The entertainment industry has been one of the hardest hit by Covid-19. The first wave saw a nationwide lockdown instituted for nearly three months, as well as the need to majorly scale back on all public events. The intervening months between the lockdown and the second wave of Covid-19 infections earlier this month was something of a respite, with many industries beginning to bounce back.
The last two weeks have shattered our fragile – if somewhat complacent – sense of security. With parts of the island under lockdown when required, and public events being massively curtailed, if not outright prohibited, the entertainment industry is back to a virtual standstill.
The Sunday Morning Brunch sat down with a few members of the Western Musicians’ Association (WMA) for a look at how western musicians are being impacted by Covid-19, and how the Association and the western music industry as a whole are responding to the pandemic.
The WMA
Sri Lanka’s western music industry is quite strong and diverse, and includes bands, duos, soloists, symphonies, and choirs. “There are over 1,300 musicians in the western music industry across all forms of music and all skill levels. Around 60-70% of these musicians are full-time musicians. This is why the WMA was formed – to cover all these different types of musicians and look after them and help them grow,” WMA Vice President Rajitha Rupasinghe explained.
WMA President Fabion Bonnie Paul shared that Sri Lanka’s western musicians predominantly produce English music, although there are musicians who produce in other languages as well.
“Many Sri Lankan bands get contracts that see them playing in Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. We have many bands that are on par with the best in the world. Like any industry, we have different levels of musicians, and while we have lots of established bands, there are also bands that are struggling. The WMA wants to prop these bands up and bring them up to a level that Sri Lanka as an entity can be proud of.”
Established in 2016, the WMA was formed in response to a dire need to be able to bring the western music community together and look into issues that affected the welfare of the community as a whole.
“Because of the nature of our work, we don’t have steady jobs, retirement schemes, etc.,” Rupasinghe shared. “The WMA came into the picture in 2013 in order to actively look at musicians’ needs, especially if they get sick or have other needs, and to move the industry forward as a strong entity.”
The WMA serves as a platform to uplift the standards of western music in Sri Lanka and help western musicians grow.
“We organise knowledge-sharing initiatives that can help bring musicians up, and give them access to training programmes and other initiatives they can’t access by themselves. We also work to set standards across the industry and avoid undercutting and musicians being taken advantage of in the marketplace,” Paul said.
Paul spoke about the lack of standardisation in the western music industry, particularly in the case of how hotels and other venues engage bands for entertainment. “There are no real valid contracts in place most of the time. Bands are easily thrown out of hotels with little to no notice, and even when engaging in services, there is extensive bargaining with the understanding that the venue can always easily find another musician to play in their space. This leads to a lot of undercutting. One of the things the WMA is working towards is the standardisation of how bands are engaged by entertainment venues and hotels.
“One of the main advantages of an association like the WMA is that issues that have the potential to affect all musicians can be addressed formally,” Paul explained, speaking of an incident where one of Colombo’s five-star hotels implemented a rule saying that local bands and musicians could no longer enter the hotel through the main entrance, but only through the service entrance reserved for suppliers.
“The WMA took this matter up with the hotel in question. It was a rule exclusive only to local musicians and musicians were helpless. The WMA was able to give musicians a voice, and this rule was withdrawn. The hotel also issued a formal apology.”
The WMA also works towards forming strategic partnerships with corporates to enable greater collaborations between the western music industry and other industries. They have currently formed over 40 such strategic partnerships with companies including JAT Holdings, Dynamic AV, and, most recently, telecom company GENXT.
Responding to Covid-19 as an industry
“Not just musicians, everyone was struggling to start with when the pandemic hit. One of WMA’s immediate forms of action was to distribute rations to members of our community with the help of Manusath Derana. We also initiated discussions with the Government on a relief loan for western musicians, speaking with various ministers, the Prime Minister, and finally, His Excellency, at which point we and 15 other musician associations were given a relief loan. The WMA was the sole representative for western musicians in this respect, while the other associations involved all represented different fields like oriental music,” Rupasinghe said.
He shared that being able to obtain relief funds from the Government for western musicians was a big step because there is no industry for musicians in Sri Lanka. “There is a recognised cinema industry, but not a music industry. We’re slowly building recognition and getting there, but we are not yet a recognised industry.”
The second wave of the pandemic has left musicians feeling worse than before. “People found solutions after the lockdown,” Paul explained, adding: “Musicians were slowly starting to get their livelihoods back on track. From July, there was very slow progress, and by September and October, we were starting to receive more inquiries and the country was also stable. Popular bands were getting gigs, hotels were booking entertainment, and clubs were packed.
“The second wave changed all this. Smaller bands that were still hoping to pick up after the lockdown haven’t had the chance. Popular bands were sustained for a bit. But the smaller bands have little to no hope. We can’t go to the ministry level for another relief loan. Options are more limited this time around.”
Rupasinghe commented that the WMA has reactivated loan discussions with the Government, but with the country’s overall current situation, it is a difficult task, even though a similar loan was given before.
Building a sustainable future
The future does look bleak for musicians, particularly in the short term. “Personally, I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel for musicians,” Rupasinghe said. “Every day, you see hundreds of active cases being reported. Musicians are directly hit in a crisis like this because the first response is to stop public gatherings and events. This directly impacts the music industry because we are performers at such events.”
Paul shared that the WMA has proposed some initiatives with hotels for people to come listen to music. “When things relaxed after the first wave, we weren’t careful. We went with the flow – pubs became dances, dances became ballroom events, and we have put ourselves in a position which we can’t even control because we destroyed it by not being careful when things were improving between waves.”
WMA Executive Committee Member Neranjan De Silva noted that there has been a shift to virtual in the industry as a response to Covid-19, and one of the benefits of this is that copyrighting music will be easier.
“Copyright for western music is an issue in Sri Lanka. With oriental artists and Sinhala music, copyright is seen too. For western music, we don’t own rights because it is usually someone else’s. Original music that western musicians create comes under international copyright laws. It is normally implemented by third parties. The law doesn’t get involved. If someone steals your music, it is up to you to pursue legal action, and may not have the resources to do so.
“In the UK, this is policed by the Performing Right Society. Sri Lanka doesn’t have a society of this nature, and it is not something the WMA can take on. By going virtual through platforms like YouTube, the platform itself policies for copyright infringement, protecting the musicians’ rights,” De Silva said.
The WMA’s main objective now is to raise funds and create a secure fund to help musicians. It had several fundraisers lined up to raise funds before the second wave, including a virtual concert. “There are musicians who really struggle. This is so in every industry. We haven’t been able to do any of the fundraising events we had initially planned because of the second wave. The industry is a good industry to be in, but it has been hit badly by Covid-19. This is a situation beyond anyone’s control.”
