What is it like being a musician during COVID-19?

I'm a musician of 15 years and for the first time in my life I recently had a thought I would never think of having..and that is, should I continue doing music? Making music for a living has always been difficult. There has never been one way of making an income - it's a combination of playing live shows, fans buying your merchandise or music online, selling your songs- but losing the income completely from live shows being cancelled has affected me substantially. I released an album this past summer and had to work 10x harder promoting it than I usually would. In my career, I have gained the majority of my fans from live shows. With that gone, I had to spend nearly hours a day on social media and emailing press companies searching for music promotion to make money from the new release. Everything I knew and worked with for 15 years had been turned upside down and now I am forced to learn new ways to make money with music, solely with the internet.

Many artists today make money online by purchased downloaded copies, or by number of streams. To make people find your music without seeing you play live, you almost have to search your fans out yourself. Instagram has been my main platform of which I have gained fans. I search deeply through hashtags finding other musicians or artists with the same interests as me. I will reach out to them with a message asking them to check out my music, or just get their attention by hitting the 'follow' button.

Another way I have made money recently is by still playing gigs...but just on the internet. I have livestreamed gigs from Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube. There, you can set up donate links or have fans pay a small price to watch the livestream. It's not quite the same as playing a gig in a real audience, but it helps get you some pocket money and some exposure as well.

It has been disheartening continuing a creative career path during a pandemic that really limits the job you can do. Alas- music is a huge part of our everyday life, whether you're a musician or not, music will always find a way to people. This time, it's just a bit more of a 'technological' way.