and we were in discussions until the night before the cancellation by public health order,” Noble said. “I still shake my head and say,‘ He did this line of action, was it the only one available?

“Not only were we closed, but our whole region was closed for up to an hour by car. The losses are incalculable. It’s not just the millions of dollars we fell and lost, it’s the tens of millions of dollars that our region lost by not being able to operate completely. “

The 2021 cancellation earlier this year came after the cancellation of last year’s event. In 2020 they were warned three weeks in advance.

The cancellation of music events due to the coronavirus has severely affected the Australian music industry.

Not only have major festivals like Bluesfest been closed, smaller pub concerts have had to be closed, tours have been canceled and the ability to rehearse and record has even been restricted due to the blockages in progress.

Economic modeling by consulting firm PwC Australia indicates that the Australian music industry was worth A $ 1.82 million ($ 1.36 million) in 2019, a figure that is expected to fall to 90% by 2020.

Stalwarts of the Australian music scene You Am I saw their 32-year-old march halt almost in March 2020 as a result of the pandemic.

The band members live in different Australian states and, due to travel restrictions, even had to record their new album remotely.

“We just had to adapt,” he told bassist and director Andy Kent to Al Jazeera. “We managed to make a record somehow when we weren’t even in the same state.”

The Australian music industry has traditionally relied on touring and live performances to generate revenue and for artists to gain exposure.

You Am I, who started playing together in 1989, understands very well the importance of live performance for new and emerging groups.

“If you have 2,000 people in a room, your business [merchandise] sales will increase, “Kent said.” And if you do a lot of touring, there are a lot of people who are interested in you, and so your profile increases and there will be more chances to play on the radio or record sales will increase. “

You Am I managed to record a new album even though they were all in different states of Australia and were not able to travel across borders [Courtesy of You Am I]

Kent tells Al Jazeera that while You Am I was lucky enough to have over 30 years of experience and a solid fan base to take advantage of, the lack of touring and performance opportunities creates a challenge. huge for new and emerging groups.

“This core that plays in front of that amount of people is very important to the music business and to these touring bands,” he said.

Publishing online

Still, emerging indigenous soul singer Kee’ahn faced the challenge, releasing her single debut Better Things in mid-2020.

With his hometown, Melbourne, in the middle of a blockade of months, Kee’ahn considered it the right time to release the song.

“I was like, I’m really looking forward to posting this song because I love it and I think it can be useful during this stage of everything,” Kee’ahn told Al Jazeera.

With no opportunity to perform live or tour to support the release of Better Things, the song still attracted only the online release of the radio release and even won an award at the 2020 National Indigenous Music Awards .

“Everyone was online [due to the lockdown] so it exploded that way, ”Kee’ahn said.

The singer, whose name means “dance, sing and play” in her family’s indigenous Wik language, says the blockchain has opened up online opportunities that many musicians may not have considered before.

“Personally, I’m very interested [in how] Tik Tok and Instagram have influenced the way music and [how] artists can take advantage of the flows and start a musical career without actually doing any live concerts, ”he said.

“I really like the online space that is performed live at Zoom and IG. The younger generation can adapt to the online space. I’m not saying the older generation can’t, but I think it’s easier [for young people]”.

Kee’ahn wants to explore the opportunities offered by live streaming on social media platforms [Ali MC/Al Jazeera]

However, despite the opportunities for online engagement, Kee’ahn also acknowledges the limitations.

“It’s not the same to do it online using Zoom,” he said. “But it stands out how the most accessible music can be online for people who can’t go in person [still] I think live music is really important. “

Noble remains adamant that Australia’s live music industry needs to be supported.

“Because I don’t want this to be the end of the big live music events in Australia,” he said. “I see people resorting to streaming events and that really worries me.”

Musicians and artists were able to access the Australian government workers ’bonus, a minimum wage welfare system designed to help workers who became unemployed due to the consequences of COVID-19.

However, access to Jobkeeper is now over and, although the government has pledged an additional A $ 135 million ($ xxxxm) to support the industry, this falls well below the nearly A $ 2 billion ($ xxxxxm) generated annually.

Noble says live music, in particular, is vital, not only for the concert experience for the audience, but also for the revenue it generates for the musicians.

“Because CD profits basically went to zero and streaming is zero, the music industry relies on live performance to make its revenue,” Noble said.

“And now I’m starting to see broadcast events replacing live music events. I can guarantee you that the artists’ payments are not the same or close to what artists are paid for live performances ”.

Noble says the Australian government should support the music industry in the same way it has supported the return of sports.

Tens of thousands of people can now attend sporting events and an Olympic team has been sent to Tokyo, although Australia has some of the most draconian travel restrictions in the world as a result of COVID-19, to the point that not even only citizens have been unable to return home.

Peter Noble hopes the Bluesfest can end ahead in October with a fully Australian line-up [File: Torsten Blackwood/AFP]

However, strict social distancing measures have drastically reduced the capacity of live music venues and even enacted laws banning dancing.

“There’s a joke around the industry that all musicians should run on stage with a football jumper and throw a ball to the audience and we won’t be canceled,” Noble said. “But there’s a lot of truth in this joke.”

Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, Noble is organizing the Bluesfest for the third time.

Now, which will be held in October with a fully Australian line-up, he says it was “very difficult to get up and off the carpet”.

The festival – and live music – can be tried even harder.

COVID-19 is back to do an encore and Sydney is stuck in the middle of a new outbreak driven by the more transmissible Delta variant.





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