COVID-19 - Music Industry Update
Update on the effects of Covid-19 on the music industry, and our plan of action.
As we head into the weekend, the music industry bodies and organisations wanted to update our music community and whanau.
The events of this week, the new restrictions around gatherings, travel, and everyday life, are having a profound impact on everyone involved in our music industry – not only musicians and songwriters, but crew who work across sound, production, backline, and all manner of technical aspects, as well as venues, publicists, managers, and the many individuals who support music in this country with specialist skills.
We’re aware that 55% of all music sector employment stems from live music, and that live music is a vital revenue stream. We’re also acutely aware that while musicians and crew are often the first to jump in to help when we face a national crisis, many of you are forced to work without much of a financial buffer or safety net of your own.
The scale of the Covid-19 impact is hard to summarise. In the first 48 hours since we created the ‘I Lost My Gig NZ’ survey, there were around 300 submissions with a total of approximately $3.2 million noted in lost revenue. We expect this number to grow substantially in the next week, and will provide a further update on this next Monday.
If you have lost work, big or small, please complete the survey if you can. We know it can be a bit of a negative vibe filling out a form about your disappearing income, but we’re hoping to get a greater understanding of the shape and scope of the loss, and to use this data for publicity and asking the government for economic support for our industry at this very vulnerable time.
We also want to reassure you that we are collectively working on steps forward – solutions, answers, ideas, advocacy, and government proposals.
We will make an update on these developments by Wednesday next week.
In the meantime, please take a look at the government relief package, and their wage and leave subsidy schemes.
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/eligibility/emergencies/2020/coronavirus.html
They have made provision for contractors and those who are self-employed (which is a large number of people in the music industry) – the application form is here:
https://services.workandincome.govt.nz/ess/trader_applications/new
There is also a leave subsidy if you have to self-isolate and need 14-days of sick leave:
https://workandincome.govt.nz/products/a-z-benefits/covid-19-support.html?utm_source=business.govt.nz&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=special_cv_edition#null
And for those of you who are employers who may need a staff subsidy, there is info for you here:
https://services.workandincome.govt.nz/ess/employer_applications/new
Please also contact MusicHelps if you are feeling anxious, stressed, or are simply struggling with the mental load of this week’s events. They are there for you. 0508 MUSICHELPS.
We’ll be in touch again soon.
Keep listening, keep sharing, and keep supporting each other.
