As the Coronavirus Pandemic directly impacts Songwriters, Musicians and Artists - what can we do to help?

Jeeni Blog

Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

As the Coronavirus Pandemic directly impacts Songwriters, Musicians and Artists - what can we do to help?

Reluctantly we cannot avoid a discussion about the impact of Coronavirus. Yesterday my son flew to Manilla in the Philippines where there is a state of emergency and where the community will be placed under quarantine for one month. At Jeeni HQ, key personnel have decided to self-isolate and social distance for the sake of our family, our loved ones and the business. It's all become very real, very fast.

I have handpicked some relevant articles for our members, but it's a bit doom and gloom I am afraid.

John Ochoa states: "By now, the detrimental effects of the global coronavirus pandemic on the music industry are loudly heard. Major festivals around the world are postponing or outright cancelling their 2020 editions. This month alone, Coachella and Stagecoach, Ultra Music Festival, SXSW, Lollapalooza Argentina, Treefort Music Fest, Brussels' Listen! Festival and several other major events were called off or postponed. The aftermath has impacted everything from music conferences and award shows—this year's Winter Music Conference, ASCAP Experience, Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and BMI Latin Awards were all cancelled or postponed—while the amount of cancelled national and international tours continues to grow seemingly on the daily.

As the coronavirus continues to spread, so too do its ramifications on the music industry. While industry experts and analysts are projecting that the live concert business could stand to lose billions, the financial fallout is virtually immeasurable at this point". http://bit.ly/2U1EH38

Norton and Denham conclude: "The coronavirus pandemic is scary for many who live on tight margins or don’t have the security of a steady paycheck. That includes independent musicians, venue owners, promoters, and others whose livelihood depends on a thriving and functioning arts and music scene". http://bit.ly/2IMuSAW

The Digital Fix has started a discussion about how we can help? They say that: "We should buy physical CDs or downloads enabling artists to keep the money for themselves. and invite every band/artist to share their music with links to buy". http://bit.ly/3aW501o

But is that enough, surely we can do more? What about lobbying the streaming services that pay artists peanuts. This could be the trigger to get them to offer some real help.

Let's have some positive proposals from this community. Online collabouration instead of face to face rehearsals and jams? How to help our more vulnerable members get through if things get really tough? Over to you.

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10
Dec

Portsmouth Based Tech Start-Up encourages local business to benefit from Kickstart, as December 17 deadline looms.

Local companies are up against the clock if they want to benefit from Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s generosity. The deadline to register for the Government Kickstart scheme, which pays for hand-picked new recruits to boost businesses, is Friday 17th December, so time is of the essence. Local entrepreneur Dr Shena Mitchell is founder of Jeeni, the ethical music streaming service with an audience outreach of over 3 million music lovers, and she is full of praise for Kickstart. “I have been hugely impressed by the quality of the applications, all our new recruits have been brilliant and they are a great asset to my team. So far we have recruited Marketing Executives, Sales Executives, Technical Developers, a Partnership Coordinator, as well as a Human Resource Manager to handle all these new recruits for us. In fact, we’ve been so impressed with the quality of our new applicants, that we’ve applied for another six recruits.” Her company has been working with their specialist partners Gradfuel, who are consultants for the Department of Work and Pensions, which is where the Kickstart grant funding comes from. “It’s a great opportunity for companies like ours to bring keen young graduates on board for a minimum of six months, and scale up our business. We not only do the right thing by helping new talent, but the cream of the crop could stay with us for years to come. Best of all, there’s no financial risk, with over £8,000 worth of grant money to support each young person taken on board.” The Kickstarter benefits are remarkably generous, and with only days left to register, Shena is offering to help local businesses take advantage. Benefits include £1,500 upfront grant funding from the UK Government, for each young person they enrol, in addition to their salary. 100% of their salary covered for up to 6 months and up to 100 hours a month. “Our partners Gradfuel are the experts in the market, and have raised £18.7m in Kickstart grant funding so far. We’ve had a 99.5% success rate in our applications, against the market average of 22%, supporting over 1,400 companies to process their Kickstart applications.” Full information and a direct link to registering for Kickstart applications is available on https://jeeni.com/kickstart/ shena@jenni.com 07703567196

06
Jun

Why weird is my new wonderful.

By Sammie Venn Jeeni's Official Writer, Columnist and Blogger. The dictionary definition of weird is “extraordinary, out of this world” I remember the feeling of utter hope and merriment when I read that. I suddenly didn’t feel alone anymore. Once I fully released my inner oddball, the magic started to happen. The people who I thought I loved and loved me just fell away. It was like watching grains of sand slip through my fingers. At the time it felt like a gigantic loss but in hindsight it was the best gift I could have been given. I’m grateful every day for all the losses as what I have gained surpasses anything I could have dreamt of. I came out of the “kooky closet” said a tentative hello to my new surroundings and have never looked back. Having always felt like I had trodden a different path in life, I used to feel embarrassed about my so called “weirdness”. A damaging label that was attributed over the course of many years. Always being on the periphery at school, shallow friendships and poor choices in men made me feel like there was something wrong with me. Decades later I began the journey of coming to terms with whatever it was that made me feel a bit different. I read countless books, watched documentaries on Gaia, downloaded as many spiritual audibles as I could afford and after a period of counselling I realised that actually being “different” totally rocked and I certainly wasn’t the only one experiencing all those feelings of self-doubt. Self-doubt had finally set sail to distant shores and my passport to a happier more soulful life had been stamped with creativity with no expiration date. My wired but wonderful List...So I’m not ashamed of saying that... 3am – the hour of writers, poets, musicians, silence seekers and overthinkers – In this crazy time that is 3am I really do achieve a lot of work. The silence is accompanied with prolific bird song and the sunrise paints a spectacular sunset across the fields. So there is no better landscape for creativity. Gardening at Night -I water my roses at midnight in an old fashioned Victorian nightie with a gin and tonic in hand. The kiss of the night time breeze provides a magical space to reflect on the past 24 hours and plan the next. Adventure at work -I have made a home office in my camper van and drive to various different places to work and mediate and be away from the humdrum of daily life. I need to be portable otherwise I feel stagnant and confined. My camper caters for most needs; a whistling kettle for fresh coffee, a writing station and insanely comfortable bed for those cheeky afternoon power naps. Writing Erotica -I love to write erotic poetry and have an entire bookcase at home dedicated to naughtiness throughout the ages. Ancient manuscripts and recent tomes dedicated to Love, and all of the emotions surrounding it adorn the shelves. Wild words and Soul Magic - I have about 10 different tarot desks I particularly Love Rebecca Campbell’s “Work your light” the illustrations are as magical as her words. I love to practice either quietly by myself or with my bestie in London. We savour our weekends as they are few and far between these days but we still write together and have created different worlds where we pretend to live like we were once warrior soul sisters. In fact lockdown has been perfect for that. There are so many other things I do in my arsenal of “weird but wonderful” and I wouldn’t be without any of them now. Lewis Carroll wrote in “Alice in Wonderland” “you’re mad, bonkers, completely off your head. But I’ll Tell you a secret. All the best people are”. Definitely my mantra, it even sits as a plaque on my wall in the studio. Have you got any practices or quirks that you embrace? We would love to hear about them. Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com

05
Jun

How to Monetise Live Streaming

The Independent Musicians and Performers Community wants to spotlight the fact that as gigs, concerts, tours and festivals are cancelled, musicians and performers will be unable to play in front of significant live audiences for the foreseeable future. Some of our members have asked for advice on what software or streaming platforms to use and how can this community help them monetise live streaming. The monetisation of live streaming is possible in a few different ways. The most straightforward one is via donations, which is pretty quick and simple to set up via PayPal. Having spent a couple of days looking for sound advice and guidance I found this blog which was sent in by one of our members. Fellipe Baldauf, so thanks very much Fellipe. The blog has been specifically designed to serve freelance artists, and those interested in supporting the independent artist community. This includes, but is not limited to, actors, designers, producers, technicians, stage managers, musicians, composers, choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, craft artists, teaching artists, dancers, writers & playwrights, photographers, etc. Check out the blog, it is very comprehensive and we found it very useful. https://covid19freelanceartistresource.wordpress.com/ I hope you agree the blog is brilliant and not to be missed as essential reading, the writers are non political, non self promoting whilst provide extremely free advice useful lists and links to information on very topical subjects such as: Emergency Funding, International Resources, Best Practices for Online Teaching, Online Platforms, Health and Mental Health Resources, Temporary and Remote Job Opportunities and Events. Example of bands streaming live concerts because of coronavirus include Orange and Gnash. Code Orange drummer and vocalist Jami Morgan told Newsweek that they decided to perform the concert after making every effort to have it happen as planned. He said after all the work put in, the hardcore idols had to do the show at least once. "We need to make two versions of this plan. One: that we could maybe still do this, with the show, because we don't know what's going to happen going forward," Morgan told Newsweek. "Another: we do it empty-arena match style and be the first ones to do it, and try to give everyone the show we've been working so hard on, and turn this negative to at least a little bit of a positive or something enjoyable for people who like heavy music." https://www.newsweek.com/code-orange-gnash-against-me-diplo-stream-shows-coronavirus-1492333 We have just registered to a live broadcast with Vimeo entitled: "How to Plan a virtual event: Vimeo's live production experts tell all". Greg Palmer, Senior Producer at Vimeo states that: "As businesses and organizations shift their in-person event strategies to virtual experiences, Vimeo’s live production team is here to help navigate these changes successfully under tight deadlines. We can provide expert advice on how schools, event coordinators, marketers, and more are evolving their event strategies to optimize engaging live streaming experiences". The broadcast includes: Why live streamed events make sense as a supplement for in person eventsHow Vimeo's virtual package is helping organisations quickly pivot to online experiences Why and when businesses should partner with a third partner production serviceCustomer stories of working with Vimeo's live production team for their virtual event. https://vimeo.com/pt-br/enterprise/live-production-broadcast That's it for now folks, Mel and I hope that you found this useful and share with like-minded people that might benefit. Written by Shena Mitchell and Mel Croucher founding directors of Jeeni.com

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