This week on Tap'd In, Piet and I phone in from our respective homes to discuss efforts to help local musicians cope with lost revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Already we've seen some big ones. Backline has started a two-week emergency response program to help artists, which will include seminars connecting artists with resources and office hours with one-on-one consulting. Artists have until Sunday to sign up for that.
There's also the MKE Artist Relief fund, created through Imagine MKE, which provides grants of up to $500 for artists in need. That's a big help for artists who may not be able to easily file for unemployment.
Piet did an article for JSonline about ways to help musicians even though you can't go to their shows. We talk about some of those efforts, which include suggestions you might expect (buying their merch or music, or donating to various GoFundMe initiatives), and ones you might not (helping them game the streaming system, or taking an online music class from one of them -- SistaStrings' Chauntee Ross, guitarist Jack Tell and John Sieger of Semi-Twang are among the artists offering classes).
Hear us discuss all of those options and more on this week's episode below.
