‘Losses are incalculable’: Coils of Australian music COVID hit | Art and Culture News

Melbourne, Australia – Peter Noble remembers remembering the moment he had to close his music festival a few hours earlier.

“That was a terrible panic, it was a traumatic situation not only for me but for my entire team,” he told Al Jazeera.

He is the director of Noble Bluesfest, an annual Australian music festival. He has seen stars like James Brown, BB King and Norah Jones on stage.

The award-winning Bluesfest, held at the famous coastal tourist destination in Byron Bay in North New Wales, brings together around 25,000 people in the region, creating millions for the local economy.

However, the effect of COVID-19 closed the festival when it was due to be opened by Australian health authorities the night before, based on a single case in the region.

“We went ready and we were in discussions until the night before the public health order was revoked,” Noble said. “I’m still shaking my head and I’m like, ‘Was that action done, was it only available?’

“Not only were we closed, we also closed the entire region driven in an hour. The losses are incalculable. It’s not just the millions of dollars we’ve dropped and lost, it’s the tens of millions of dollars we lost because our region couldn’t fully negotiate.”

This year’s 2021 cancellation came after last year’s event was canceled. In 2020, they were given a three-week notice.

The cancellation of the music events caused by the coronavirus has hit the Australian music industry hard.

Not only have major festivals like Bluesfest closed, but small pub concerts have had to close, tours have been canceled and the ability to rehearse and record has also been reduced due to ongoing closures.

The economic modeling of consulting firm PwC Australia has indicated that the Australian music industry will be worth A $ 1.82 billion ($ 1.36 billion) in 2019, which is expected to drop to 90 per cent by 2020.

They saw on the Australian music scene that their 32-year march was almost interrupted in March 2020 as a result of the pandemic.

The band members live in different states of Australia and due to travel restrictions, they had to record the new album remotely.

“We just had to adjust,” bassist and director Andy Kent told Al Jazeera. “We somehow managed to make the record when we weren’t even in the same situation.”

The Australian music industry has traditionally relied on tours and live performances to raise revenue and expose artists.

You Am I, who started playing together in 1989, fully understands the importance of live performances by new and emerging bands.

“If you have 2,000 people in a room, your market [merchandise] sales will go up, “Kent said.” And if you do a lot of touring, there are a lot of people who are involved with you, so your profile goes up and you have more opportunities to play on the radio or record sales will go up. “

They managed to record their new album You Am I, although they were all in different Australian states and could not travel across the border [Courtesy of You Am I]

Kent told Al Jazeera that while You Am Ik is fortunate to have more than 30 years of experience and a solid loyal fan base, the lack of tour and performance options poses a major challenge for new and emerging bands.

“That core core that plays out in front of that number of people is very important to the music business and those touring bands,” he said.

Going live online

The yet-to-be-created patriotic soul singer Kee’ahn took on the challenge, releasing his debut single Better Things in mid-2020.

With Melbourne’s hometown in the middle of a month-long closure, Kee’ahn thought it was the right time to launch the song.

“I liked it, I really like it because I love putting on this song and I think it can be helpful at this stage of it all,” Kee’ahn told Al Jazeera.

With no chance to help direct or tour Better Things, the song still attracted the radio only from its online version and won the award at the 2020 National Indigenous Music Awards.

“They were all connected [due to the lockdown] so it exploded that way, ”Kee’ahn said.

The singer – who means “dancing, singing and playing” in her family’s native Wik language – said the blockchain has opened up online opportunities that many musicians hadn’t considered before.

“Personally, I am very interested [in how] From Tik Tok and Instagram to music and [how] artists can take advantage of the currents and start a music career without doing a live concert, ”he said.

“I really like the online space that Zoom and IG are doing live. The younger generation can adapt to the online space. I’m not saying the older generation can’t, but I think it’s easier [for young people]”.

Kee’ahn wants to explore the possibilities of live streaming on social media platforms [Ali MC/Al Jazeera]

However, despite the opportunities offered by online engagement, Kee’ahn also accepts the limitations.

“It’s not the same as doing it online through Zoom,” he said. “But it’s highlighted how more accessible music can go for people who can’t go online in person. I [still] think that live music is really important. ”

Noble continues to believe that support should be given to the Australian live music industry.

“I don’t want it to be the end of major live Australian music events,” he said. “I see people resorting to streaming events and that really worries me.”

Musicians and artists were able to get the Australian government’s Jobkeeper allowance, a minimum wage welfare program designed to help workers who became unemployed due to the fall of COVID-19.

However, access to the job has come to an end and although the government has pledged an additional $ 135 million ($ xxxxm) to support the industry, it is below the nearly $ 2 billion ($ xxxxxm) generated annually.

Noble says that live music, in particular, is essential not only for giving concerts to the audience, but also for the income that the musicians generate.

“CD profits basically went to zero and since streaming is zero, the music industry relies on live performances for its income,” Noble said.

“And now I’m starting to see streaming events that are being replaced by live music events. I can assure you that artists’ pay isn’t equal or that it’s not equal to what artists pay for live performances.”

Noble says the Australian government should support the music industry in the same way it has advocated for the return of sport.

Ten thousand people can now take part in sports matches and an Olympic team has been sent to Tokyo, despite some of the most drastic travel restrictions in the world as a result of the Australian COVID-19 – to the point that even citizens could not. to return home.

Peter Noble hopes Bluesfest will finally be able to move forward in October with a band from across Australia [File: Torsten Blackwood/AFP]

However, drastic social exclusion measures have drastically reduced the capacity of live music venues and laws prohibiting dancing have also been enacted.

“There’s a joke across the industry that all musicians have to run to the stage wearing a football jump and throw a ball to the audience and they won’t stop us,” Noble said. “But there’s a lot of truth in that joke.”

Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, Noble will host Bluesfest for the third time.

With the Australian line-up to be held in October now, he says, “it was very difficult for us to get up and get down from the sterile.”

You might try the festival and live music even more.

COVID-19 bis has returned to visit and Sydney is blocked amid a new outbreak caused by the more transmissible Delta variant.