music and Covid-19

For an artist, art is a means of making a living. But what are the revenue streams of musicians, composers and music makers these days, and how are they distributed among various artists and groups? What are the prospects of continuing to make a living in music in the post-pandemic future?

During the last year, music consumption has been confined inside the four walls of individual homes, but at the same time it has expanded with the help of streamed concerts which give access to performances from around the world.

"The resilience of our industry has been weighed in the balance and found to be sound. We will pull through this, but it will require us to accept that the change is permanent and to respond to that change," writes Annamaija Saarela in her FMQ column.

As the pandemic fades in Finland and live gigs resume, what have we learned from the abrupt leap into the virtual space? And where do we go from here? Is live streaming here to stay – or just the first step?

"Could emphatic escapism in fact be the best reflection of the current time, where all of us wish that we were living in the past? Perhaps a symbolic farewell to that which is past is the best way to proceed to something new? Accordingly, the concerts at the Time of Music festival in summer 2021 will be memorial plaques of the future," writes artistic director, composer Johan Tallgren in his column.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a boom time for freelancers, according to Forbes. But not for freelance musicians.

Maarit Kytöharju is a Helsinki-based photographer who specialises in taking photos of music and musicians. She made us a compilation of 12 photos reflecting the shifting moods in live music in Finland in 2020.

Composer Kimmo Hakola has been an expert consultant in cultural administration at home and abroad for the past 20 years. In this column, he discusses aspects of the Finnish grants system and the cumulative financial impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the music scene.

A wall of sound produced by a choir, when done just so, can pierce the heart and reach right up to the tear ducts. Singing familiar songs together fosters a sense of community, linking us to a generational chain of singers of bygone times as the shared joy of raising our voices together generates positive energy. Scientific studies have shown that singing together has measurable health benefits. In the Year of the Coronavirus, however, singing has suddenly been deemed a dangerous activity, and as such has been restricted or banned outright. Nevertheless, singing did and does go on, even under these exceptional circumstances.

“There is a solemn atmosphere at concerts in 2020, held with social distancing. Nothing, it seems, can be taken for granted any more. Circumstances may change at short notice, and any given live performance may turn out to be the last one for a long time. Audiences are subdued. There is a sense of ceremony at concerts: guided by staff, we exit the hall in an orderly procession, faces covered.” Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen discusses the importance of extraordinary concerts in these extraordinary times.

In November 2020, the pandemic situation in Finland has remained calm enough for cultural functions to carry on.* In these exceptional times, there is an unusually great hunger for art, and socially distanced concerts provide a vital antidote to anxiety and uncertainty.

”Could we talk in 10 minutes, I’m just returning some backline drums from our tour?” says Charles Gil, picking up the phone on a dimly-lit November afternoon. It’s business as usual for the French producer who has lived and worked in Finland since 1995, introducing Finnish audiences in places near and far to high quality improvised music from France, Finland and beyond time and again.

For all the grief that the coronavirus pandemic has caused, it has also brought out a great many strengths in the music sector. People in the arts are no strangers to creative, solution-oriented thinking and reactiveness, and the exceptional circumstances we are experiencing have bred novel concepts, operating models, content and applications.

In the Spring of 2020, Finland was dragged into a state of emergency by the coronavirus pandemic. While some struggled with the combination of working from home and supervising their children’s distance learning and home care, others carried on living and working like usual. All of a sudden, there were lots of people who had more time on their hands than before. How did the COVID-19 blight effect the consumption of music and what kind of music did Finns turn to in these trying times?