MusiCares Offers Holiday Help
• For many working in the music industry, life remains uncertain as the global pandemic continues to devastate the professional landscape while additional government assistance remains on hold. As we enter the holiday season, conditions are worsening for music people, including needs for the most basic of life’s necessities. In response to this urgent need, MusiCares® is launching Help for the Holidays, an e-card aid program, on Giving Tuesday, Dec. 1.
As part of continued COVID-19 Relief, MusiCares is offering $250 essential goods e-cards to the first 4,000 eligible applicants. Applications are now open. MusiCares has also updated its list of COVID-19 relief online resources, which now includes a food insecurity hotline (1-800-5HUNGRY) and Find Food search with WhyHunger. The COVID-19 Relief effort started in March 2020 with initial seed donations of $1 million each by MusiCares and the Recording Academy®. To date, $20 million has been distributed to help more than 20,000 music industry people across a wide variety of genres and roles. However, more is needed to meet the demand.
“Layoffs have left bands, crews and music support people jobless and struggling to attain basic provisions, from food on the table to gasoline in the car,” says Laura Segura, Executive Director of MusiCares. “Despite the support we’ve been able to provide to date, the situation has yet to improve for the music industry and the need grows. We continue to encourage all music lovers to support impacted industry professionals, especially during this holiday season, one that we know will look wildly different than years past.”
Any music industry pros with at least three years of past employment history in our industry and demonstrated need can apply for the essential goods e-card from MusiCares. All genres and professions are eligible, including artists, musicians, production crews, technicians, business teams and anyone impacted by the loss of income due to live music event cancellations — apply now at MusiCares.org.
