From Gigmor Founder, David Baird
As you know, the coronavirus has become a global pandemic and has had a severe economic impact around the world practically overnight. We at Gigmor hope and pray that the spread of the virus will slow after peaking in the coming weeks. Our hearts go out to the millions of people who have been affected or lost loved ones.
The coronavirus has hit the live music business particularly hard. You’ve seen the news about the cancellations of large events like SXSW and Coachella but hundreds of thousands of local venues are suffering. If millions of people stop going out for more than a month or two, many of these venues won’t survive. And they’re a vital part of the local music scene that is the lifeblood of the business.
Despite the palpable panic and the real economic damage that’s been done we feel that eventually we’ll look back on this as a short term blip. Live music is baked into the fabric of life and will always be. So we remain optimistic about our long term prospects.
We’ve spent considerable time in the last couple of weeks thinking about how we can be part of the solution.
In the short term, we’re responding to a surge of requests from venues asking for our help. National touring acts have canceled because of concerns about being on the road and venues suddenly need to fill open dates on their calendars. We’re ideally positioned to help them because many of our 65K independent artists play local gigs almost exclusively. And our platform is well suited to fill last minute slots.
Next, we’re looking for ways to accelerate how we can connect artists, venues and fans, including livestreaming shows and publishing artist profiles that are relevant to fans with music, videos, upcoming shows, etc. We don’t want to live in a world where everyone is isolated in their homes but we know we can play a useful role if that is what the near future looks like.
As a national marketplace and directory of talent we’re thrilled to be able to step in and help local live music communities everywhere. We’ve always believed that technology can bring innumerable benefits to booking and promoting live music and we’re only sorry that it’s taking a global crisis to help prove that.
We’d love to hear from you at info@gigmor.com with any ideas or suggestions about how we can help you keep music alive!