Ways to Support Music Right Now

Dear New Amsterdam Community:

Here at New Amsterdam Records, we — like everyone — are primarily concerned with the health and safety of those individuals who are infected with the Covid-19 virus, as well as the medical and support workers who are on the front lines of dealing with this pandemic. We support all the precautionary measures being taken to stem the spread of the disease, including limiting social interactions to a bare minimum and cancelling all group events and gatherings.

As you likely know, an unfortunate outcome of those cancellations is that performing artists, including musicians, are losing a substantial amount of work, with nothing to replace that income or otherwise compensate them for that loss. Music can sometimes seem to the public like something “extra” in their lives, but musicians are workers with lives and families to pay for, and especially for those who depend primarily on the gig economy for their livelihood, this is a moment of extreme challenge or even crisis.

We at New Amsterdam, along with many other arts organizations, are engaged in internal and external talks about how to best support our community, now and into the future. We hope that this moment spurs a deep examination of the unsustainability of the gig economy, and our economy in general, which leaves so many workers vulnerable, without a sufficient social safety net.

One thing that you can do right now, as a music lover and supporter of our community, is to take this moment to financially support artists in ways that don’t require social interaction. Buying music from Bandcamp or other artist-direct sites can provide significant income to musicians, in a way that streaming music simply does not. We are NOT promoting our catalogue, here, but encouraging you to go to Bandcamp and search for your favorite artists, browse for something new to enjoy, or choose from among the now-cancelled shows you were planning to attend, and instead purchase an album (or 3!) by those artists. If you do want to support NewAm artists, know that proceeds from your purchases on Bandcamp — as always, on every platform — will go 100% to the artists themselves. And, if you purchase your music through Bandcamp this Friday, Bandcamp is waiving their company’s percentage for 24 hours, meaning that artists will receive 100% of the gross purchase price.

Our individual consumer actions are no substitute for the real changes that we need in our system, but they can certainly help bridge the gap in a moment such as this. We wish you and your loved ones good health and good luck in this challenging global moment.
 

Sincerely,

Bill, Curt, Emily, Judd, Katy, Michael, Molly, Sarah, and Sophia