--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Support for Today Explained comes from Saks Fifth Avenue. Fall is here. Might be time to find some nice new pieces you can wear again and again. With Saks Fifth Avenue, it can be a breeze to shop for your personal style, like maybe a relaxed Prada blazer or Gucci loafers that are great for both work and the weekend.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This is very Sean. This is very Sean-coated. Gucci loafers. Saks says Saks makes shopping feel totally customized to you, whether that's from an in-store stylist or a visit to Saks.com, where they can show you just what you want to see. They say they'll even let you know when arrivals from your favorite designers are in or when something you've been eyeing is back in stock.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's Stay Explained. I'm Sean Ramos from, you know, when people ask you, like, what are you going to do when it's all over? What's that first thing you're going to do, man, when you get the shot, even though there's like two shots, man. And even though once you get those two shots, man, you still can't get out there and do whatever you want.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Whatever it is, one day when this pandemic is in the rear view, what are you going to get back to? And for me, it's dancing. I miss dancing, not like in my house to a song I put on, but out in public with other people and smiling and laughing in public with people while we enjoy music.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And that is one thing we definitely lost this year. And if you're someone like me, you felt the loss. Halima Shah, you've been reporting on this loss of live music. It kind of had a hard time this year, yeah?
--:-- Halima Shah: Yeah, and I think the people who felt the loss were not just fans like you and myself who love going to concerts. I think it was also musicians. I mean, they kind of lost their lifeline. Touring is something that they depend on to make money.
--:-- Halima Shah: And then, you know, you make music in part for the fans to see other people enjoy it and dance to it. And you've been reporting on how musicians dealt with that loss in 2020. They definitely had to get creative. And that's a task that musicians can take on because they're creative people.
--:-- Halima Shah: But some of those alternatives to the live concert were kind of meh. and then there were others that were so good and so interesting that they're probably going to outlast the pandemic. Okay, let's hear about them. Where do we start?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Let's start stuff off with musicians kind of taking shots in the dark, and then I'll tell you about some success stories. I actually spoke to the musicians that I was really looking forward to seeing this year, Division, the R&B duo.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Division, like they made a song with Drake back in the day. Drake? Drake? Yeah, they did. But I would say Division is probably like even more in their feelings than Drake. They actually dropped an album this year called Amuse in Her Feelings.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I think that's like the perfect soundtrack to 2020 because it's sad and it's moody. Just took time to plan it, told me secrets you ain't wanna. The vocalist of the group, Daniel Daley, said he was really looking forward to performing the latest songs for fans like this.
--:-- Daniel Daley: We have some of the craziest R&B fans, I believe. It's like R&B fans that turn up the way that a rap fan would. They jump up and down, they scream, they yell, they know every word of everything, they get hyped.
--:-- Daniel Daley: ad-lib, any super high note. They try everything. They're like, I don't care who's here, who's listening. I'm trying every note I heard him do.
--:-- Halima Shah: But then COVID-19 happened. Coachella and Stagecoach are scrapping their plans after originally postponing the events until October. Lady Gaga is pushing her Chromatica Ball Tour back a year. The Pitchfork Music Festival is now canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
--:-- Halima Shah: Kesha postponed to a TBA date. Brad Paisley, some shows canceled. And Taylor Swift, her entire world tour canceled.
--:-- Daniel Daley: 1985, who's the producer in Division, said because the world was in lockdown, there were serious questions about whether or not to hold the release of the new album.
--:-- Daniel Daley: I think the first conversation our whole team had was, do we wait and do we push the album back? And we both just said, nope, we got to go now. It's not even fair to keep making our fans wait.
--:-- Daniel Daley: 85 says people kind of needed music to lean on during this time. Obviously, a lot of people are feeling uncertain and people are having breakdowns and people are in their feelings more than normal.
--:-- Daniel Daley: And we just happen to make music that in some ways speaks to all of the different mental issues that I think a lot of people are going through right now. So, they released an album, but there was no touring, no crowds trying to hit high notes with Daniel.
--:-- Daniel Daley: You just keep rubbing it in our faces. Just lots of live-streamed content. This time around, it was just all the shit that we don't like to do as far as artists, you know? Sit here and have to get digital.
--:-- Halima Shah: Joanna Connor misses putting on an actual performance, too. She's an independent musician and a fixture of Chicago's blues and jazz scene.
--:-- Halima Shah: In 2019, you could find her playing at one of the city's blues venues three or four nights a week. I'm someone that looks like your mom or your next-door neighbor, and I shred the hell out of the guitar.
--:-- Halima Shah: And that's my notoriety. I'm from the blues scene in Chicago, but I mix it up with rock and roll and funk, and I'm pretty much in your face doing what I do.
--:-- Joanna Connor: Her career was about to take off in a way that it hadn't before. 2019 was a really pinnacle year for me And at my ripe old age of 57 at the time I was becoming the latest discovery on the internet and through Twitter and other you know outlets
--:-- Joanna Connor: In 2020, she was supposed to go to Europe with a touring agency she had just signed to. Her band was supposed to be in a movie with Ben Affleck. But instead, she got... Famine. It's just desolation.
--:-- Joanna Connor: You know, they've pretty much just left musicians to, you know, out there on a limb and try to fend for themselves for the most part. And that's unfortunate about America is that artists are not taken care of or treasured like they should be.
--:-- Andy Cush: Before this pandemic happened, over the last couple decades, as the recording industry has moved from physical sales to almost entirely streaming, that left a lot of money out of the pockets of artists, especially small artists, but big artists too.
--:-- Andy Cush: And the inability to tour has really exposed the deficiencies of streaming as a way to make a living for 99% of musicians. We're live, Joanna Conner J. Red, our first very private concert for two lovely humans. Here we go.
--:-- Joanna Connor: We did do some with different festivals that we were supposed to be in. a couple of them did like a live stream thing in place of the actual show. We had like 30,000 people tuned in over a few days and we made a pretty good amount of money, you know, a few thousand dollars.
--:-- Joanna Connor: And I split it with the band and I was like, well, OK, this is doable. But as time went on, within a couple of months, it went from like, say, $3,000 to $300.
--:-- Halima Shah: Joanna thinks audiences started tuning out because they were being inundated with virtual concerts. It's easy to sit in front of your phone and stream a live show from your basement. But if you want it to actually sound good, it's going to cost you.
--:-- Halima Shah: I can't see anything, so I don't know who's watching. All right. That's not going to work. Okay. The upfront cost of doing that is a lot higher than it would be to simply show up at a venue and play.
--:-- Halima Shah: You have to hire a camera crew. Perhaps you have to hire someone to edit the footage. the sound engineering requirements to get something that's going to sound good to broadcast over the internet are very different from getting something to sound good just in the room.
--:-- Joanna Connor: So you may be looking at a few thousand dollars just to put one of these things on. But musicians still have to eat. And when COVID-19 attacked the service industry, which has long offered day jobs to musicians, artists like Joanna had to get creative.
--:-- Joanna Connor: You know, it wasn't like I was flush with money or anything. So I applied for unemployment, and that took months because I'm not a typical worker. So that finally happened.
--:-- Joanna Connor: But a lot of just wonderful humans out there were sending me PayPal money and, you know, hiring me to play in their backyard and write songs for people for their birthday. Just kind of think of any way possible just to bring in some cash.
--:-- Halima Shah: Even streaming giants are offering ways for fans to donate to their favorite artists. On Spotify, they created a mechanism, a virtual tip jar, they called it, for fans to donate directly to their favorite artists.
--:-- Halima Shah: You know, that's generous of Spotify, but it also feels to me like a sort of tacit acknowledgement that the money you're making from Spotify is not enough to keep you afloat for most artists.
--:-- Joanna Connor: When Chicago's winter made backyard concerts impossible and the unemployment check and PayPal donations weren't enough, Joanna had to live off of something other than music.
--:-- Joanna Connor: I've been a musician for decades, 30 plus years, and I haven't had a job. So I live up the street from a Trader Joe's where I shopped all the time and I was like, hey, do you guys need help?
--:-- Joanna Connor: And they're like, yeah. So they actually had a couple interviews. They hired me, which was amazing. And it was the most physical work I'd ever done in my life. I'm like, wow, I'll never have to go to a gym. This is great.
--:-- Halima Shah: But she couldn't keep that up either. When COVID numbers in Chicago surged, she didn't feel safe going into work. So now when she's at home, she practices playing guitar on her own.
--:-- Joanna Connor: But at first, it was kind of a saddening experience. I didn't really want to play my guitar for some reason. It was kind of like emotionally painful to pick it up or look at it.
--:-- Halima Shah: But yeah, I play off my band. I used to do some solo stuff, but not being with my band, not having that creative outlet, I really miss them a lot.
--:-- Halima Shah: That loss of not being able to play off a band or improvise together or even react to what the audience is doing is one of the things artists miss most in 2020.
--:-- Daniel Daley: Division described making music right now as sort of taking shots in the dark. It's not obvious anymore if the audience is loving or hating or crying or dancing to the music.
--:-- Daniel Daley: But Daniel also describes it as kind of a freeing experience. Like when Division was at the beginning of their music career and just made what they felt like making.
--:-- Daniel Daley: We were two guys that were trying to make music and didn't know if any of it was going to work. I think now it's going to literally come strictly back to are me in 85 going to sit here and listen and be like, oh shit, this was crazy.
--:-- Daniel Daley: Like whatever, this song right here, you know, we're in love with this. Division hunkered down and focused on the music, but they joined legions of musicians who innovated in ways that will change the industry long after this pandemic.
--:-- Halima Shah: That's after the break. Support for today's show comes from Adio. What is Adio? Adio is an AI-native customer relationship management system built specifically for the next era of companies.
--:-- Halima Shah: They say it extremely powerful adapts to your unique data structures and scales with any business model According to Adio Adio takes less than a minute to set up And within seconds you will have your email and calendars synced
--:-- Halima Shah: You'll see all your relationships in a fully fledged platform, they say, all enriched with that actionable data. And they say you can build AI powered automations and use its research agent to tackle some of your most complex processes to seize so that you can focus on what matters.
--:-- Halima Shah: building your company. You can join industry leaders such as Flatfile, Replicate, Modal, and so much more. You can go to attio.com slash todayexplained to get 15% off your first year.
--:-- Halima Shah: That's attio.com slash todayexplained. Not all journalism is the same. Take The Guardian. Our coverage has something unique. Fierce independence.
--:-- Halima Shah: Nobody owns us or tells us what we can and can't say. So we're free to report the whole picture. We connect what's happening in Washington to the rest of the globe, expose corruption wherever we find it, and give fresh perspective on everything from wellness and soccer to culture, the climate and more.
--:-- Halima Shah: Read, watch and listen to The Guardian for free at theguardian.com. All right, Halima, back to Long Division. No, I want to talk about Cardi B. She didn't let the pandemic stop her from making one of the biggest songs of the year
--:-- Halima Shah: And she actually spent $100,000 on COVID-19 tests So she could produce one of the most provocative music videos ever But artists also got smarter about how to use the digital realm, which is definitely here to stay.
--:-- Halima Shah: Travis Scott went way beyond the live-streamed concert and partnered with Fortnite to do a video game show. Audience members, in this case players, can walk around the venue and explore it.
--:-- Halima Shah: When the show starts, a giant Travis Scott towers over the audience who are the size of ants compared to him. He turns the entire Fortnite island into a stage, as backup dancers made of fire and lightning perform behind him.
--:-- Halima Shah: And he reportedly earned $20 million from that show and the merch sales, which is exponentially more than he makes from a regular show. It's like half of what he made on his entire last tour.
--:-- Halima Shah: A few months later, Lil Nas X partnered with a popular kids game Roblox. A digital Lil Nas X dressed in a pink cowboy hat, pants, and jacket opens the show with his hit Old Town Road.
--:-- Halima Shah: Like other artists, Division took this time to experiment. In their home city of Toronto, Division decided to do something that they had never attempted before. A drive-in concert in what was essentially a parking lot turned music venue.
--:-- Halima Shah: The Freedom was coming back, so it was perfect time. So what was dope about it is they'd still let you outside of the car. As long as you stayed in your parking space and your parking space was, you know, distanced, then you'd come with the people you came with and you'd have your little section.
--:-- Halima Shah: And then another car would just be, you know, six feet away from you. It was a risk, but Daniel says it was also an opportunity. Toronto had just begun loosening social gathering restrictions.
--:-- Halima Shah: I won't even lie. I think we were both a little bit nervous about that because we know how important those shows are for our fans. And in a drive-in show, the idea of people being kind of behind the barrier of a car seems like it might take away from that conversation that Daniel's having with them during the show.
--:-- Halima Shah: The show sold out seven times. People were getting mad creative. They started renting out cars, Jeeps, drop tops, anything without covers so they could sit on top of the roofs.
--:-- Halima Shah: They'd reverse their cars into the parking spots, pop the trunk, just so they can have like an open seat to just kind of sit there and do their thing. I'd look out into the crowd and I'd see people literally with like hookahs set up on the ground, sitting there smoking a hookah outside.
--:-- Halima Shah: People loved it way more than we thought. It's the type of thing where even when normal shows do start again, we probably could have some pretty successful drive-in shows.
--:-- Halima Shah: Daniel said that one of the challenges of singing to a giant parking lot ended up being an asset. In a typical venue, a singer might sing to the center of the room where everyone is.
--:-- Halima Shah: But in this case, Daniel had to address different sections of the lot that was spread out across hundreds of parking spots. I think what it did for them was crazier because they knew, he looks over here, it's just my parking space.
--:-- Halima Shah: So as soon as I do that, they would feel like, oh, the spotlight's on me, and then they just, you know, they turn up like, yeah, he's there. You almost get a million intimate shows.
--:-- Andy Cush: That's after the break. Andy Cush is a contributing editor at Pitchfork. He also plays in the band Garcia Peoples.
--:-- Andy Cush: Even before the pandemic, over the last couple decades, as the recording industry has moved from physical sales to almost entirely streaming, that left a lot of money out of the pockets of artists, especially small artists, but big artists too.
--:-- Andy Cush: And the inability to tour has really exposed the deficiencies of streaming as a way to make a living for 99% of musicians. We're live, Joanna Conner J. Red, our first very private concert for two lovely humans. Here we go.
--:-- Joanna Connor: We did do some with different festivals that we were supposed to be in. a couple of them did like a live stream thing in place of the actual show. We had like 30,000 people tuned in over a few days and we made a pretty good amount of money, you know, a few thousand dollars.
--:-- Joanna Connor: And I split it with the band and I was like, well, OK, this is doable. But as time went on, within a couple of months, it went from like, say, $3,000 to $300.
--:-- Andy Cush: Joanna thinks audiences started tuning out because they were being inundated with virtual concerts. It's easy to sit in front of your phone and stream a live show from your basement. But if you want it to actually sound good, it's going to cost you.
--:-- Andy Cush: I can't see anything, so I don't know who's watching. All right. That's not going to work. Okay. The upfront cost of doing that is a lot higher than it would be to simply show up at a venue and play.
--:-- Andy Cush: You have to hire a camera crew. Perhaps you have to hire someone to edit the footage. the sound engineering requirements to get something that's going to sound good to broadcast over the internet are very different from getting something to sound good just in the room.
--:-- Andy Cush: So you may be looking at a few thousand dollars just to put one of these things on. But musicians still have to eat. And when COVID-19 attacked the service industry, which has long offered day jobs to musicians, artists like Joanna had to get creative.
--:-- Andy Cush: You know, it wasn't like I was flush with money or anything. So I applied for unemployment, and that took months because I'm not a typical worker. So that finally happened.
--:-- Andy Cush: But a lot of just wonderful humans out there were sending me PayPal money and, you know, hiring me to play in their backyard and write songs for people for their birthday. Just kind of think of any way possible just to bring in some cash.
--:-- Andy Cush: Even streaming giants are offering ways for fans to donate to their favorite artists. On Spotify, they created a mechanism, a virtual tip jar, they called it, for fans to donate directly to their favorite artists.
--:-- Andy Cush: You know, that's generous of Spotify, but it also feels to me like a sort of tacit acknowledgement that the money you're making from Spotify is not enough to keep you afloat for most artists.
--:-- Andy Cush: When Chicago's winter made backyard concerts impossible and the unemployment check and PayPal donations weren't enough, Joanna had to live off of something other than music.
--:-- Andy Cush: I've been a musician for decades, 30 plus years, and I haven't had a job. So I live up the street from a Trader Joe's where I shopped all the time and I was like, hey, do you guys need help?
--:-- Andy Cush: And they're like, yeah. So they actually had a couple interviews. They hired me, which was amazing. And it was the most physical work I'd ever done in my life. I'm like, wow, I'll never have to go to a gym. This is great.
--:-- Andy Cush: But she couldn't keep that up either. When COVID numbers in Chicago surged, she didn't feel safe going into work. So now when she's at home, she practices playing guitar on her own.
--:-- Andy Cush: But at first, it was kind of a saddening experience. I didn't really want to play my guitar for some reason. It was kind of like emotionally painful to pick it up or look at it.
--:-- Andy Cush: But yeah, I play off my band. I used to do some solo stuff, but not being with my band, not having that creative outlet, I really miss them a lot.
--:-- Andy Cush: That loss of not being able to play off a band or improvise together or even react to what the audience is doing is one of the things artists miss most in 2020.
--:-- Andy Cush: That's after the break. Andy Cush is a contributing editor at Pitchfork. He also plays in the band Garcia Peoples.
--:-- Andy Cush: Even before the pandemic, over the last couple decades, as the recording industry has moved from physical sales to almost entirely streaming, that left a lot of money out of the pockets of artists, especially small artists, but big artists too.
--:-- Andy Cush: And the inability to tour has really exposed the deficiencies of streaming as a way to make a living for 99% of musicians. We're live, Joanna Conner J. Red, our first very private concert for two lovely humans. Here we go.
--:-- Andy Cush: We did do some with different festivals that we were supposed to be in. a couple of them did like a live stream thing in place of the actual show. We had like 30,000 people tuned in over a few days and we made a pretty good amount of money, you know, a few thousand dollars.
--:-- Andy Cush: And I split it with the band and I was like, well, OK, this is doable. But as time went on, within a couple of months, it went from like, say, $3,000 to $300.
--:-- Andy Cush: Joanna thinks audiences started tuning out because they were being inundated with virtual concerts. It's easy to sit in front of your phone and stream a live show from your basement. But if you want it to actually sound good, it's going to cost you.
--:-- Andy Cush: I can't see anything, so I don't know who's watching. All right. That's not going to work. Okay. The upfront cost of doing that is a lot higher than it would be to simply show up at a venue and play.
--:-- Andy Cush: You have to hire a camera crew. Perhaps you have to hire someone to edit the footage. the sound engineering requirements to get something that's going to sound good to broadcast over the internet are very different from getting something to sound good just in the room.
--:-- Andy Cush: So you may be looking at a few thousand dollars just to put one of these things on. But musicians still have to eat. And when COVID-19 attacked the service industry, which has long offered day jobs to musicians, artists like Joanna had to get creative.
--:-- Andy Cush: You know, it wasn't like I was flush with money or anything. So I applied for unemployment, and that took months because I'm not a typical worker. So that finally happened.
--:-- Andy Cush: But a lot of just wonderful humans out there were sending me PayPal money and, you know, hiring me to play in their backyard and write songs for people for their birthday. Just kind of think of any way possible just to bring in some cash.
--:-- Andy Cush: Even streaming giants are offering ways for fans to donate to their favorite artists. On Spotify, they created a mechanism, a virtual tip jar, they called it, for fans to donate directly to their favorite artists.
--:-- Andy Cush: You know, that's generous of Spotify, but it also feels to me like a sort of tacit acknowledgement that the money you're making from Spotify is not enough to keep you afloat for most artists.
--:-- Andy Cush: When Chicago's winter made backyard concerts impossible and the unemployment check and PayPal donations weren't enough, Joanna had to live off of something other than music.
--:-- Andy Cush: I've been a musician for decades, 30 plus years, and I haven't had a job. So I live up the street from a Trader Joe's where I shopped all the time and I was like, hey, do you guys need help?
--:-- Andy Cush: And they're like, yeah. So they actually had a couple interviews. They hired me, which was amazing. And it was the most physical work I'd ever done in my life. I'm like, wow, I'll never have to go to a gym. This is great.
--:-- Andy Cush: But she couldn't keep that up either. When COVID numbers in Chicago surged, she didn't feel safe going into work. So now when she's at home, she practices playing guitar on her own.
--:-- Andy Cush: But at first, it was kind of a saddening experience. I didn't really want to play my guitar for some reason. It was kind of like emotionally painful to pick it up or look at it.
--:-- Andy Cush: But yeah, I play off my band. I used to do some solo stuff, but not being with my band, not having that creative outlet, I really miss them a lot.
--:-- Andy Cush: That loss of not being able to play off a band or improvise together or even react to what the audience is doing is one of the things artists miss most in 2020.
--:-- Andy Cush: That's after the break. Andy Cush is a contributing editor at Pitchfork. He also plays in the band Garcia Peoples.
--:-- Andy Cush: Even before the pandemic, over the last couple decades, as the recording industry has moved from physical sales to almost entirely streaming, that left a lot of money out of the pockets of artists, especially small artists, but big artists too.
--:-- Andy Cush: And the inability to tour has really exposed the deficiencies of streaming as a way to make a living for 99% of musicians. We're live, Joanna Conner J. Red, our first very private concert for two lovely humans. Here we go.
--:-- Andy Cush: We did do some with different festivals that we were supposed to be in. a couple of them did like a live stream thing in place of the actual show. We had like 30,000 people tuned in over a few days and we made a pretty good amount of money, you know, a few thousand dollars.
--:-- Andy Cush: And I split it with the band and I was like, well, OK, this is doable. But as time went on, within a couple of months, it went from like, say, $3,000 to $300.
--:-- Andy Cush: Joanna thinks audiences started tuning out because they were being inundated with virtual concerts. It's easy to sit in front of your phone and stream a live show from your basement. But if you want it to actually sound good, it's going to cost you.
--:-- Andy Cush: I can't see anything, so I don't know who's watching. All right. That's not going to work. Okay. The upfront cost of doing that is a lot higher than it would be to simply show up at a venue and play.
--:-- Andy Cush: You have to hire a camera crew. Perhaps you have to hire someone to edit the footage. the sound engineering requirements to get something that's going to sound good to broadcast over the internet are very different from getting something to sound good just in the room.
--:-- Andy Cush: So you may be looking at a few thousand dollars just to put one of these things on. But musicians still have to eat. And when COVID-19 attacked the service industry, which has long offered day jobs to musicians, artists like Joanna had to get creative.
--:-- Andy Cush: You know, it wasn't like I was flush with money or anything. So I applied for unemployment, and that took months because I'm not a typical worker. So that finally happened.
--:-- Andy Cush: But a lot of just wonderful humans out there were sending me PayPal money and, you know, hiring me to play in their backyard and write songs for people for their birthday. Just kind of think of any way possible just to bring in some cash.
--:-- Andy Cush: Even streaming giants are offering ways for fans to donate to their favorite artists. On Spotify, they created a mechanism, a virtual tip jar, they called it, for fans to donate directly to their favorite artists.
--:-- Andy Cush: You know, that's generous of Spotify, but it also feels to me like a sort of tacit acknowledgement that the money you're making from Spotify is not enough to keep you afloat for most artists.
--:-- Andy Cush: When Chicago's winter made backyard concerts impossible and the unemployment check and PayPal donations weren't enough, Joanna had to live off of something other than music.
--:-- Andy Cush: I've been a musician for decades, 30 plus years, and I haven't had a job. So I live up the street from a Trader Joe's where I shopped all the time and I was like, hey, do you guys need help?
--:-- Andy Cush: And they're like, yeah. So they actually had a couple interviews. They hired me, which was amazing. And it was the most physical work I'd ever done in my life. I'm like, wow, I'll never have to go to a gym. This is great.
--:-- Andy Cush: But she couldn't keep that up either. When COVID numbers in Chicago surged, she didn't feel safe going into work. So now when she's at home, she practices playing guitar on her own.
--:-- Andy Cush: But at first, it was kind of a saddening experience. I didn't really want to play my guitar for some reason. It was kind of like emotionally painful to pick it up or look at it.
--:-- Andy Cush: But yeah, I play off my band. I used to do some solo stuff, but not being with my band, not having that creative outlet, I really miss them a lot.
--:-- Andy Cush: That loss of not being able to play off a band or improvise together or even react to what the audience is doing is one of the things artists miss most in 2020.
--:-- Andy Cush: That's after the break. Andy Cush is a contributing editor at Pitchfork. He also plays in the band Garcia Peoples.
--:-- Andy Cush: Even before the pandemic, over the last couple decades, as the recording industry has moved from physical sales to almost entirely streaming, that left a lot of money out of the pockets of artists, especially small artists, but big artists too.
--:-- Andy Cush: And the inability to tour has really exposed the deficiencies of streaming as a way to make a living for 99% of musicians. We're live, Joanna Conner J. Red, our first very private concert for two lovely humans. Here we go.
--:-- Andy Cush: We did do some with different festivals that we were supposed to be in. a couple of them did like a live stream thing in place of the actual show. We had like 30,000 people tuned in over a few days and we made a pretty good amount of money, you know, a few thousand dollars.
--:-- Andy Cush: And I split it with the band and I was like, well, OK, this is doable. But as time went on, within a couple of months, it went from like, say, $3,000 to $300.
--:-- Andy Cush: Joanna thinks audiences started tuning out because they were being inundated with virtual concerts. It's easy to sit in front of your phone and stream a live show from your basement. But if you want it to actually sound good, it's going to cost you.
--:-- Andy Cush: I can't see anything, so I don't know who's watching. All right. That's not going to work. Okay. The upfront cost of doing that is a lot higher than it would be to simply show up at a venue and play.
--:-- Andy Cush: You have to hire a camera crew. Perhaps you have to hire someone to edit the footage. the sound engineering requirements to get something that's going to sound good to broadcast over the internet are very different from getting something to sound good just in the room.
--:-- Andy Cush: So you may be looking at a few thousand dollars just to put one of these things on. But musicians still have to eat. And when COVID-19 attacked the service industry, which has long offered day jobs to musicians, artists like Joanna had to get creative.
--:-- Andy Cush: You know, it wasn't like I was flush with money or anything. So I applied for unemployment, and that took months because I'm not a typical worker. So that finally happened.
--:-- Andy Cush: But a lot of just wonderful humans out there were sending me PayPal money and, you know, hiring me to play in their backyard and write songs for people for their birthday. Just kind of think of any way possible just to bring in some cash.
--:-- Andy Cush: Even streaming giants are offering ways for fans to donate to their favorite artists. On Spotify, they created a mechanism, a virtual tip jar, they called it, for fans to donate directly to their favorite artists.
--:-- Andy Cush: You know, that's generous of Spotify, but it also feels to me like a sort of tacit acknowledgement that the music you're making from Spotify is not enough to keep you afloat for most artists.
--:-- Andy Cush: When Chicago's winter made backyard concerts impossible and the unemployment check and PayPal donations weren't enough, Joanna had to live off of something other than music.
--:-- Andy Cush: I've been a musician for decades, 30 plus years, and I haven't had a job. So I live up the street from a Trader Joe's where I shopped all the time and I was like, hey, do you guys need help?
--:-- Andy Cush: And they're like, yeah. So they actually had a couple interviews. They hired me, which was amazing. And it was the most physical work I'd ever done in my life. I'm like, wow, I'll never have to go to a gym. This is great.
--:-- Andy Cush: But she couldn't keep that up either. When COVID numbers in Chicago surged, she didn't feel safe going into work. So now when she's at home, she practices playing guitar on her own.
--:-- Andy Cush: But at first, it was kind of a saddening experience. I didn't really want to play my guitar for some reason. It was kind of like emotionally painful to pick it up or look at it.
--:-- Andy Cush: But yeah, I play off my band. I used to do some solo stuff, but not being with my band, not having that creative outlet, I really miss them a lot.
--:-- Andy Cush: That loss of not being able to play off a band or improvise together or even react to what the audience is doing is one of the things artists miss most in 2020.
--:-- Andy Cush: That's after the break. Andy Cush is a contributing editor at Pitchfork. He also plays in the band Garcia Peoples.
--:-- Andy Cush: Even before the pandemic, over the last couple decades, as the recording industry has moved from physical sales to almost entirely streaming, that left a lot of money out of the pockets of artists, especially small artists, but big artists too.
--:-- Andy Cush: And the inability to tour has really exposed the deficiencies of streaming as a way to make a living for 99% of musicians. We're live, Joanna Conner J. Red, our first very private concert for two lovely humans. Here we go.
--:-- Andy Cush: We did do some with different festivals that we were supposed to be in. a couple of them did like a live stream thing in place of the actual show. We had like 30,000 people tuned in over a few days and we made a pretty good amount of money
