😷 China partygoers at Wuhan water park; Impact of COVID-19 on Beyoncé's Black is King; Illegal rave organisers to be fined up to £10,000 in UK; Lawsuit filed against Viagogo over refunds
Daily update for the music business on the coronavirus (August 18)
Gdańsk music festival given the green light for 2020 (IQ Mag)
This year, the 4,000-capacity event will take place across two weekends instead of one to make up the capacity lost to social distancing measures, while the festival area has been enlarged to allow for attendees to maintain space … The promoter also announced that this year it would install a special sound system with a delay line so that festival-goers could enjoy the same quality of sound whilst maintaining a distance.
China partygoers cram into Wuhan water park (France24)
The popular Wuhan Maya Beach Water Park was filled with people frolicking in swimsuits and goggles for an electronic music festival, many perched on rubber dinghies or wading up to their chest in water … The park - which local media says has capped attendance at 50 percent of normal capacity - is offering half price discounts for female visitors.
Italy & Spain re-close music venues due to COVID-19 spike (The Quietus)
All clubs and gig venues in both countries were ordered to close with immediate effect over the weekend. Spain's ban on music events and venues opening will be in place for the foreseeable future and was confirmed last Friday (August 14) by health minister Salvador Illa. Italy's Roberto Speranza, Minister of Health in the government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, announced similar measures for the country yesterday (August 16), with all indoor and outdoor party and music spaces ordered to close until at least September 7.
ERA: Streaming subscriptions boom during Covid-19 (Music Week)
Most new subscribers say they will stick with their new services once lockdown is over, with more than 93% of Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers saying they will maintain their subscription and more than 60% of those paying for each of the Top 10 [ed. note: Spotify at no. 4, YouTube Music at no. 8 and Amazon Music Unlimited at no. 10] services saying they will continue to subscribe.
Lawsuit filed against Viagogo over refunds (IQ Mag)
The complaint alleges that Viagogo “wrongly refuses to classify events as ‘cancelled,’ allowing it to maintain dominion and control over even more funds which it has no legal right to possess or use for its own business purposes.”
How the directors of Beyoncé’s Black Is King created an exercise in modern mythmaking (The Fader)
COVID was such a shift in our entire worldview and I think the universe is so wise. The timing of this piece could not have been better. The fact that we were planning to add more and the universe said nope. We were shooting so much content that we never fully watched or listened to, so we had to go back and create from what we already had.
Blitz Bazawule, director
Illegal rave organisers to be fined up to £10,000 (DJ Mag)
While the UK government has announced the lockdown restrictions will ease from today (14th August), clubs and music venues remain closed, and in a bid to stop "unlicensed music events" which have seen a surge during lockdown, the police will be given powers to issue fines of up to £10,000 to organisers of events with crowds larger than 30. There have been more than 500 large unlicensed events in London alone this summer, and police say they are responding to approximately 23 events every day.
‘Lovecraft Country’ score features first use of an ‘online orchestra’ for an entire series (Variety)
Using 30 musicians, all playing by themselves in their home studios, Karpman has created a symphonic sound for “Lovecraft Country.” She has been planning this since the lockdown forced the closure of L.A. studios in March.
Consumers cool to bailout for movie theaters, concert venues, new survey reveals (Variety)
The results underscore the double-bind facing film exhibitors and live music venues: With almost no one going to movies or concerts, people clearly recognize the impact of the pandemic is having on those sectors. And yet by breaking the habit of attending movies and concerts on at least a semi-regular basis, it appears the public’s appetite for saving those industries is mild at best.
Romanian festivals offer tix for plasma donations (IQ Mag)
Untold, the company behind the 70,000-capacity Untold Festival in Cluj-Napoca, will give free day tickets for either Untold Festival or beach festival Neversea (60,000-cap.) to those who donate plasma, either at a hospital or via one of the Blood Network vans set up in major Romanian towns and cities. Those who make a donation through Blood Network will also receive 100 lei (€20) worth of supermarket vouchers.
San Juan Symphony launches $99 ‘digital season’ passes (Music Ally)
The videos will be made in advance and released as a ‘live’ streaming event where I’ll probably be interviewed or interviewing others and then we’ll release the recordings that we’ve made. People can then access them through their membership through our website.
Thomas Heuser, music director
Cash reserves intact as T4F revenue falls 98% (IQ Mag)
Brazil-based T4F, which trades on Sao Paulo’s B3 stock exchange, reported revenue of R$2.6 million (US$475,425) in Q2 2020 – down from R$132.4m (US$24.2m) in the same period in 2019. For the half-year ending 31 June 2020, the figure is R$35.1m (US$6.4m), a decrease on 86% on H1 2019’s R$253m (US$46.2m).
An impossible choice: Music majors, COVID-19, and an uncertain future (Middle Class Artist)
With fewer or no opportunities to perform live at school, can music degrees live up to their mandate to prepare students for a career? In other words, what is the value of a socially distanced degree in music performance? And if the value is significantly reduced, and given the extraordinary financial stress on young music students and their families, what is the best course of action?
With congress in recess, here’s how you can help America’s independent music & venues (Variety)
This isn’t just about art and keeping a nightclub going — independent venues are economic drivers for their communities. For every dollar spent on a ticket, there’s $12 of economic activity generated for restaurants and parking lots and other businesses. [That government funding] would allow us to hold on until the reopening, and we will be major economic drivers of renewal.
NIVA’s Audrey Fix Schaefer
'People are hungry for new music after lockdown' (BBC)
Another independent record shop, Banquet Records in Kingston, has taken a different approach. Rather than reopen the premises completely, the shop is directing customers to its website and offering a click-and-collect service from its car park. Jon Tolley, who runs the business, says that having to restrict customers' browsing in his "small and dingy" shop felt "too regimented and not what we're about. We're still serving people, just differently," he told the BBC.
Thoughts
I recently highlighted the YETI celebrity water cooler auction in support of tour personell. That auction has now finished and raised $135,000 that will be administered via Crew Nation fund. Pretty solid for a bunch of water coolers.
I went to see the Muse - Simulation Theory concert film yesterday at my local IMAX theatre. It was quite spectacular. There was, however, a moment where I was transported back to the gig last year and I felt a twang as I sat there in the cinema seat. How long before we can have those moments again? Today we see positive news from Wuhan, where partygoers seemingly have fun without any restrictions. At the same time, Spain and Italy have put back in place restrictions that see venues close again. Even in New Zealand, music is being reigned back in. Furthermore, the biggest concert on the planet - that Bryan Adams gig in Düsseldorf with a projected 13,000 capacity - is under a lot of pressure from local government. It really is going to be a while before we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, unless we travel to Wuhan of course!
Music
Composed while listening to still amazing To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar on Spotify. Basically, that record helped make jazz cool again. If you haven’t before, check out some of the West Coast Get Down gang that helped on the record. The biggest name begin Kamasi Washington of course, but also Terrace Martin, who recently released an excellent record himself together with the aforementioned and Robert Glasper.
MUSIC x CORONA goes out every weekday and is composed by Bas Grasmayer and Maarten Walraven.
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