Working in Music and the Covid-19 Pandemic : Third Call for Blog Posts
The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on the cultural sector for more than a year. As an international research network on musical work, we proposed to gather our resources and document this period. How has the music sector fared over the past year with restrictive measures concerning events and concerts?
We focused the first and second calls for think pieces on the impact of Covid-19 on musical work and research. We have gathered insightful data, ranging from personal thoughts to interviews, to exploratory analysis. The variety of blog posts offered insights on crisis management documenting the professional situation of music workers in different contexts (Brazil, Peru, Chile, France, Switzerland, Hungary and the UK). We also received tips and reflections on undertaking music research during confinement from scholars from Spain and Finland.
For this third call for blog posts, instead of the impact of the pandemic, we suggest to focus on how different actors from the music sector have managed the crisis: musicians, crew, venues, guild organizations, governments, etc. What types of actions have they developed? What have they achieved? What is left after a year-long pandemic?

Music industry crew went on a demonstration to raise awareness about the threat of job losses in the sector, on 17 September 2020 in Barcelona. Movimiento Alerta Roja (Red Alert) @Alvaro Monge.
We encourage scholars studying musical work to submit short pieces on the topic of managing the crisis at different levels:
- Musical workers’ organization and collective actions
After one year of the pandemic, how have musical workers organized to overcome the crisis? What type of collective action has been taken (protests, demands, negotiations, campaigns, etc.)? What types of workers have participated? How have these forms of collective action been influenced by the national contexts? Have these intensified in recent months? What are the results of these collective actions? Have they played a role in unionizing or federating the music sector?
2. Political management of the crisis
What public (social and cultural) policy response to the pandemic has there been? In particular, what responses have there been in the music sector? How do these policy decisions affect musical work? What are the implications and links between policy actors and the music sector compared to other sectors?
We are particularly interested in gathering insights into different national contexts, informing how political and institutional contexts shape professional situations.
3.Career paths of musical workers
How do musical workers cope with the interruption of concerts and events? Do they multiply their professional activities? Have they considered career change? What professional activities remain for music workers?
We accept descriptive think pieces or interviews with musical workers. Interviews can be with different types of musical workers, including music teachers, tech crews, performers, composers, singer-songwriters, managers, and even music scholars. We especially encourage interviews with women in these roles, to continue our Women in Music series
**************
Pieces must be between 250–750 words. Please include a brief bio or institutional description. Feel free to send a picture or video to include in your post, but be sure you are authorized to use it (all photos must be credited). In case you will to write a longer article, feel free to submit a blog entry. You can refer to this guideline.
You can send your piece (in Word format) to Gabrielle Kielich (gabrielle.kielich[at]mail.mcgill.ca).
We will collect and review the entries, communicate with authors about edits when necessary, and publish them on our website every two weeks until August.
We publicize all published posts on our Twitter account (@working_music) and our mailing list (subscribe here).
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
ldebraba (March 29, 2021). Working in Music and the Covid-19 Pandemic : Third Call for Blog Posts. Working in Music. Retrieved May 24, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/vas4