Coronavirus: Who’s There To Help?
Are you affected by what is happening across the region? We are putting together a list of links and communities and their initiatives launched to pull the creative pool together amidst the challenges in live entertainment.
This article was updated on April 3, 2020, 3:03 p.m.
This list will be updated weekly. Know an event or project that can be added? Email editorial@musicpressasia.com.
FACEBOOK announced an additional $100 million investment to support the news industry—$25 million in emergency grant funding for local news through the Facebook Journalism Project, and $75 million in additional marketing spend to move money over to news organizations around the world.
I LOST MY GIG has launched its Philippines, Malaysia, Australia and Singapore version digitally involving creative producers from visual artists, musicians, DJs to photographers, arts manager and booking agents. I Lost My Gig Malaysia is an initiative by the Arts, Live Festival, Concerts and Events Association (ALIFE) is a not for profit body founded in May 2014.
LIVE NATION, announced Tuesday [March 31], has established a new charitable fund to help support concert crews worldwide. The Crew Nation fund will provide monetary relief for concert crew members impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, which has widely canceled concerts, festivals and other live events since it began spreading across the U.S. and Europe earlier this month.
MIDEM DIGITAL EDITION 2020: Despite its conference officially cancelled, all of its customers will still be able to get access to its livestream feature from June 2-5.
MUSIC MATTERS LIVE has launched #MMLFromHome. Inch Chua, singer and songwriter from Singapore officially kick started the initiative on March 25 via Instagram (@musicmatterstome). It will begin to roll out a series of music session with its community of alumni’s #MMLAlumni starting April 1.
NETFLIX has pledged $100 million to hundreds of thousands of employees—both inside and outside the Netflix umbrella—who are currently out of work. This initiatives is targeted at providing aid to production companies that have been crippled by the coronavirus outbreak. In a press statement by Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer last month, Netflix has plans to donate $1 million each to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Covid-19 Disaster Fund, the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Actors Fund Emergency Assistance in the US, and $1 million between the AFC and Fondation des Artistes in Canada.
SONY CORP. announced on April 2 that it has launched a $100 million Global Relief Fund to support ‘medical workers on the front lines; protect children and educators facing challenges…and creators, artists and other partners in the entertainment community who have been impacted by COVID-19.’ More information is available at MusicCovidRelief.com.
SOUNDCLOUD is giving away $15 million-worth of creator support to its community worldwide amid the Covid-19 pandemic, including a 50% discount on its SoundCloud Pro Unlimited subscription and also a partnership with Twitch. Following this announcement, it went a step forward launching more initiatives including a new direct fan-support button for all its registered creators; and also Repost – a new marketing and distribution service.
SPOTIFY Music Relief project partners with MusiCares, PRS Foundation, Help Musicians, Centre National de la Musique and Unison Benevolent Fund to offer financial relief to those in the music community in need, a dollar-for-dollar up to a total of $10 million in contribution. According to its latest release, Spotify said that it is working diligently to launch a feature that will ‘enable artists fundraise directly from fans’. Other programs from Spotify Creator Tools: SoundBetter is waiving its revenue share; Soundtrap, a cloud-based audio recording platform, will offer extended free trials for educators; Anchor will waive fees on its Listener Support feature.
