COVID 19 & THE CHALLENGES FACED BY UPCOMING, UNSIGNED AND INDEPENDENT ARTISTS.
As we artists we survive through doing shows.. Some artists do music as their full time job.. They got families to feed. We wish if the government can do something than folding hand and doing nothing about it. We will start a resistance movement or something that'll speak for us as artists. As Africans
THE arts sector’s short-lived celebrations after the announcement by the President that the sector will be allowed to open and host shows with minimum crowds, that is just an example of how Covid-19 has been a nightmare to the sector.
The sector was closed when the pandemic got announced in the country in March last year and it has been closed since that term and is causing job losses.
Why artistes are suffering more?
Generally, art and culture has not been paying it's role well for many organizations and only a few artists have really been making a proper living from their music. We can't actually count them. We believe these had investments and savings that have cushioned them up to now, So their cry is not as loud as the rest of the sector. To be honest, a lot of artists have actually left the sector and are trying other means to survive. When things ease up it will be difficult to convince them to come back into the sector because they have seen enough and they have suffered enough.
Since most artistes have been living a “hand to mouth” kind of life it simply means they have no savings. Without an income and savings, it means most have been living off their parents and relatives. But for how long can relatives help, especially if there’s more than one mouth to feed. For the few that have had opportunities to make money they forgot to invest or save. Don’t blame them, they never taught to save or invest. It is only now that they are seeing the folly of not investing and saving.
Most of us can't survive this experience, whether Covid-19 goes away now or not it has taught many of us a lot of things. One of the big lessons, especially for creatives, is to have several income streams.
This is deverstating, if one stream closes, you still don't have income coming from other initiatives or projects. Most artistes were caught unaware and learnt the hard way.
It is our hope that most will survive this rough patch. Another lesson learnt is the need to be flexible and adapt to new changes quickly. Covid-19 came and change a lot of things. We now focusing on digital marketing spaces. Few artists moved there and others can't make nothing from it.
It’s a game of survival now.The pandemic has shown us the need for financial literacy workshops across the sector which is important to artists as individuals and the sector at large.
Covid-19 could be here for long and we all wishing this pandemic monster to go so we can go on with our lives but deep down we are all afraid it may take its time with us, tormenting us as it pleases. In other words, we must be prepared to have it with us for a long time, meaning we must find ways to manoeuvre around it. Adapt or die.
That is the message we should be preaching to all artists.
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