Venues Are Finally Receiving Funds, but Crew Members Are Still Struggling
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Bulletin YOUR DAILY ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE JUNE 2, 2021 Page 1 of 27 INSIDE Venues Are Finally • Venues Are Receiving Funds, But Crew Members Receiving Government Grant Are Still Struggling Approvals... Slowly BY TAYLOR MIMS • The German Music Industry Is Tackling Piracy Through Self- Last week, the Small Business Administration fi- additional $600 or $300 a month on top of unemploy- Regulation nally began awarding grants to independent venues, ment. promoters and talent agencies as part of the $16.25 When the second stimulus package on Dec. 27, • Assessing the billion Shuttered Venue Operators Grant. The grant mixed earners who received at least $5,000 in self- Music Industry’s Progress 1 Year After can award up to $10 million per venue and is much- employment income in 2019 are eligible for a $100 Blackout Tuesday: needed support for entities that have been closed for weekly benefit on top of the $300 federal pandemic ‘We Need to Build a 14 months since the pandemic halted mass gatherings. unemployment supplement provided under the new Bigger Table’ The grants will help venues pay back-rent and help legislation. States were also allowed to opt out of the • S-Curve Records them on their way to welcoming fans back as concerts additional benefit. Inks Worldwide Pact reopen around the country. As the industry braces “There really aren’t any government programs for With Disney Music for a return to live this summer, many live music people like me,” says guitar technician Tom We- Group crew members are still struggling after a brutal year ber who has worked for Billy Corgan, Matchbox 20, • Tammy Hurt without work. Nine Inch Nails, Reba McEntire, Van Halen, The Cult Elected Chair of Despite being an integral part of an industry that and more since the 1970s. According to Weber, he was Recording Academy’s was decimated by the pandemic, live music crew expecting to earn $200,000 in 2020 with a Reba tour Board of Trustees members have mostly been left out of the relief followed by Poison dates that would have taken him • Atlantic Records process. When additional unemployment benefits until three days before Christmas. Instead, Weber says Exec VP Juliette rolled out at the beginning of the pandemic “mixed he was one of millions attempting to apply for un- Jones Leaving Label earners” or those who freelanced and received W-2s, employment benefits. “I’ve been in queue to talk to were excluded from Pandemic Unemployment Assis- somebody from the Kentucky unemployment office • BILLBOARD 200 tance. Crew members, who often work for more than for about eight and a half months.” CLICK HERE one tour a year, were largely barred from receiving the (continued) TOTAL IMMERSION ESSENTIAL ANALYSIS of the latest business topics and trends formulated to give industry players the competitive advantage in a rapidly changing market. EXCLUSIVE QUARTERLY REPORTS that deliver in-depth, holistic reporting; case studies; and custom data designed to serve the industry. A DEEP DIVE LIBRARY stocked with intelligence on fan data, SUBSCRIBE TO BILLBOARD PRO FOR song catalog sales, TV synchs, Africa’s burgeoning music ACCESS TO NEW REPORTS business and the gaming industry’s embrace of artists. AND THE ARCHIVE 2021 COUNTRY POWER PLAYERS Billboard’s eighth annual Country Power Players CONTACTS issue will profile the people who have driven Joe Maimone another solid year for the country music industry, 201.301.5933 | [email protected] generating billions in sales, streaming and Lee Ann Photoglo publishing. This special feature will highlight the top 615.376.7931 | [email protected] executives, artists and changemakers who kept the music playing during an incredibly challenging Cynthia Mellow 615.352,0265 | [email protected] year, as well as coverage of the changing face of country music. 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ISSUE DATE 6/26 | AD CLOSE 6/16 | MATERIALS DUE 6/17 Page 3 of 27 IN BRIEF Touring veteran Dan O’Neil, who got his Instacart had waiting lines. “We’re a community that the world calls start in the 1980s with Modern English and “It was frustrating,” Bruce says, adding on regularly in times of tragedy,” Weber has since worked for Cyndi Lauper and Joan that even those minor gigs would bump him adds. “Now we’re the ones that have been Jett, says unemployment only delivered him from unemployment and he would have to shut completely off and everybody’s so busy $175 a week and the additional aid of $600 start the process all over again. trying to get their own lives back in order to or $300 weekly was a “band aid.” In addi- For live music veterans like Weber and some state of normalcy that nobody calling tion, many roadies were excluded from re- O’Neil, who both started in the indus- attention to what’s going on with us.” ceiving the $1,200 or $1,400 stimulus checks try without a need for higher education, The pandemic has not been completely because they made more than $75,000 in finding side jobs could be even more trying. devoid of assistance for crew members. 2019. “I started filling out an application to Live Nation established Crew Nation for “I know every one of my touring friends drive an Oscar Meyer Wiener car, but you its out of work touring staff. The Record- makes over $75,000 to $80,000 a year,” have to have a bachelor’s degree to do that,” ing Academy’s MusiCares has raised and O’Neil tells Billboard. “I wish I could have says Weber. “I can build the car, but you donated millions for COVID-relief. Weber, made $80,000 in 2020.” won’t let me drive it. I feel like I’m chasing Bruce and O’Neil have all benefited directly Despite living in Tennessee where music my tail and it’s the most helpless feeling.” from non-profit Roadiecare’s Adopt a is a major economic driver, O’Neil explains The obstacles of the past year have left Roadie program launched by live produc- that few elected officials understand what many roadies with similar feelings of help- tion veteran Sandy Espinoza. roadies do. O’Neil says one official he spoke lessness. Even as touring begins to return in “We wear black for a reason. We wear on the phone with believed stages stayed the U.S. this summer and fall, crew members black on the stages so nobody sees us,” Es- fully equipped night after night. still have to grapple with a year or more of pinoza tells Billboard. “That’s great during “You don’t see us because we’re not the being left behind. a show that we’re invisible. It’s not so great people you’re paying a ticket for,” says “I’ve talked more people off the ledge during a pandemic.” O’Neil. “We’ve gotten the shaft.” and more people have talked to me off the Pivoting to another job during the pan- ledge because I’ve dealt with and I’ll admit demic also proved difficult in 2020. Geoff it, anxiety and depression, the last eight of Bruce, who has worked sound at Whisky these 12 months,” says O’Neil, who adds a Go Go in LA and toured with Aeros- that he and many of his fellow roadies have mith and Gene Hoglan since he was a never been ones to ask for anything. teenager, attempted to find side gigs during In fact, when the country falls on hard the pandemic and found himself worse off times, it’s often roadies who get called on than not working. Bruce says he looked to help out with benefit concerts. O’Neil into building Ikea furniture for people and says he has lost count of how many benefit delivering appliances but it was all “piece- concerts he’s worked on – several of which meal” and “gig” jobs for businesses like he has donated his time for. AUTHORITATIVE INTELLIGENCE. DELIVERED DIGITALLY. CLICK HERE FOR FREE DELIVERY DIGITAL NEWSLETTERS 2021 BLACK EYED PEAS 25TH ANNIVERSARY Over the past 25 years, the Los Angeles trio—will.i.am, The album single from December 2020, “GIRL LIKE ME” apl.de.ap, and Taboo—earned six GRAMMY® Awards and [feat. Shakira] achieved success on Latin and Top 40 achieved sales of 35 million albums and 120 million singles radio, and was the subject of a viral TikTok challenge in across seminal releases such as Elephunk, The E.N.D., and late 2020. The success of TRANSLATION continues to more demonstrate Black Eyed Peas’ ability to reinvent themselves along with the ceaseless changing of the times. One of the era’s biggest acts, they emerged as “the second best-selling artist/group of all-time for Please join Billboard as we celebrate the 25 years of downloaded tracks,” (Nielsen) and landed on Billboard’s Black Eyed Pea success as one of the most compelling “Hot 100 Artists of the Decade.” In 2011, they dazzled the acts in the music scene world with a landmark performance at the Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show. CONTACTS Joe Maimone Their eighth studio album, TRANSLATION, achieved 201.301.5933 | [email protected] staggering international success after its release in 2020, and features major collaborations with artists such as J Lee Ann Photoglo 615.376.7931 | [email protected] Balvin, Ozuna, Maluma, Shakira, Nicky Jam, and Tyga.