The Impact Of COVID-19 On The Life Of Musicians Worldwide

Farshad Mohammadi 

Contents

Introduction

Impact of COVID-19 on the music industry

Why musical concerts are banned due to COVID-19

Aerosolisation and COVID-19

Impact of lack of music on psychological and well-being of society

The market for Live Concert and the Recorded music

Role of Agencies of live concerts

Role of Technology and Social Media On the survival of covid-19

Future of musicians and the performers

Advancement in the technology of music

Conclusion

Reference

Introduction

The epidemic of the COVID-19 virus was first recognised in the Hubei province of China. However, gradually, it spread all over the world and affected millions of people worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported the highest rate of affected people in China on 20 January 2020. Moreover, in the mid of February, the mortality rate and the morbidity rate in China exceed due to this pandemic of COVID-19. However, the virus rapidly spread in other European and Asian countries and caused destruction worldwide (Velavan and Meyer, 2020). 

COVID-19 is the type of virus in enclosed or encircleencircledwith large single-strand RNA. The virus spreads in the whole body by the rapid replication of the RNA that contaminates human beings and animals who were also infected by this virus (Zhou et al., 2020). The coronavirus was recognised first by Tyrell and Bynoe in 1966 and suggested that this virus originated from typical cold patients and was comprised of sphere-shaped virions enclosed by the shell-like covering (Velavan and Meyer, 2020). 

Impact of COVID-19 on the music industry

COVID-19 has very severe impacts on the life of human beings. It provokes psychological, physiological as well as socio-economic stress in society. Moreover, it also affects the known people of the world who worked as representatives of every country, such as politicians, artists, musicians, singers, business people, etc. COVID-19 drastically hit the music industry in the real sense (Hall, 2020). So, writing this article aims to critically investigate the impact of COVID -19 on the lives of musicians worldwide. This helps us identify those relevant factors to bounce back their position and again take the initiative for the upgrowth of the music industry and recognise the ways of their survival. 

Why musical concerts are banned due to COVID-19

As music is the passion of several people, it is also the profession of a musician. It is the way of earning money from them. So, it is the fundamental need for their survival as well as their families. Due to COVID-19, everything stuck, and it put adverse effects on the economy worldwide. All the musical concerts, the recorded music, and studios were not working and were strictly banned because of the precaution of social distancing.

Furthermore, research claims that medium-sized is formed at a high rate during speaking and singing. A higher concentration of viruses is present in these medium-sized particles. These particles can stay in the environment for many hours, float from one place to another, have a higher probability of viruses than the droplets of other uninfected people and easily find the host for infecting. They are generated in the lungs’ alveoli due to the opening and closing of these alveoli during inhalation (Helding et al., 2020). 

Aerosolisation and COVID-19

That is why vocal folds sometimes produce high pitch sounds named aerosolisation, while speaking and singing produce these medium-sized particles that spread in the environment. To focus on the SOPs, every country’s government banned live music concerts and other musical centres and competitions for a short period until this pandemic went out of the world. Research also reported that a large number of aerosols are made by singing rather than speaking, which is the main factor for spreading covid-19 (Helding et al., 2020). 

Music is the mean of expressing emotions and communicating with other people. It is used by every people and every culture all over the world. It is a kind of action or activity that gives internal and external enjoyment to the listeners. Still, its effects are not only amusing to human beings yet, but it also has a positive impact on society’s psychological well-being as a whole (Velavan and Meyer, 2020). The scientist has proved that the brain works more efficiently with the powerful effect of music. It has also been noted that music has several positive impacts, such as it helps in pain reduction and stress-relieving. 

Impact of lack of music on psychological and well-being of society

As it has several positive effects, but at the same time, a lack of music and art harm society’s mental and well-being. During the period of COVID-19, people are more stressed and psychologically disturbed. So, when people have no exposure to new musical albums, they cannot relax their minds and body. It increases stress and pain in their mind. Sometimes people cannot release their stress or tension listening to their favourite singer’s music.

Nevertheless, the lack of music can also decrease human beings’ daily performance and harm people’s psychological well-being. They may become stubborn and not concentrate on their daily tasks (Walsh, 2020).  It also reduces the recognizability of the people as they are not even taking an interest in anything. It creates a feeling of sadness and hopelessness among the partake that music’s appeal has a cultural, moral, emotional, and psychological impact on society irrespective of whether it belongs to a different culture and society. If we generate a more intentional message and sounds with music’s help, it helps make positive and powerful emotions (Velavan and Meyer, 2020).

The market for Live Concert and the Recorded music

The market for recorded music and live concert cannot be the same. However, these two markets interplay and depend on each other work. Due to the difference in both music types causes unbundling of music or splitting it into parts. So it facilitates the people to pick up the piece they cherish rather than buying the whole album (Papies and van Heerde, 2017).  Both of these markets earn millions of profit. Still, if we see the growth rate between these, we can easily observe that people are more interested in going to live concerts, so the estimated growth rate of live concerts is more than that of recorded music. In this way, those artists who cannot save their revenues just by the recorded music are now saving their lost revenues with live concert performances. 

Role of Agencies of live concerts

Artists are interested in making contacts with the agencies of live concerts that enhance productivity and benefit both artists and the agency.  We take an example of the Madonna or U2 artists who firstly produce their albums and then go on world tours for their promotion. It provokes the cross buying of record music than the concert. At that time, the concert is considered the secondary source of earning money and profit after recording the albums. With shows turning into an undeniably significant type of revenue, the cross-purchasing conduct from records to show passes might be more applicable. This new centre is outlined distinctly, making collections accessible for nothing to upgrade show pass deals (Papies and van Heerde, 2017). 

Role of Technology and Social Media On the survival of covid-19

Technology and social media positively affect the music or musical industry’s survival during this pandemic. Musicians are trying to get in contact with their fans and audience for amusement. Due to the ban on social gatherings, few places are offered to the musician for their live streaming concerts. However, these places are also shut due to the severe condition of a pandemic. So the musician decided to use the social media platform and other technological facilities to communicate and come in contact with their fans. Now, musicians perform and entertain their fans from home (Marrone, Resetar and Schwam, 2020). They are using Facebook, Instagram, and other technological apps. All have the equipment for live streaming from home, and they can easily record their songs and communicate with their audience from home. Some channels also give membership to the artists and initiate the novel monetisation technique. It enables them to get easy access to the context as well as the social crowds. Live streaming is not a complete replacement for a live concert. We cannot replace it because live concerts give profit to the agency and the artist (Tokay, 2020).  

Future of musicians and the performers

COVID-19 has drastically affected the music industry worldwide. There are lockdown and curfew for many reasons, such as the ban on social gatherings and live concerts. All these situations exert a negative impact on the musician. Nevertheless, during a pandemic, many agencies play an essential role in maintaining the music industry’s performance and preventing them from falling. Moreover, this situation can only be overcome after this pandemic. We have seen the musicians and performers still interested in their work; it seems like this pandemic enables them to reduce the hope and optimistic behaviour they take from their music. After the pandemic, the music industry became more advanced, and now they have all the techniques by which they can cope with the situation. This experience of covid 19 made them more robust than the last time. They come up with more zeal for work and polish themselves in this field. Technological advancement in the upcoming years in this musical industry gives more benefits to the musicians and the other agencies (Engina, 2020.). 

Advancement in the technology of music

To bring improvement, musicians are still doing experiments with Al, but there is no specific information related to its working. However, it has been suggested that AL music technology will enable us to enjoy creative and meaningful exposures in the future. For improving musicians’ performance, the use of new technology is not a new idea, such as Auto-Tune is the system that automatically corrects the wrong notes of the music and makes corrections in the performance of a musician (Csathy, 2020). However, researchers use another app, such as Smule, to do all these changemakers naturally to the AL system. The AL system’s fundamental aim is to allow everyone to compose music using new ideas. This shows us that new technology can improve musicians’ performance in the future when this era of pandemics went out successfully. 

Conclusion

It is concluded from the research that COVID 19 harms the life of musicians. It stops the working of a musician and stuck the working of the whole music industry. The vocal folds, sometimes producing a high-pitched sound named aerosolisation while speaking and singing, grew these medium-sized particles that spread in the environment. These particles are responsible for spreading COVID 19 among the population. It is a kind of action or activity that gives internal and external enjoyment to the listeners. Still, its effects are not only amusing to human beings yet, but it also has a positive impact on society’s psychological well-being as a whole.

Nevertheless, the lack of music can also negatively affect the whole society. It creates a feeling of sadness and hopelessness among the people. If we generate a more intentional message and sounds with the help of music, it directly helps make positive and powerful emotions. Technology and social media positively affect the music or musical industry’s survival during this pandemic. Musicians are putting efforts to get in contact with their fans and audience for their amusement. So in the future, we see improvement in the musical industry and the musicians’ performance with the help of new technology and the recognition of the new digital systems that quickly correct their wrong musical notes and enhance this field’s productivity. 

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