Music in a Post-Pandemic World
When you hear music, after it's over, it's gone in the air. You can never capture it again.
—Eric Dolphy (said to an audience at a concert in Germany in early 1960s)
As we enter the uncharted waters of a post-pandemic world, Eric Dolphy’s words about music performed live and in concert seem part of a distant past. Playing for people in a live performance is the way musicians have always connected to their fellow musicians and their audience. The energy of a live performance creates something magical for the audience, a connection that is fundamentally different from listening to a recording. The special feeling of sitting together in a concert hall sharing an ephemeral communal experience at a concert, dance performance or theater piece with 1,000 other people now feels almost nostalgic. For the musicians, there is an added loss. The immediate feedback from a live audience is how musicians hone their craft, how they get better at what they do. Without an audience, this opportunity for immediate feedback is gone.
The move to more online content was well underway before COVID-19. But now that performing venues are shut down for the foreseeable future, this has become the norm. The transition to musical events which are not live has accelerated so rapidly, that we are struggling to comprehend this sea change as it occurs in real time.
The transformation of the musical landscape will accelerate in ways that are difficult to anticipate. What does this mean for music production, performance and creativity? What does a musical career now mean for the professional musician and aspirants? Finally, what are the implications for the schools that prepare musicians and the venues where they used to perform?
There were growing problems before. In the good old days prior to 2020, which were not good at all, the ‘serious” music world was on one hand stuck in the mud of dull unimaginative programming and on the other the dismally low pay for musicians in the gig economy. A harbinger of bad times to come was the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) announcement that its pension fund was inching ever closer to insolvency.
I think it is almost inevitable that musicians in 2021 and going forward will have an even harder time finding their way [to making music? Earning a living?] in a world with a diminishing number of performance venues and, in general, options for performing. Musicians will be much more reliant on online platforms to share their art, but the opportunities for earning are greatly diminished. Platforms like Instagram, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, and Pandora give away musician’s content virtually for free. Large platforms make their money in advertising. Musicians supply the content to these platforms but are not part of their economic model—they have been disenfranchised.
This is catastrophic.
For now, Covid-19 has inspired musicians to give away their music, their information for free. They are so desperate to perform that they donate the fruits of their labors to help heal the sick, soothe the quarantined, and generally let everyone know, “Look I’m still here!” But this is not sustainable, nor should it be.
Making information free is survivable so long as only limited numbers of people are disenfranchised. As much as it pains me to say so, we can survive if we only destroy the middle classes of musicians, journalists, and photographers. What is not survivable is the additional destruction of the middle classes in transportation, manufacturing, energy, office work, education, and health care. And all that destruction will come surely enough if the dominant idea of an information economy isn’t improved.
—Jaron Lanier
Lanier, pre-plague, has identified the “essential” workers as the people who keep things going. Most are the lowest paid members of the workforce. Musicians, performers, writers, journalists are deemed unnecessary no matter how many poems and heartfelt essays are written that extol the myriad benefits of art and the religious, spiritual essence that music brings to the world. All true, it could be argued, but we just don’t need as many people to tend this flock. A few high priests and priestesses will do just fine.
Even the “Cadillac” arts institutions are struggling. The largest musical institution in the world, the Metropolitan Opera has released all of its employees. Smaller orchestras, and ballet and theater companies are in tough shape. Post-pandemic, it is not that far-fetched to imagine that orchestras could become the proprietary property of the new “royalty”—Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc.—if a savvy classical music entrepreneur could convince these mega-rich companies to sponsor their own orchestra.
Unusual musical combinations will abound as creative solutions for remaining relevant and solvent. Grand opera could even morph into animated feature films. Holographic opera will be possible in the not too distant future.
Established performers and teachers are giving masterclasses and Zoom lessons non-stop to try to eke out a few dollars to keep their heads above water as all concerts and performances are canceled for the foreseeable future.
Music schools, pre-pandemic, had increasingly come to rely on foreign students for revenue. This is not feasible now, nor a likely option post-pandemic. In the near term, as well, these schools need live rehearsals and performances to justify their existence. Without a live component they are in jeopardy of closing permanently.
Smaller venues that had offered opportunities for live (paid) musical performances are suffering as well. Restaurants that have hosted live music struggle. Many will cease to exist.
No one really knows what is coming or what to do about the abrupt termination of the musician’s livelihood. In America, political stalemate makes desperately needed financial help for struggling artists unlikely. They have been deemed non-essential. Sad but true.
And imagine the explosion of talented musicians hitting the streets post-plague, all trying to reassemble what is left of their careers. For those just starting out on a career in music, perhaps the plague is good in the sense that it somewhat levels the playing field because post-plague everyone is essentially back to square one. The number of musicians who are needed in the music business will have declined precipitously. That doesn’t mean the number of musicians in total will decline, only the ones who can support themselves through performing.
Some have learned to pivot in this new order. Many musicians are trying to monetize their careers by becoming entrepreneurs. They are establishing their own production companies, often a company of one person—themselves—to produce and disseminate their musical output. In the good old days record companies aggregated, distributed, and promoted musical artists they signed to their label. Those days are almost entirely gone. It is left to the artist, now essentially an army of one, to do what was done for them in the good old days.
A niche of the recording industry is growing very fast. I know a number of successful studio musicians who are recording in their home. Not one part but all the parts in an arrangement or composition. One trumpet player can record all the section parts, eliminating employment for two thirds of studio musicians. I spoke to one musician who recorded three trumpets and eight horn parts at his home studio. This had been happening prior to the plague, but the plague has accelerated this trend on steroids.
So we are all left to doing online performances, which by their very nature, accustom people to fragmentary, impersonal communication. When the interaction between performer and live audience is fractured and replaced by edited sterile forms of communicating musical information, we are diminishing music’s essential values of truth and beauty. It makes these virtues an engine of advertising. Advertising has never been about truth and beauty; it’s about deception and manipulation.
We are looking at a world where some large arts organizations will disappear and some music schools will close. The number of young people interested in pursuing a career in music and the arts will probably not diminish much, but they will not be able to count on large institutions to counsel them and help nurture their careers. I believe that music and art schools must take up the difficult job of training students to deal with the realities of a new musical universe.
Educational institutions are trying to help students navigate the new musical landscape by offering courses, and even degrees at a few places, in “musical entrepreneurship.” These programs teach students to build a good website, write an attractive CV, and direct their focus a bit toward raising money and attracting their friends and colleagues to produce a musical product and distribution models which could be profitable. In order to survive the new musical landscape, musicians will need to be able to monetize their ideas.
It is not easy for musicians to broaden their focus and adapt to thinking of themselves as businesspeople in addition the very difficult task of becoming great instrumentalists and versatile, well-rounded artists. But hopefully, the young people forging ahead in a life in music will be up to the challenge.
I humbly offer a few suggestions for those intrepid artists who will always carry on:
Don’t be safe with your art! Classical arts are far safer than broadcast TV. Be intrepid. Seek musical collaborations which push you out of your comfort zone. There are many like-minded musicians out there. Find them. Think of ways to promote and your creative ideas into money-making work.
Don’t be afraid to bring irreverence to your music. We are entering an era where different instrumentations, unusual arrangements, playing music at outrageously different tempi could yield very interesting art as long as you are being true to yourself! But remember that gimmickry can be helpful but it will take a musician only so far.
Make art that exudes agency, that has purpose, that is honest, since it is impossible to compete with the production values of Netflix in your living room. Productions values, while important, are not nearly as important as providing good content.
Make art that is aware of and responsive to social movements. For example, who gets to become an old person has become a political issue. What is your reaction to this development? Angry, sad, introspective, radicalized? Will your post-pandemic music be a celebration of the passing of this plague, a solemn remembrance of the horrors, anger at the lost time, or just a return to the way music used to be—another Mozart symphony or Beethoven string quartet? No right answer. Everyone will react differently.
Established musicians and those in a position to do so: Do everything you can to nurture younger artists and get them paid! Do whatever you can to open revenue streams so that all artists can survive.
Invest in a decent home recording setup if you can afford it. Think of doing so as investing in a new instrument.
Expand your skills. Learn a new instrument. Become completely conversant with the program “Logic” or a facsimile of “Logic.”
Get out of the old and into the new. Crisis is where creativity is born.
When a covid-19 vaccine is widely available and people feel safe congregating in large numbers, concerts will enjoy a glorious renaissance for a time. Musicians will be in demand. Be ready! Keep practicing!