Loss of earnings (January - July 2020)

My dear friends, 

This won't be brief, as I want to be 100 % transparent with this. Live music, they said, is the last resort... It is no more!

Unfortunately, I'm one of the many self-employed people who's already lost about 6 months worth of work because of the cancellations of concert performances. Every single event (paid or not) has been cancelled. This is a loss of about 10.000 EUR (pre-tax), which would have allowed me to pay insurances (and diapers) for my young family (my daughter Uma turned 5 months old and just had her first spoon of mush). My partner is on maternity leave, and thus our income is largely dependent on me. I need quite a big amount per month just to cover insurances for us. So this is also an act to hopefully keep away destructive anxiety from my family. 

I would never expect to be given money for not offering something in return. I used to have a little bit of a cushion doing online teaching, which I’d always seen as the part that covers my rent, but as it now turns out, quite a few of my students have canceled their lessons with me because they are in a similar situation to mine... 

The current (and most likely future) situation means that I will eventually have to get into a new line of work, but in order to do that I need to bridge the gap that is developing at the moment.I'm not lazy at all and I keep creating niche music, but it barely creates any considerable income, no matter how good (or fancy) things may look from the outside. My albums hardly ever recoup and the number of faithful fans is still at around 100 people. You do the math... And btw, that is also why I have more income from free (pay as much as you like) releases than from music that costs something. 

I have started several calls for work in the past months and even though some little jobs came out of it, the majority has been withdrawn because of the global situation. Also, I am working on new music, also with Stick Men, but the financing cycle is much too long to help now. Also, there is a wonderful album with Gary Husband that I just finished mixing, plus there will be more free music. ;-)

Music sales and income from lessons has been in decline for a while, and that’s why this loss of opportunity to earn by playing shows hurts so much.

Heartfelt thank you to the people who already support me as Bandcamp VIPs, regular costumers or clients, and fans. I'm grateful for your continuing support and I don't expect you to take part in this. For all others who still have an income, please consider either your unconditional support, or help me get more paid work (please get in contact with me via the provided means). You can also contribute by sharing this campaign on social media if that's what you can do. Or buy my music on Bandcamp. Thank you so much! <3 

Much love,

Markus

p.s. Everyone is still healthy here. I hope you are, too.