Live shows were sustaining music and musicians in India. Then came a pandemic

India's thriving music industry was by and large audience-driven with full-time musicians relying mostly on live shows for a living. Live music was the driving force that helped musicians sustain themselves and make a living by doing what they loved the most- making music and playing it live.

The COVID-19 pandemic came into the picture as the biggest disruptor and totally changed the dynamics. When the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns hit India, live shows stopped and musicians came face to face with uncertainty. Nobody had any clarity about the future and when they would ever be able to play live again.

Life around live shows

"Maximum impact of the pandemic has been on the live shows. I remember our last show was on March 15, 2020 just at the onset of the pandemic and the police came into our venue to stop the show on the instructions of the Deputy Commissioner. That was the turning point," said Pallav Jyoti Mahanta, a guitarist based out of Upper Assam's Jorhat. He plays in two bands -- ethnic-Bollywood rock band, Gravity and alternative rock band Rudra.

Mahanta also highlighted the fact that for many professional musicians, live shows were the primary source of income. Once they stopped in totality, things became difficult. As per Mahanta, struggling musicians had it the hardest and unfortunately, they didn't get any support from the government either. "Everyone should understand that music never comes for free," he highlighted.

Sachin Banandur of the popular band Parvaaz told BusinessToday.in that all the four members are full-time musicians and live music was their sole source of income. They had released their album Kun in late 2019 and were preparing to embark on a tour when India went into its first-ever nationwide lockdown in March 2020. "We had no shows for close to 17 months and had to live off our savings to sustain ourselves," said Banandur. Ever since the pandemic struck, Parvaaz played their ever live show in late October this year at Hyderabad.

The live music circuit faced brunt of the pandemic. With lockdown and other strict measures in place, organising a music show was next to impossible. Musicians were left in the lurch due to unprecedented chain of events.

"The live performance ecosystem for musicians is fairly simple in India. The money musicians make for a performance depends largely on who their audience is -- playing at local venues and sometimes performing for corporate crowds, college gigs or at a private party. Understandably, the financial returns are higher in the latter case," said Kaushik Jai Barua, a music entrepreneur and lawyer based out of Delhi. Barua runs a label called No Binary which works with a rapidly growing catalogue of genre non-conforming acts from around the Northeast Indian circuit.

Things far east

Northeast India (NE) has always had a robust independent music scene with musicians composing, playing and performing music across a variety of genres and languages. The NE is also home to various festivals like Hornbill and Ziro and countless informal festivals (college fests) that celebrate the true essence of western, regional and folk music and culture.
 
Lucid Recess is one of the most definitive alternative metal bands to have come out of Guwahati based in the late 2000s. Apart from their stellar compositions, the band is also known for their studio and record label that collaborates with independent musicians. Frontman Amitabh Barooa told BusinessToday.in that once the pandemic struck, their sustenance shifted from live shows to recording-production work that they had taken up. "We did production work for bands and films and that is how we managed to sustain ourselves during the pandemic period," said Barooa.

Even after when the number of COVID-19 cases dipped and restrictions were lifted, the live music circuit is far from normal, both in terms of shows and remuneration. "After the lockdown was lifted, there were no festivals or shows that were being held. Certain pubs and clubs were opening up, but the money they were offering was very less," Barooa added.

On an average, Lucid Recess used to do around four shows a month in pre-pandemic times, that came down to zero during the pandemic. As of now, the band is playing a show each month.

Sandeepan Baruah, the drummer of Lucid Recess said he wouldn't call himself a full-time musician as he relies on other sources of income to support his livelihood. "I would say music is a side hustle that contributes partly to what I earn," added Baruah.

As per Barooa, the band utilised their time during the lockdown to experiment with their music and wrote a lot of new songs. He concluded by saying that the band's fourth album is in the pipeline and will be released soon.

Actor-singer Arghadeep Barua too had a similar story to tell. His band Bottle Rockets India had started playing live shows in and around Assam towards the end of 2019. Things had started to look promising for the fluid-rock band when the pandemic rocked the world in the following months. "As a band, we had started playing shows and things were starting to pick up in late 2019. In early 2020 as we were gearing up to do more shows, the pandemic happened and everything was stalled. Live shows were a big part of our income. Once they stopped, we were left with nothing but the savings that we had earmarked for recording our music," Barua told BusinessToday.in.
 
 

Emergence of the online platforms

Arghadeep Barua said that the 'new normal' had directed them towards online platforms and given them newer avenues to play music, but it was not enough to sustain oneself financially. "At the end of the day, you have to be able to sustain yourself," added Barua.

Pallav Jyoti Mahanta too had a similar story to tell. "The internet is not enough to help you sustain. There is a lot of expense involved in composing, recording, producing and then releasing music online, but the income is very low. I mean there are streaming sites like Youtube or Spotify, but the financial returns are not that high unless you have a huge subscriber base that runs in lakhs," said Mahanta.

As per Kaushik Jai Barua the entire creative economy had undergone a shift because of the pandemic. Bands and musicians who played more of corporate events opted for the digitalisation and went ahead with playing shows online to sail through the tough times. "Nowadays, corporate shows and brand promotional events are mostly live-streamed. The metamorphosis was quick. A corporate or a brand can often afford to pay performers well as they work with better budgets in comparison to local businesses that host performances during weekends in hopes to better their ambiance or attract a gathering," said Barua.
 
In pre-pandemic times, Mahanta's band Gravity used to do 1-2 live shows a month on an average. In peak season, the number used to go up to around 7-8 shows a month. "During the first wave of the pandemic, we didn't play a single gig. When first wave ended, we somehow got 3 shows. That again stopped due to second wave. Now after nearly 10 months, we are going to play live in November". Gravity played their first show post-second wave on November 3 in Sivasagar.  

Impact of the pandemic on the Indian music industry

As per data sourced from the Indian Music Industry (IMI), the industry's CAGR between 2015 to 2019 was 15.22 per cent. It however dropped to 12.18 per cent for the period of 2016-20, after taking the pandemic-ravaged 2020 into account. During that year, Indian recorded music industry, which was earlier showing double-digit growth for 4 back-to-back years, showed a minimal growth of 4.9 per cent.

Although globally the music industry is composed mainly of two streams, live performance and recordings, the former has been an important driver for growth. To put this into perspective, in a non-pandemic year, music-led live events generated Rs 1,280 crores in 2019, with the events industry being valued at Rs 6,500 that same year, as per a report jointly published by consulting firm Deloitte and the IMI.

In contrast, when COVID-19 hit, the live events industry body Events and Entertainment Management Association of India (EEMAI) showed in a survey that at least 170 live event companies were severely affected by COVID-19, with up to Rs 1 crore of revenue loss being reported by these companies individually, in 2020.

In terms of revenue, the recorded music industry raked in Rs 1,332 crore in CY20 from recording operations. Revenue from publishing stood at close to Rs 150 crore, thus bringing the total to close to Rs 1,500 crore. As per International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) metrics, India slipped 2 ranks to 17th in the top music markets during that period.
The year 2020 also saw revenues take a bad hit. Compared to 2019, physical revenues declined to by 74.8 per cent to Rs 17 crore, performance rights revenues fell by 66.5 per cent to Rs 39 crore and sync revenue had minimal contraction of 1.3 per cent and stood at Rs 75 crore. As per IMI, performance rights revenues are estimated to grow by ~54% in 2021.

"The recorded music industry has weathered many storms and turbulences in its lifetime. Piracy is still an endemic, yet the recorded music has survived and grown. We at IMI are positive that we will endure this endemic," said Blaise Fernandes, President & CEO of Indian Music Industry (IMI) told BusinessToday.in.

A totally new avenue

Down south in Bengaluru, Bibhash Buragohain found himself in an entirely different set-up because of the pandemic. An alumnus of Pune's prestigious SeamEdu Media School, Buragohain had an exciting career as a music producer in India's financial capital Mumbai. He was making music for everything ranging from pizza brands to mutual funds to electronic appliances. As the events of the pandemic unfolded, work began to dry up and so did his primary income source.

"My primary job was to make music for ads. When the pandemic happened, my work didn't just stop. It was dead. The constant flow was disrupted and I didn't earn a dime for as long as five months in a stretch," said Buragohain. Things went south and so did he. He shifted base from Mumbai to Bengaluru in search of work and that's where he came face to face with the booming space of influencers, who rule Instagram with their 'reels' and interesting short videos.
 
"In Bengaluru, I discovered the influencer world and the possibility of making music for them. Influencers nowadays hire musicians to make music for their content and it is immensely competitive," said Buragohain, who then began exploring this space professionally. He knew producers who were based out of the city and thus restarted his musical career as a freelance guitarist and producer.

In addition to being a professional musician, Buragohain is also a part of various bands where he plays the guitar and sings too. One of the notable acts that he is a part of is the progressive metal band Silver Tears, one of the most popular bands in the northeastern metal circuit.

New entrants

While one section of musicians was trying to make ends meet with in the absence of live shows and other sources of employment, there was also a group of people who began exploring the field during the pandemic. With ample time in hand and nowhere to go, many people turned to music. 

As per Dharini Upadhyaya, Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Furtados School of Music there was an uptick in terms of new learners of music. "Music education in particular saw a huge surge of players and the learner community grew rapidly during the pandemic. Technology created an opportunity to widen access to learners across the country and made the world a market for edtech companies offering online learning solutions and DIY options. While the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the hobbies industry varied according to the segment, hobby & DIY market worldwide did not suffer and are forecast to increase steadily until 2025," said Upadhyaya.
 
With an increase in the number of music learners, there was concurrent increase in the sales of musical instruments as well. "Instrument sales saw a huge uptake as the pandemic struck. We also noticed an uptick specifically in acquisition of new customers and beginner musicians that continued through 2020, to achieve reach which is now wider than it was at the start of last year," Upadhyaya added.

With modern learning options powered by the internet and ed-tech companies, it was easier to learn a new instrument or skill or enhance the existing ones. "Adaption to online learning opened a whole new possibility, allowing learners across age groups learn through the comfort of their homes. Not only did the demand towards learning and buying instruments grow, but it also deepened the segment by offering this opportunity across age groups looking to tick off their music learning desire long due in their bucket list," Upadhyaya said.

Musicians with full time jobs

Pune-based musician-music teacher Vineet Alurkar has been one of the most popular figures in the city's music circuit. Apart from his live appearances, he is also an established music teacher. As per Alurkar, the magnitude of the pandemic was not the same for all and everyone was affected differently. Everybody had their own story to tell. "Live concerts only made up for 20-25 per cent of my income and I wasn't fully dependent on it. My main source was teaching. Through all odds, I kept on playing and kept on teaching via online classes. In terms of capacity, I did face a hit. The size of my classes had come down to 60-70 per cent of what it was earlier, but I kept on adapting and moving ahead. I was so used to teaching online that adapting to a virtual model was a big challenge," said Alurkar.

Alurkar is the head of music at Pune's Vidya Valley and is also a visiting faculty of song-writing at Copenhagen's Rungsted Gymnasium. He is the frontman of the bands Yoga Logik and Bavdhan Booze Band. Alurkar said that he somehow managed to tweak his earning model and was able to survive, but the pandemic was particularly harsh on musicians who didn't have an alternate income source. "A lot of them were pushed against the wall and forced to live on their savings when income was reduced to zero," he added.

Pune-based guitarist Aditya Swaminathan had an interesting anecdote to share. As per him, his band Kill the King was a by-product of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns that forced people to stay indoors. Kill the King is a five-piece thrash metal band in which all members have full-time jobs, some of which are absolutely unrelated to music. The vocalist is a math tutor, the drummer also doubles as a drum teacher, the bassist is a lead sound engineer, one of the guitarists is a B2B marketing professional while Swaminathan, works in a gaming company. The vocalist is based out of Siliguri, while the rest are in Pune. Sonically, Kill the King draws influence from Dave Mustaine-led thrash giant Megadeth, Testament, Death, Exodus, and Pantera, et al.

"Our band came into existence during the pandemic. When we were cooped up in our homes, we had enough time to concentrate on our music. So that's when we came together as a band. All of us have day jobs. Music isn't our primary profession or sole source of income," Swaminathan told BusinessToday.in.  

Arindam Gohain is a software engineer at E&Y in Bengaluru, who did some interesting things during the pandemic. While the world was forced to remain indoors in its fight against an invisible enemy, Gohain spent his free time in participating in online music competitions. He also came 2nd in a competition named The Viral Singer.
 
In mid-2020, Gohain had released a song on the internet named Bibhixika- A Crippling Affliction which was based on the pandemic and what it did to the world. He composed the song by virtually collaborating with guitarist Amlan Baruah and drummer Debanga P Bora, from Jorhat. "The idea of Bibhixika came from my parents. My parents wrote a song that elucidated the global pandemic phenomenon as a whole. I then started composing and collaborated with Amlan and Debanga and we recorded and released it," said Gohain.

Curtain closer

In conclusion, it was evident that the music industry which was largely dependent on live shows and crowded venues had a hard time coping when the pandemic totally stopped from not only leaving their houses but also from gathering in huge numbers. Independent musicians without an alternate source of income or the ones who relied solely on live performances were hit really hard. People who had separate full-time jobs or were able to find one, managed to sustain themselves, but unfortunately not everyone was as fortunate or privileged as them.

People without a financial backup faced the fury and were forced to rely on their 'rainy day funds' to make ends meet. But there is still indomitable resilience that is visible in certain musicians who kept the music playing even in the face of adversity. While people cope with the new normal, they continuously hope for the old one, with the live audience and the exhilarating feel of playing on stage. The hope lives on. 

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