How the Coronavirus is affecting the music scene

In recent weeks the Coronavirus has caused many businesses to close their doors indefinitely.

This includes all music venues which means many shows, gigs, concerts and festivals have had to be cancelled.

This will affect the music scene in Sheffield in a few different ways.

The first thing affected by this will be the venues, something that has seen a big struggle in recent years is Sheffield’s smaller venues closing down as they are unable to sustain themselves, with the cancellations of many gigs it could cause some small venues being left unable to reopen.

As well as this, small or independent bands and artists will be affected as they wont be able to do gigs, which for many artists is how they get their music heard, as well as how they receive money for doing music as a job, they could be left without a way to earn money.

While some bigger bands, like the heavy metal group Bring Me The Horizon, are able to use at home studios to continue producing like normal for most artists their producing will have come to a stand still with the lockdown meaning people cannot travel between homes or meet up as a group it will cause delays for any plans a lot of artists will have.

The virus will also affect the job of music journalists as face-to-face interviews and concert reviews will not be able to happen, limiting the amount of work music journalists can do in this time.

However, for some people who have access to things like home studios the lockdown could act as a way for them to produce more music or content than usual as their other plans may be cancelled opening up more time to focus on music.