The Impact and Adjustment During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Artists

Abstract

           This study was conducted with the following objectives: 1) to review the body of knowledge and contexts that are involved with the living of musicians and their current employment; 2) to study the effect and how the musicians adapt themselves to the COVID-19 pandemic situation. This qualitative study employed the in-depth interviews with 6 participants as main data collection method. The participants consisted of musicians who were divided into 3 groups. The first group consisted of the musicians working at entertainment venues including pubs, bars, bistros, restaurants. The second group were the musicians who worked at night. The last group consisted of musicians working at the music festival or the event.

           As could be seen in the results that: 1) from the reviewing, at the present time the musicians were hiring directly by their clients via word of mouth. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, they worked at entertainment venues at night times and lived their life at night and rested in day times. 2) The musicians who were affected by COVID-19 pandemic had discussed the effects in many aspects including their work and living. The COVID-19 situation was significantly affecting their cost of living in terms of the expenses. Moreover, they had to adjust themselves to the new normal, which affecting their income after the entertainment venues had been closed. 3) The number musicians’ works were decreased by the change of music festival. 4) Being unemployed made their income insufficient to make a living. Therefore, they had to find a second job, for example, food delivery, music teacher, assistant restaurant manager. They changed their working time from nighttime to daytime or did work from home such as working on music, songwriting, performing music via Facebook.