How Musicians Are Surviving the Pandemic — and the Music Industry

Will the Music Industry Change Post-Pandemic?

I’m still surprised when I realize that career musicians with substantial bodies of work never get to stop thinking about money. They are artists who write songs that move me and add color to my life, so I forget that they are grounded in the same working-class struggles as workers in any other field.

Looking at what Bandcamp has built and how it has willingly transformed itself to help musicians during the pandemic is heartening. Hearing and participating in conversations about what needs to change has also raised awareness of the many areas in which our neoliberal/capitalist structure fails to meet people’s needs.

Will anything change enough to make a significant difference? It’s apparent through researching this article that the music industry is a testing ground for technology and marketing. It’s a business where the artists themselves are simply elements in the experiment; their work creates a focal point for directing and controlling consumer behavior.

If any area of our economy should make a creative shift, doesn’t it make sense it might be in the arts? Regardless of what the music industry’s business side has learned from the pandemic, the musicians are responding with the same sensitivity and insight that informs a great song.

“I am actively experimenting with how music can be embodied in a less capitalistic framework,” says Louise. “Yes, some of these things are to sell, but I hope that they can help deepen the ways listeners experience music’s sacredness and healing power.”

Louise’s goal is a noble one, but don’t we listeners already get that from the musicians that matter to us? There’s a long string of songs that have helped me get over breakups, deaths, and other calamities that one must endure. This year, meeting new unknowns caused by COVID-19, it’s happened more times than I can count. What else has the emotional resonance to do that?

Thinking back to my conversation with that Dutch artist in a bar in Amsterdam, his initial statement is flawed. Yes, art created in the US may have a certain resonance from circumstances related to economic survival, but there’s no underlying psychosis. That implies an inability to discern what’s real. US artists know what’s real; the problem is being able to access what they need.

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Addendum

Interview responses have been edited for clarity.

Editor’s note: Our current CMS is not allowing us to enter author bios in their byline field. So for now, we’ll provide Marc’s bio here:

Marc Tissenbaum received a B.A. in Journalism from Marshall University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Vermont College. he has written about music off and on over the years for Flagpole ( a weekly entertainment paper in Athens, GA), Paste, and Magnet.

He is a lifelong musician who quit playing live shows and recording about 20 years ago but has maintained an active improv and songwriting practice and maintained friendships with many career musicians.

He is also an aficionado of traditional music and its evolution in cultures around the world and has traveled to such diverse locations as Bolivia, Cuba, Turkey, and Morocco making field recordings and meeting musicians.