I’ve lost 5 gigs so far (with more likely) in the month of March because of the COVID-19 Virus and ALL of my musician friends are feeling it too. I’m also a worship leader at a Church and guess what! Church Services are canceled and I won’t be working much. I also just got word that my sons school is canceled. WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!
Many of my musician friends gig FULL TIME and rely on that income to pay their bills. (SAME!) At first, I panicked for myself and my friends, THEN I got CREATIVE. Here are a few creative ideas for my musician friends to help get them through the COVID-19 Virus Crisis!
1.) DO AN ONLINE LIVE STREAMED CONCERT
The world is moving away from in-person gatherings and shows and going online! This is a unique opportunity for us to take advantage of all the people who are BORED TO DEATH and online.
One thing I would suggest before doing any of these: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE QUALITY VIDEO AND SOUND! Have Pro Mics set up, use a nice DSLR camera with a video capture card. If you don’t know how to do this, reach out to someone on FB to help!
Theres a few ways you could run an online concert:
STAGE IT: About Stage It <— Read more about it here. Stage it allows you to have a tip jar and sell virtual tickets! Pretty sure they take a percentage off the top, but most virtual concert websites do. If you know of a better one, Let me know!
FACEBOOK LIVE: For facebook live, in the description you can put your Venmo & Cash App info for people to Tip and I’m pretty sure that you can create a tip jar through paypal that is built into FB!
YOUTUBE LIVE: You could put all of your virtual tip jar info in the description and encourage people to give!
INSTAGRAM LIVE: Depending on your demographic instagram live could be a good way to go too.
If you have PATREON, you can do a live stream there as well!
With any of these, be sure to promote this event like you would a normal show. Make a Flier, Make a Facebook Event, have a link for people to join the Live Stream in your profile on Insta, etc!
Be sure that what you prepare for this live stream event adds value to the people interacting with it!! Be thoughtful, have a Q&A time and of course play your music!
2.) HOST A WEBINAR
Think about what you do well as a musician…? Now how can that help another musician trying to do the same thing? Make it into an online class or Webinar!
I hosted a class on how to be a songwriter for TV & Film, and it was awesome! I’m planning to do another one on How to Independently Release and Promote a Single, so be looking out for that! (wink, wink)
Here’s an example of my Webinar Flyer:
I made this Flyer and a cool presentation through CANVA. Be professional, be organized and have fun!
I made it so people could get tickets to the class on Eventbrite and had a Meeting link to ZOOM meeting in the confirmation Email! I also sent out the link and info for the class to the email that I got as they signed up through Eventbrite.
3.) OFFER MUSIC LESSONS ONLINE
ALL the kids are off school right now and it could be a great time for them to jump into some online music lessons! It’s totally doable and FaceTime, SKYPE and ZOOM make it super easy to host music lessons!
4.) CREATE CONTENT
This won’t make you money up front, BUT it will up your game in the future! Schedule a Photo Shoot, Music Video Shoot, Write Music, Record, and Create a strategy moving forward.
Tons of sound engineers are majorly getting freed up from having no live shows to run so they have more time for recording! Take advantage of that and schedule some studio time! The more songs you have in your arsenal to release, the more money you’ll be able to make from streaming services and the like.
Same with Photographers of events! Hit them up and help them out!
5.) BUSK IN FRONT OF BUSY STORES
I had a clever comment from Taylor Hansen and almost laughed, but thought, dang that’s genius!! “Busking in front of the line at Costco and Trader Joe's. You could easily make $40/hr. I once played for 30 minutes in front of Trader Joe's and made $60.” Do this at your own risk to germs of course, but that goes without saying...
6.) START A PATREON
Patreon helps you to develop a direct relationship with your biggest fans and generate predictable, recurring revenue from your creative work. It’s a way where people can pay you monthly for the things you are continually creating! Hearing from friends, it can be A LOT to maintain, but can be majorly worth it!
7.) START A PODCAST
If you have recording equipment, editing software, love to talk to other musicians or talking about music, you could start a podcast and have AD’s or sponsors on it to make money! I know this is a slow build, but it’s an idea for people who are into podcasting!
8.) TRANSCIPTION
This isn’t music related, but it’s audio related and could make for easy work! Check out REV to find out more!
9.) GROCERY AND FOOD DELIVERY SERVICES
NO ONE is wanting to go out of their house right now so Grocery Delivery and Food Delivery Services like INSTA CART, UBER EATS, and DOOR DASH would be good to look into for the time being!
I know this is only scratching the surface. If you have any other ideas, send them my way! I’d love to hear them!
All the best to you as you weather this world in light of the COVID-19 Virus. You’re not alone and be sure to join an ONLINE COMMUNITY of musicians and band together!
