# Are all musician's having a hard time during covid ?



## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

I`m wondering how bad the music scene is suffering during this pandemic.

I`m asking since just came back from buying a cab from a struggling musician that is currently selling off all his gear since no more gigs for his Tribute band.

I was really choked up hearing his story. 

Don't most have a back up job from touring ?


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

I don't make a living playing music and never will. I play music because I love to play music and perform. So am I suffering because of the pandemic? Not really because I have been able to continue to perform albeit through livestreaming and have been co-writing music too for the time we've been into this. But I do know a few people who are struggling to make ends meet because they are unable to gig. Mind you I don't really know how they make money off playing considering how much they are making playing in bars and all that. I play mostly the same places they play but the money is crap. Now I suppose if you play every weekend or as much as you can, the money is there. But again, how much money is there really? Now if you are a touring musician with a famous act, I suppose that's a different story all together. But that's not the case with these people I know in town.


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Chito said:


> I don't make a living playing music and never will.


I learned that myself almost 40 years ago since the money wasn't great playing in bar`s and its was more compared to today pay ! 

It was always a hobby for me.


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## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

I haven't made my living from playing music since the mid 90's. However I was quite active with weekend gigging and it made a nice little supplement. I had decided to pretty much retire from gigging exactly a year before the pandemic started and quite the band I was in. I had planned on playing some gigs here and there, maybe 3 or 4 a years, filling in with bands in need. I had a couple booked for last June but of course were cancelled. I miss playing but I'm quite happy taking more time to my self so the pandemic hasn't really impacted me much.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Touring musicians usually work in bars or restaurants because those jobs can accomodate the scheduling. Those jobs also dried up a lot. It's a bad time.


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Budda said:


> Touring musicians usually work in bars or restaurants because those jobs can accomodate the scheduling. Those jobs also dried up a lot. It's a bad time.


Yeah... everything is closed down here. Felt real bad for the guy.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

guitarman2 said:


> I haven't made my living from playing music since the mid 90's. However I was quite active with *weekend gigging and it made a nice little supplement*. I had decided to pretty much retire from gigging exactly a year before the pandemic started and quite the band I was in. I had planned on playing some gigs here and there, maybe 3 or 4 a years, filling in with bands in need. I had a couple booked for last June but of course were cancelled. I miss playing but I'm quite happy taking more time to my self so the pandemic hasn't really impacted me much.


Worked in two weekend bands so played 4 to 6 times a month. It's not my primary source of income but it did make a nice little supplement. After discounting my bar tab I figure I'm up about 8 dollars 😊 

Up until last year I also played 60 - 90 times a year at seniors homes. I got out of that at the right time for sure.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

If music is a substantial fraction of your income, it's pretty tough out there. All of my income is from music, but I've only ever done it part time. We can live quite comfortably day-to-day on my wife's income, so for me the only real consequence is a delayed retirement - which is okay, I like what I do.

Since the initial shutdown, my teaching studio was closed from March 13 until the end of August (I normally close for the summer anyways), and only about half of my existing students felt comfortable returning to lessons. I don't teach online because I have two kids doing online classes and I don't have the bandwidth to do it properly. (I also don't really want to - if money was tight, I would re-consider.) I've had three performance gigs and 8 sound gigs since March where I would normally have about 30-40 performance gigs in that time. The sound gigs were a bit of gravy as I only lost two gigs (that I know of) to the shutdown. Fortunately the performance gigs were well-paid and the sound gigs, while less that what I would normally charge, paid well enough and I probably would have gone to some of those gigs anyways. Normally, I make about 1/3 of my income gigging.

Overall, I figure that I've lost about 70-75% of my income since the shutdown. I'll close for the Christmas break and I'm taking an extra week in January to chip away at some musical and household projects. I expect that by the new year, my area will be back in shutdown anyways.

Again, I'm not hurting, but a lot of folks are. I really hope that as we come out of this, people (especially musicians) will re-evaluate what music is worth.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

Most "professional" musicians in my area applied for CERB.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)




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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)




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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

laristotle said:


> View attachment 341476


I gigiged because I loved it, but I've probably saved more than that just in travel expenses since I've stopped.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Wait... you said you bought something!


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

I've been watching some live streams and I wonder if this is where it's going. I can watch a jazz group that you'd have to go to Chicago to see...but they're playing almost weekly.
I hope live music comes back in 2021 and the gigging players can go back to work, and the livestreamers will have gained more fans to see them live.


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

tomee2 said:


> Wait... you said you bought something!



I had to help the guy out !


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Frenchy99 said:


> I had to help the guy out !


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## HighNoon (Nov 29, 2016)

No gigs since this virus thing started. The cash is always nice, but what really hurts is the fun, getting a good groove on, hanging with the guys, meeting folks. I even miss set up and the load out.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

HighNoon said:


> No gigs since this virus thing started. The cash is always nice, but what really hurts is the fun, getting a good groove on, hanging with the guys, meeting folks. I even miss set up and the load out.


Yes, more than the money, I miss the people and the camaraderie.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

tomee2 said:


> I've been watching some live streams and I wonder if this is where it's going. I can watch a jazz group that you'd have to go to Chicago to see...but they're playing almost weekly.
> I hope live music comes back in 2021 and the gigging players can go back to work, and the livestreamers will have gained more fans to see them live.


That's very true, but just about every jazz group I've seen in a club (some of them legendary), I've been able to chat and have a beer with between their sets.


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## TheGASisReal (Mar 2, 2020)

I had legitimate plans to quit my comfortable IT job in rural New Brunswick, and move outside Toronto to play full-time. If the timing of the pandemic would have been off by even 6 weeks I would have been wrecked. For the first time in my life I was willing to make a tremendous sacrifice in order to pursue what I love to do.......NOPE


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

As a performing musician I gave up most of my gigs 3 years ago in favour of recording. I kept one duo and we only made about $400 each this year, down substantially. We wouldn’t have made a cent if my church hadn’t hired us for a few services (no singing, just instrumental music for prelude, postlude, and incidental periods).

As a teaching musician I took a major hit when the March Break, which I normally take as a holiday, was extended a week, and then only 30 or so students moved to Zoom lessons until summer. So about a 30% hit if my math is right. Since September I’ve been doing face to face lessons but numbers are still down a lot, in spite of masking, plexiglass, distancing, and sanitizing. (I expect people to be pre-screening.) For 20+ years full time instruction has been my bread and butter, and it hurts to lose so much of it so close to retirement. I’m not fucked as I have savings, but I will be working longer if not as much.


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## zztomato (Nov 19, 2010)

I just watched a friend of mine do a livestream Christmas show from the NAC in Ottawa. It was really good. They did sell 40 tickets in house (that's a sell out) and no idea how many for the livestream. It was her first show since the summer. She's a Juno winner and has had very little going on. If it's bad for her, it's really bad for others with less credentials.
There's no mystery here. I like going to live shows but I'm not going anywhere near an enclosed space with even a handful of people I don't know.


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## Merlin (Feb 23, 2009)

I quit live performing as my primary income for the world of corporate audio-visual, thinking that was a more reliable revenue stream. Not so, as it turns out.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Insult to injury when I was asked to provide music for free via YouTube for an organization to use as a meditation aid or something. Yeah, right, I'm not working as much so I might as well work for free. WTF.


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## dgreen (Sep 3, 2016)

I have done many thing in my life to "put in my dues" as a musician. Harvested wild rice for almost 30 years which would take me way from home for 4-6 weeks each fall. Then would ship the product (mostly wholesale) over the next 12 months, also did several trade / craft shows which usually were quite fun. We also grew / grafted japanese maples and sold them two months of the year in the spring, all container grown and all unusual varieties.
During all those years I completed the toronto conservatory classical guitar studies program ( theory and practical), then did a berklee jazz program (online) over 3 1/2 years all the while teaching music from my home studio ( since 1994 - current) and have always had a full schedule.
The teaching side has always been my main music income although gigs with my group and solo also contributed to the overall income.

Music lessons are all done via ZOOM right now with a skeleton group of students that wanted to continue. It really is the second best option, one I don't prefer, but not really any other option until this pandemic is some how over.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

My next gig is booked for January 22. If we go into the Red Zone I expect that'd kill it - there's no way the bar could justify live entertainment for less than 10 patrons. I don't think they can justify staying open, even.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

I'm actually thinking that if this continues into the summer I'll just pack it in professionally, sell the house and a shit load of gear, move up north somewhere, and take up basket weaving or something.


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

My sister and her partner are both pro players. They've been drawing CERB, writing grand applications, practicing, and making plans so they can hit the ground running when the after time comes. A tiny little trickle of recording and token social distance yard concerts and performing to empty halls for online streaming. They're doing a great job at staying positive and forward looking but it's a tough time. 

This is not pro playing by any stretch but we're loading an old piano on the back of a flatbed Ford this weekend and decking it all out with lights so we can drive up and down local streets with a guy playing Christmas carols on the back. None of us involved ever had time for that sort of thing in the before time but now we do and it's great in its own way. I wonder when the after time comes what stuff that used to happen won't start up again and which things will grow up from scratch in ways that there wasn't room for in the past. 

j


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

Sketchy Jeff said:


> in the before time but now we do and it's great in its own way. I wonder when the after time comes what stuff that used to happen won't start up again and which things will grow up from scratch in ways that there wasn't room for in the past.


You're sounding like a Mad Max movie. lol


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

Sketchy Jeff said:


> My sister and her partner are both pro players. They've been drawing CERB, writing grand applications, practicing, and making plans so they can hit the ground running when the after time comes. A tiny little trickle of recording and token social distance yard concerts and performing to empty halls for online streaming. They're doing a great job at staying positive and forward looking but it's a tough time.
> 
> This is not pro playing by any stretch but we're loading an old piano on the back of a flatbed Ford this weekend and decking it all out with lights so we can drive up and down local streets with a guy playing Christmas carols on the back. None of us involved ever had time for that sort of thing in the before time but now we do and it's great in its own way. I wonder when the after time comes what stuff that used to happen won't start up again and which things will grow up from scratch in ways that there wasn't room for in the past.
> 
> j


We'll regrow the Music Scene but it has to be Green. No electric guitars!


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Musicians should get a side line as vets !

10 minutes with one yesterday for one of my cats ear infection and got a bill for $530...


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

Frenchy99 said:


> Musicians should get a side line as vets !
> 
> 10 minutes with one yesterday for one of my cats ear infection and got a bill for $530...


A musician would have fixed your cat for 100 bucks and three beers, maybe even just for exposure


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

allthumbs56 said:


> fixed your cat for 100 bucks and three beers


you have to supply the sleeve cut off an old parka to contain the cat during the procedure

if the musician provides the sleeve it goes up to 5 beer and a ride home

j


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

allthumbs56 said:


> We'll regrow the Music Scene but it has to be Green. No electric guitars!


no no that would never do there's no whoop de whoop technological inoovation involved that would justify a double grand application to Canada Council AND the green energy funding program

hydrogen fuel cell is the new vacuum tube i hear just needs a bit of research and refinement for amplifiers

j


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

Frenchy99 said:


> Musicians should get a side line as vets !
> 
> 10 minutes with one yesterday for one of my cats ear infection and got a bill for $530...


Did they write Merry Christmas on the bill. I've been there, with my dog. I was in for a few appointments that added up to a little over $2000 for skin allergies and one day I complained. His reply was you haven't spent that much.


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Guitar101 said:


> Did they write Merry Christmas on the bill. I've been there, with my dog. I was in for a few appointments that added up to a little over $2000 for skin allergies and one day I complained. His reply was you haven't spent that much.


I was explained that they charge emergency rates on everything since the beginning of the Covid 19. The lady before me had 13K bill for her dog... She was making pmt plans with them while we were waiting !!! 

My wife could not believe it...


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

My last regular gig of eight years came to a screaming halt over two years ago. I've had a lot of personal things to deal with since then so I haven't bothered looking for anything. I have friends who derive all of their income from live gigs and teaching, so I really feel for them.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

they shoot horses, don't they?


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

allthumbs56 said:


> A musician would have fixed your cat for 100 bucks and three beers, maybe even just for exposure


A good musician would use the cat as a back up singer and write a couple of songs for it. Maybe strap a mic to it and use it's purr instead of a bass.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)




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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)




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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

Frenchy99 said:


> Musicians should get a side line as vets !
> 
> 10 minutes with one yesterday for one of my cats ear infection and got a bill for $530...


That’s nuts. We got our husky neutered last month for just a few bucks more than that.
not sure where you live, but we found a big difference in vet pricing between the city and suburbs/rural. For awhile when we lived in the city, we would take our pets to a vet 2hrs away that our in-laws went to, for non emergency stuff...2 dogs and cat add up.


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Diablo said:


> That’s nuts. We got our husky neutered last month for just a few bucks more than that.
> not sure where you live, but we found a big difference in vet pricing between the city and suburbs/rural. For awhile when we lived in the city, we would take our pets to a vet 2hrs away that our in-laws went to, for non emergency stuff...2 dogs and cat add up.


I get you, I tried to get an appointment with other vets without any success since they were full. No room and reduced hrs. The big clinic was my last resort. My cat was really bad off and is 16 years old. 

The girl at the front desk did advise us that they are the most expensive clinic around. Had People from Hawkesbury Ont show up while we waited ( 1 hr away )... I guess walk in clinics for vets are a rare thing these days.

Still very pissed with the amount... I could have a new amp !!!


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

We gigged on St Patrick’s day in March. We tried to pull the plug on that gig. Covid was out there. We figured nobody would come out. That’s exactly what happened. Everyone too scared to leave home when covid was first on the scene.

We snuck-in two outdoor gigs in September. Then we shut it down again. We carried on practicing, as a group outside. Kept getting together until the November lockdown. We haven’t practiced together now in over a month. I do miss it.

I have been recording with garage band. At home alone. Ideally someone else in the band would be set up similarly. Then we could file share and build up a song together. However its just me. They don’t, so unfortunately that’s not happening.

Last week I recorded a harder rock instrumental version of “Our Lips Are Sealed” by the Go-Go’s. Proof that the mental health side of covid will likely get to you long before covid actually will.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

Frenchy99 said:


> Still very pissed with the amount...* I could have a new amp* !!!


You probably don't need one! Maybe more vintage cats  

FYI, one of my clients has a cat named "Garnet" - you could have 20 cats with the same name


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## Morrow (Apr 29, 2020)

It's been hell for everybody in the service industry , not just musicians , but everybody that works in the bars and restaurants that have been the source of gigs . Things had opened up here on the east coast , but shut down again about a month ago . It might be the New Year before the bars open again . I'm worried some venues might not re-open . I'm fortunate , I've retired and am not dependant on gig money . I was playing two to four gigs a week before the initial shutdown . When things re-opened I had one regular gig and sometime would see another night or two . We'll see how things go in a couple of weeks . 
Everybody that I've spoken to has hunkered down and dialed everything back , but people are somehow holding on and hoping things will begin to get better . This has been harder for touring musicians . The regular blue collar guys playing bars seem to have fared a little better out here on the coast . However , for most , this will be a pretty lean Christmas .


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Bad week for me so far...  

First. the cat and vet expense. 
Next was my water heater that I had to replace.
And yesterday my wife put my cell phone in the washer...

That could have been an amazing bass, guitar or amp in the last week...


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## Morrow (Apr 29, 2020)

Ouch . 
I hope things will turn around .


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Morrow said:


> Ouch .
> I hope things will turn around .


I bought a new phone and today a few music items to make myself feel better...

I lost all my data on my phone, thats the worst part to get over. Had no back up.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Frenchy99 said:


> I bought a new phone and today a few music items to make myself feel better...


Ya know what you need to do if you wanna feel better; you need to buy this Bobcat that I’m selling. That’s what you need to do. Shipping would be a bitch but you could take the train down here and drive the fucker back home on the 401.


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

allthumbs56 said:


> We'll regrow the Music Scene but it has to be Green. No electric guitars!


Or no guitars at all.


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

Wardo said:


> Ya know what you need to do if you wanna feel better; you need to buy this Bobcat that I’m selling. That’s what you need to do. Shipping would be a bitch but you could take the train down here and drive the fucker back home on the 401.
> 
> View attachment 342127


LMAO...


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## Morrow (Apr 29, 2020)

My wife would love that Bobcat .


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