Community and belonging in the Victorian music industries: impact of COVID-19

Music industry workers have a well-documented complex relationship to their work; both as a potential source of meaning but also as a precarious economic pursuit. This chapter explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the “lockdown” measures implemented by the Victorian and Australian governments for music industry workers. Drawing on survey and interview data from music industry workers, we claim that the pandemic has had interrelated social and economic effects, as music communities were vacated from live music spaces. While some participants reported reorienting their activities toward online spaces, others altered their music practices, struggled to re-establish their communities, or else retreated from participating in music communities entirely. The COVID-19 pandemic ultimately exacerbated existing problems at the intersection of social participation and economic inequality. The social benefits of the music industry are inseparable from the economic factors that sustain music industry communities. We conclude by exploring how improving access to the music industries after the COVID-19 pandemic depends on addressing both social and economic forms of exclusion.