In the last few years, I have got really into Stoicism – the ancient philosophy of the Stoics, such as Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus. One of the themes in their teachings is that adversity is a chance to show character, and develop your good attributes through right action.
Well… I didn’t really expect the world to be thrust into the kind of adversity that 2020 has generously handed us all, but here we are. We have adversity. Plenty of it, more than enough to go round.
So, we are left with choices about how to face down this challenge – and, happily, a lot of people are choosing to do good, to serve their communities, to help others through this difficult time. Its a pleasing reminder of the goodness of mankind that is there, so easy to forget.
In some instances, its been larger institutions offering hardship funds for musicians – for instance, Help Musicians launched Corona Musicians in the UK, offering £500 hardship grants to musicians suddenly cut off from making income. This had an incredible uptake, showing the trouble that many in the music industry face when unable to perform at events. While this particular fund is now finished, they will be rolling out new initiatives soon for musicians facing hardship.
UPDATE: Having received well in excess of 17,000 applications for the Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund, we are now pausing the fund while our team take a much-needed break over Easter. We are still fundraising in order to pay all that are eligible.
— Help Musicians (@HelpMusiciansUK) April 9, 2020
The Recording Academy (the people behind The Grammys) launched the COVID-19 Relief Fund, in partnership with their affiliated charitable foundation MusiCares.
Spotify has teamed up with various organisations to create a fund where every $1 donated (up to a maximum of $10m) will be matched by the streaming service. Called the Sustaining Creativity Fund, it is of the same ilk as the Help Musicians fund above, providing emergency grants for musicians and creators who are struggling. Interestingly, they are also working on a feature enabling artists to fundraise directly from their fans (music creators get a famously small amount of money per stream on Spotify, so a direct donate button could even be a great addition for after the crisis, much like how Bandcamp allows you to pay more for a track if you wish to)
Its great to see music companies stepping up in the way you’d hope, but even more impressive has been the way that DJs big and small have come together to raise funds for charities, food banks, and help people in this unusual and stressful time.
Ever the character, legendary dance music figure Fatboy Slim has announced that he is throwing a huge free party for NHS workers in his hometown Brighton, on 28th October.
Beatport ran a 24-hour livestream called ReConnect which featured some of the biggest names in dance music, and raised over $185k for COVID-related charities. DJs like Carl Cox, A-Trak, Toddy Terry and Nina Kraviz were involved. After the huge success of this fundraiser, they announced a follow-up for Friday 17th April, 36 artists across 36 hours, from Tiesto to Maceo Plex to Claude Vonstroke to Jack Back (David Guetta) – you can only think that if they have more success, this will become a feature of lockdown life!
Resident Advisor have done a great job of compiling multiple resources in one easy-to-access page – a genuinely global selection, with a short explanation of each. AdHoc, a Brooklyn-based concert promoter and publication, have put together this page with various suggestions for ways to help. Both of these have a real wealth of ideas an information, well worth a look.
At the top end of the pop world, Rihanna’s charitable foundation donated $5m towards efforts fighting COVID-19, benefiting various organisations. Both Rihanna and Jay-Z’s foundations also donated $2m between them to efforts in New York and Los Angeles.
Bruno Mars donated $1m to the MGM Resorts Foundation (matching the launch donation by MGM Resorts themselves), to support MGM employees impacted economically by the Coronavirus. “The people at MGM have given Bruno Mars the rare opportunity to be able to continuously gig while he’s in the creative process of working on his next album. With the closures across Las Vegas, Bruno wanted to show his appreciation to the amazing employees who help make these shows possible in hopes that we’ll all be out of this situation and having fun together again very soon”.
Legendary singer-songwriter Dolly Parton donated $1m towards the search for a vaccine, while Taylor Swift donated to her favourite record store in her hometown, as well as paying their health insurance for 3 month, and also made a donation to Feeding America. They also benefitted from Elton John’s “Living Room Concert For America“, which filled the gap in the schedules of the cancelled iHeart Radio Music Awards. Stars like Mariah Carey and Dave Grohl pitched in with performances!
DJ Khaled’s We The Best foundation donated 10k masks, as well as gloves and PPE for frontline healthcare workers in Miami and New York, and is working with SimpleHuman to provide touch-free soap pumps to communities across the USA, starting in Los Angeles.
Uk Garage legend DJ EZ partnered with Boiler Room to perform a 24 hour set to raise money, and afterward left this inspiring message in a thread on Twitter.
There is so much goodness in the world, let’s embrace it and remind ourselves of the importance of hope, kindness and love, these are the things that truly change the world.
[Read more…]
— DJ EZ (@DJEZOfficial) March 31, 2020
It was of course EZ and Boiler Room that gave us one of the definitive DJ moments of the 21st Century…
Boiler Room have also been running sessions called Streaming From Isolation, with sets from across the spectrum, including from underground superstars Dixon, The Black Madonna and Four Tet. Funds raised are going to the Global FoodBanking Network.
This crisis has led to some unexpected, but inspiring, changes in how DJs are living their lives. London’s Gscratch is normally busy DJing multiple gigs a week, but had been volunteering for his local food bank for a while on the side. Then, when the COVID storm hit and all the clubs closed, his boss suggested he take on an expanded role, meaning he was able to keep some money coming in, and serve his community even more than before, right when it needed it the most.
“The way I see it, I have been earning my living playing music like grime and hip hop that comes from the struggle in these communities. I think its only right to give something back however I can. And I think that helping your community is a huge benefit mentally as well – it really helps me put my own problem’s in perspective, and its a such a positive thing to be able to help people who need it”
Others have used their platform to raise money – Complexion runs his popular Future Beats Show, and saw an opportunity to help when he had lots of fans wanting to make donations to his show.
“I’m very lucky in the sense that a lot of my listeners are always asking me where they can send money to me for the radio show, I’ve never wanted to accept anything because I’ve always felt that the money should be going to the musicians. As someone whose income depends solely on DJing, not being to work for the foreseeable future is a scary thing, luckily Soundcloud made it very easy to support their users by adding a support button to the profile page.
I was thinking I’d get 40-50 dollars which I’d put back into paying for my account, but the money just kept coming in and once I reached £500 I wanted to give some of that to charity, as a lot of people are struggling due to not being able to work. Every time I streamed or a new episode of the show came out people kept donating, on last count we had raised over £1600!
I’ve been very transparent with where the money will be going, a small sum is being used to purchase some equipment so I can keep broadcasting (a new mic, promotion etc), and the rest is making it’s way to food banks around the world. Whilst we’re in quarantine I’ll keep going with different streams and my radio show and support those that need help as much as I can.”
In Philadelphia, Michael The Lion (sometimes known as Apt One) is involved with 24HRPHL, helping to put together community resources in the fight against COVID-19. This grassroots group is a civics engagement project within Philly’s nightlife, arts and culture community. Full of useful information, this sort of resource is incredibly valuable for people struggling to navigate such a difficult time.
On Facebook #LIVEFORLOVE crew have raised almost £18k in just a few weeks through livestreamed DJ sets, from DJs like Deekline, Krafty Kuts and Artwork. All money is for the Trussell Trust, who run food banks across the UK.
And the event House of Dinosaur have been running all manner of ridiculously over the top livestreamed events and activities (called Isolation Station!) to keep people entertained and exercised, always with a fundraising link on display.
You don’t need to be an organisation, or have an established podcast/radio show – UK DJ Ollie Beavis set up a Just Giving page for a livestream, and smashed his target, way beyond his wildest expectations. People are looking for ways to contribute, and DJs are in a great position to give them a way to do so, while entertaining them.
Hell – you can even get really creative with how to raise money. The comments sections for all underground DJ sets are covered in “ID?” track ID comments – Alec Falconer came up with a novel way to leverage that into fundraising…
So, as you can see – people are reaching out to help others, in an incredible variety of ways. DJs are used to being at the heart of many people’s leisure time, and while this situation presents a lot of professional challenges for anyone in the music industry, it also gives us a chance to do some good, entertain people through a difficult time, and raise money for worthy causes.
Head over to the pool to load up on the latest tracks, edits and remixes for your livestreams. And come follow me over on Instagram!