Oral History Project Brings Insight Into COVID-19 Effects on the SA Music Industry Article By Dr. Stan Renard This article is the outcome of a class project I did with three of my students: Joey Berrios, Rolando ‘Dito’ Saenz, and Joseph Flores. We felt that we had an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our local music scene. We decided to make it an oral history project in a podcast format and interviewed music industry professionals from San Antonio across a wide range of activities including several arts nonprofits, two live venues, two recording studios, a publisher and A&R (Artists and Representation) professional, two record labels, and four music product retail outlets. We wanted to give a voice to music industry leaders in our community and have them tell us their stories that we could share and relay on the UTSA CODA Podcast channel http://coda.utsa.edu/. Those interviews were humbling and emotional but also very insightful. We are extremely grateful for our participants who were willing to talk to us and share details about their operations so candidly. So…what did we learn? The live music sector and concert industry is by far the most impacted across our city and has not seen shows since mid-March, with cancelled events currently extended until June and most likely for much longer.1 It is a grim outlook with thousands of full-time and part-time professionals being furloughed within that sector across our city. This has affected most musicians as well as production and customer service professionals. Some venues such as “the Tobin Performing Arts Center now operate on a skeleton crew,” says Aaron Zimmerman, Vice President of Programming and Marketing for the Tobin Performing Arts Center.2 San Antonio has 1 https://therivardreport.com/music-venues-try-to-hang-on-look-ahead-during-covid-19closures/?fbclid=IwAR1hJjBruKDc6peZJUbyjBVmYnI4vX5pJ6Bu8DLP7v_ZtkMRixmP4f9quGg 2 https://www.tobincenter.org/
some 300 physical spaces that offered live music entertainment on a regular basis prior to stay at home orders. That is about 150,000 empty seats and/or standing room spaces that have not seen any activity for over a month and half. “The live music sector is about experiencing shows in person and is about physical proximity but all we hear in the news is talk of social distancing,” says Zimmerman. To get a general sense of the distribution of our music related cultural assets, please go to my GIS Map.3 To amplify this tremendous loss of revenue, the city has suspended arts funding, which is largely dependent on tourism and hotel occupancy tax revenue.4 Many arts nonprofits that have been loyal and dedicated renters of spaces across town may not recover. However, several of the arts nonprofits across San Antonio have been very innovative, engaging their patrons on social media by consistently creating new content. Musical Bridges Around the World (MBAW), praised for its resilience and innovative programming, partnered with the local live streaming company Media Fusion to make its live concerts and other programs available to its patrons, explained Sean Kithas, Marketing Manager for MBAW.5 The Youth Orchestras of San Antonio (YOSA) abruptly concluded its concert season with a highly acclaimed Selena Tribute concert mid-March at the Tobin and will be conducting video auditions instead of live auditions this year, stated Alex Flores, Marketing Manager at YOSA.6 We also perceived that music product retailers across San Antonio experienced an all-or-nothing scenario. On the devastating side, “Sam Ash had to let go of its 1700 employees and Guitar Center furloughed a staggering 8000 employees nationally,” says Jon Johansen, General Manager of Sam Ash Southwest Region. Sam Ash, which heavily relies on its in-store purchases, had to fall back on its centralized online platform, but local stores had to let go of their staff. Furthermore, adding to this enormous disruption, suppliers and vendors have halted or limited their operations. On a more positive note, our San Antonio Sam Ash store is likely to re-open sooner than its New York and California counterparts and is looking forward to bringing back its staff, explains Johansen. Jon Cutthroat, owner and operator of Robot Monster Guitar, told us that his business has been closed since the city ordered nonessential businesses to shut their doors on March 25 and thus, has not been able to generate revenue since then. The business re-opened on Friday, April 24 with daily limited hours providing curbside pickup. From a much more encouraging perspective, Alamo Music, a family-owned business, and Music Go Round San Antonio, operated by Matt Orenstein, are both 3 Renard, S. (2018). “Mapping Music Cities: A Case Study of the Musical Landscape of San Antonio,” Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) Journal 18(1), 145-172. 4 https://www.expressnews.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article/City-s-suspension-ofarts-funding-hits-San-15189993.php 5 https://www.mediafusionapp.com/ 6 https://www.yosa.org/