Published
Thu, 7 May 2020, 21:30
- We've gathered some useful resources for those affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the people who want to help them.
Help the electronic music community (and others) during the current coronavirus pandemic, AKA COVID-19.
Various online resources and livestream events have sprung up in the wake of cancellations currently decimating the live music sector. (RA has responded to this wave by creating a new event geo-tag called "Streamland," which will serve as a hub for online event listings.) We've compiled them here.
How to's
• RA has put together a guide to setting up a livestream.
• Cherie Hu has compiled a virtual music events directory that lists existing events, explains how to hold your own virtual events and also links to emergency funds for artists affected by COVID-19's impact on the music industry.
• Mixcloud has launched livestreaming capabilities as the radio and DJ mix platform extends trials of PRO till 90 days while also forgoing its share of Select subscriptions. Learn more about Mixcloud's COVID-19 initiatives here.
Learn
• London Promoters' Society is hosting weekly meetups over Zoom—Wednesdays from 8 - 9 PM BST—to share ideas, information and support. Learn more and get the meeting link here.
• Martyn has set up an online mentoring programme for budding artists. For $40 per month, take part in monthly group sessions based around a tailor-made curriculum, plus other perks. More info here.
• Austrian festival Elevate has archived all of its discourse content from this year's edition. Catch up on discussions about climate change and human consciousness, plus talks with world-renowned thinkers, activists and artists.
• Dutch initiatives RE:VIVE and SAE Institute are hosting virtual workshops, with Lakker's Arad going over the basics of sound design, such as turning field recordings into drum samples and other patterns, for the second session. That took place on Saturday, April 4th, at 12 PM CEST. The first workshop, also on sound design, was held on Saturday, March 28th. Keep checking back for more workshops.
• Milan's SlamJam is uploading discussion talks and live sessions to their new Long Form Audio Archive.
Watch and listen
• MUTEK.SF is hosting a virtual event called NEXUS Experience with live audiovisual performances, installations, film screenings and workshops, all in "a digital gathering space." Tune in from 6 PM PDT on May 23rd to 24th via their website.
• London festival Junction 2 is hosting a virtual edition on Saturday, June 6th. The lineup is still TBA, although Drumcode has already confirmed to host a "stage" with ANNA, Adam Beyer and more. Find more information here.
• Irregular Fit and Ante Arts Collective are teaming up to present a new livestream series to support artists affected by the pandemic. Starting April 18th, L.A.N. Party will take place every Saturday with a focus on BIPOC artists. Tune in via Twitch from 6 PM AEST. You can also donate directly via GoFundMe.
• Utrecht-based online radio station Stranded.FM has launched with new programming each week.
• Clubcommission Berlin and Reclaim Club Culture launched the world's "biggest digital club" on March 18th. Different venues around the city will host the stream, starting at 7 PM CET each night. As well as DJ sets and live performances, there will be discussions, presentations and films related to club culture. Viewers will be asked for voluntarily donations, which will go towards supporting the roughly 9,000 nightlife employees currently left with little or no work. Head to the United We Stream website for more info.
• Barcelona party MARICAS has launched an online content platform to support independent queer artists. There's a different schedule each day, with activities including livestreams, production workshops and drag makeup tutorials. Donations are welcome.
• Berlin-based online platform HÖR is still running as usual, with sets by local DJs from Monday through Friday. Check Facebook for daily schedules.
• Amsterdam-based booking agency Octopus Agents is hosting livestreams by some of its roster. Legowelt kicked things off last week with this hardware jam. Keep an eye on Facebook for updates.
• Every day at 3 PM CEST, Italian techno don Freddy K is uploading a new radio show to SoundCloud. Catch up on past episodes there.
• Classic Album Sundays has revealed a programme of free online events, including listening sessions, live interviews, podcasts and radio shows. Get the full rundown here.
• Autechre have taken to playing tunes 12 hours a day via Mixlr. Tune in here.
• New York club Nowadays "Virtually Nowadays" programming rolls on. Programme highlights have included a rekordbox organization workshop with Ciel, an Octotrak tutorial with Relaxer and DJ sets from the likes of Ben UFO, Jasmine Infiniti and MoMa Ready. See the schedule on Nowadays Instagram and tune into programming on the club's website from 8 PM EST every night. Support the venue on Patreon to watch past sessions.
• Boiler Room has launched a new live series streaming direct from artists' homes. Each show will include a donate button, with all proceeds going to The Global FoodBanking Network. Rewatch Four Tet's session here
• Billing itself as "Sydney's first online nightclub," Room 2 Radio launched on March 20th, with local artists Thomas Gray & Liam Ebbs, Deepa, Dame and more broadcasting from 8 PM AEDT via Facebook Live. Keep checking back for future sessions.
• KLO is another "livestream club," which "opened" on Saturday, March 21st. Tune in here.
• Tealer is launching Lockdown Festival Saturday, March 21th, through May 4th.
• Rotterdam record shop Clone is hosting a livestream every weekday from 3 - 4 PM CEST. Tune in via Facebook.
• Amsterdam club Radio Radio is hosting livestreams daily on its own new platform. There's an option to donate to charity, the venue and the local community. Most DJs sets will come from those that were booked to play in the coming months, including Carista, Elias Mazian and Arif.
• White Label Radio have launched a livestream series of "Antivirus" parties.
• Coma will be hosting a series of livestreams to raise money for Trussell Trust. Find more information here
• Philadelphia-based sound artist Saapato has been hosting virtual sound baths to raise money for charity. (There'll be a new charity each session, with past ones donating to No Kid Hungry and MANNA.) Check his Instagram to find details on how to join the next session.
• Many artists are also hosting their own livestreams. Keep an eye on your favorite's social media. Already streaming: Laurent Garnier, Addison Groove, Peach, Shanti Celeste & Saoirse, Benny Rodrigues., TOKiMONSTA, Nicolás Jaar, James Blake, François K, Dax J, Conducta.
• UKQTIBIPOC Hardship Fund is a new collective relief effort "to financially assist UK-based queer, trans and intersex black, indigenous and people of colour who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through crowdfunding." They have currently raised about half of their goal of £50,000 on GoFundMe. In a fundraising push, the collective hosted the 24-hour Lava Lake livestream—featuring Shy One, BBZ's Sippin T, Pxssy Palace's Nadine Artois and more—starting 8 PM UTC on Saturday, May 2nd.
• Last Night A DJ Saved My Life hosted a 72-hour-long livestream from May 8th to 10th called Set For Love. Its goal is to raise money for those suffering from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic throughout Africa. Learn more about the event and how you can contribute here, and donate directly to the Just Giving campaign here.
• Berlin's ://about blank celebrated its tenth anniversary on United We Stream on Saturday, April 25th, from 8 PM UTC. DJs include Natascha Kann, Caleb ESC, fr. JPLA and Alex.Do. Find more information about the livestream and its donation partners here.
• In the lead up to the release of his new album on Warp, Lorenzo Senni's created a website where you can play him at chess, ask him questions in a live Q&A and listen to Scacco Matto.
• Milan-based new platform AVANTGARDENING hosted a virtual event from 5 PM UTC on Friday, April 17th, through midnight on Sunday, April 19th. It featured a mix of discussion and performances—tune in via Twitch.
• Beatport hosted another edition of its marathon virtual event ReConnect via Twitch. It ran from Friday, April 17th, at 9 PM UTC, through Sunday, April 19th, at 9 AM UTC. Featured DJs included Maceo Plex, KiNK, Modeselektor, Sasha, Sama, Hannah Wants and many more. The previous edition, held Friday, March 27th, raised more than $180,000 for the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and Association For Electronic Music's COVID-19 Hardship Fund. Donations are open here.
• UK duo The Prototypes played a 24-hour benefit livestream of drum & bass and jungle via their Facebook to launch their D&BTV streaming series. It starts at 7PM BST on Friday, April 17th, with all money raised going to the NHS—donate here.
• Rainbow Disco Club hosted a livestream event on April 18th, the day its now-cancelled festival was supposed to take place, from the festival site in Chubu. The lineup featured DJ Nobu, Kenji Takimi, Yoshinori Hayashi and more.
• Artwork hosted a stream this Saturday, April 18th. He DJ'd against a green screen, encouraging listeners to send in videos of them at home. "Get dressed up, move the sofa out, get involved," he says via Instagram. All proceeds go towards supporting UK food banks.
• All Night Passion hosted a livestream on Saturday, April 18th, with all proceeds going to Aberdeen food bank CFINE. Tune in via Twitch.
• Bandsintown's Twitch stream, which was inaugurated by Black Coffee, host the net.werk Festival on April 16th, with UNiiQU3, Krewella, Dani Deahl and more. All donations go to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.
• Ilian Tape producer Andrea performed his new album, Ritorno, live from Turin on Friday, April 10th, at 9 PM CEST to raise money for the Italian Red Cross.
• The Warehouse Project streamed Aphex Twin's September 2019 live show via YouTube and Facebook on, April 10th.
• Ibiza bars and clubs have come together to put on a virtual event called Stay Home Festival by Dance Television with donations going to the local arm of the Red Cross. Felix Da Housecat, Pete Tong and Anna Tur are among those set to perform. It all kicked off on Saturday, April 11th. Tune in here, and donate directly here.
• Patrick Russell played a 14-hour-long ambient set for The Bunker New York on Saturday, April 11, starting at 8 PM EDT. More details on how to donate and tune in here.
• DGTL hosted an online festival in lieu of its cancelled Amsterdam edition.
• On Tuesday, April 7th, Chicago's Experimental Sound Studio hosted The Quarantine Concerts with Galcher Lustwerk, Sarah Davachi, Container and more.
• DJ EZ played another non-stop 24-hour charity livestream which tarted at 6 PM GMT on Saturday, March 28th, cohosted by My Kind Deed and Boiler Room. Watch it back in three parts, all here.
• Dixon hosted a Transmoderna livestream with Boiler Room Friday, April 3rd, starting at 10 PM CEST. The set highlighted unreleased tracks, eight of which will be released by Innervisions via Bandcamp with all proceeds going directly to the artists.
• Time Warp teamed up with ARTE Concert for a 15-hour "restream," which started at midnight on Saturday, April 4th. Eight past sets were broadcast, including one, by Sven Väth, that was never heard before. Here's the schedule.
• The well-loved mix series C- hosted their second livestream on Saturday April 4th, starting at 6 PM CDT. Streaming on Facebook and Twitch, the audiovisual broadcast will feature the likes of Perila and Beta Librae.
• London's Astral Industries hosted a 40+-hour takeover of A Strangely Isolated Place's online radio station 9128.live this weekend, from April 4th to 6th. It'll feature a mix of live performances, DJ sets and exclusive material from the likes of Anthony Linell, LF58, Sa Pa, Wolfgang Voigt, o.utlier, Ario and HVL. More information on the lineup and donations, to be split between Astral Industries and South London Refugee Association, can be found here.
• The Warehouse Project hosted a live Q&A with Disclosure Friday, April 3rd, at 6 PM BST.
• Light In The Attic hosted a livestream on April 3rd to benefit MusiCare's COVID-19 relief fund. The lineup featured the likes of Marcos Valle, Gigi Masin and Inoyama Land. See the rest of the lineup here, and watch via Twitch or Youtube.
• Tokyo club Contact, which officially closed this week, hosted four livestream events from March 27th through April 4th. They've also uploaded live recordings from their archives, which you can listen to here.
• Milan crew Tempio del Futuro Perduto hosted a livestream to break the world record for longest DJ set. It started on March 20th and ran through April 3rd.
• After 1.5 million people tuned in for last week's virtual festival, Defected hosted another online stream Friday, March 27th, this time from artists' homes and studios. It lasted six hours, with sets from Folamour, Karizma, Melé and Riva Starr, plus more TBA. They hosted their first 12-hour virtual festival on Friday, March 20th, with sets from Monki, Dan Shake and more streamed live from London's Ministry Of Sound via YouTube and Facebook Live.
• Virtual parties have been popping up across the New York scene. In addition to Nowadays, The Lot Radio's Dave P hosted a six-hour "Transcendental Social Distancing" show at a TBA space in partnership with Klip Collective. Locals Toribio, sspurgee, Noah Prebish and Carlos Palacio raised money for independent artists by DJing from their living rooms. Keep an eye out on your favorite NY-based artists for more.
• Amsterdam's Audio Obscura hosted a series of livestreams from Saturday, March 21st, through Tuesday, the 24th, to raise money for WHO. More info here.
• Livestream festival Cuarentena Fest broadcasted from March 16th through 27th out of the participating artists' homes throughout Spain. See the schedule here.
• Hot Mass in Pittsburgh hosted a livestream from the intimate club on March 21st. A selection of the club's residents—Jarrett Tebbets, Clark Price, Alex Price, Naeem, Father Of Two and Boo Lean—DJ'd, with donations being gathered for out-of-work staff. Watch it back and keep checking for future streaming sessions here.
• Hamburg club Uebel & Gefährlich hosted a livestream on March 20th. Look out for more to come.
• Amir Alexander hosted a livestream from St. Petersburg, Florida, AKA The Sunshine City, on March 26th. All money raised via donations go towards local, out-of-work nightlife professionals. More info here.
More ways to help: offer and receive support, donate, buy music and merch.
Read our feature to hear from people across the dance music community about how COVID-19 is affecting them. Plus, here are some ideas on what to watch, read and do at home while self-isolating.
We will continue updating this post as more resources appear. Please email [email protected] with any suggestions.
Find the latest COVID-19 statistics on this interactive map created by Johns Hopkins University.
