Coronavirus: $25 million lost in Australia, New Zealand as music gigs cancelled

A new website dedicated to measuring the impacts of Covid-19 on Australian and New Zealand live music, I Lost My Gig, reports $25 million was lost in a span of 24 hours and 84,000 jobs impacted as a direct result of cancelled events in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

MusicHelps, formally known as the New Zealand Music Foundation, offers artists based in New Zealand professional counselling and emergency financial packages when they experience illness, distress and hardship.

General manager Peter Dickens says over the weekend the situation with Covid-19 has really hit home for the music industry.

"I think a lot of the industry is really kind of stunned and looking around at the moment and working out how to make sense of all of this."

There's very little room for people in the music industry to absorb shocks, he says.

"This is a shock quite unlike anything else that anyone has ever really faced in the industry and it has broad-reaching impacts for everyone across the industry; publishers, artists, roadies, live production crew.

"Everybody that has a part to play in live and recorded music is going to really need to batten down the hatches for a while."

Dickens says in the short term, artists and small venues are being affected. In the medium term, the large-scale promoters and festivals will be impacted and long term it will hit home for some of the base organisations that support the industry; like broadcasters.