Music In Africa Live

Thousands of African musicians have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic which has introduced unprecedented lockdowns and restrictions across the continent. African musicians and professionals traditionally make a living from live performances, and now they find themselves in extreme difficulty.  While social media platforms offer alternative avenues for operators to broadcast their works seamlessly, many musicians are failing to make ends meet.

Additionally, most musicians do not have the adequate skills, equipment and resources required to stage successful digital performances and in general, to navigate the many challenges occasioned by COVID-19. The pandemic requires the sector to devise strong support mechanisms that can ignite a digital live music ecosystem that is able to offer competitive high-quality products and ensure that African musicians are able to earn.

The main goal of Music In Africa Live is to enable musicians to earn income from digital live performances at a time when many of them have lost their usual income due to the pandemic. The other focus of the project is to develop critical skills among professionals to enable them to navigate the difficult times.

The project will have three main actions, which are to:

1. Financially support practitioners to stage high quality live productions on the condition that funds from the project are used to offer musicians paid gigs to showcase and market their work to a wider audience;
2. Market and promote developed content, especially among critical and influential audiences across the world;
3. Financially support organisations and interested entities to deliver (via digital means) viable capacity building initiatives that develop relevant critical skills among music professionals, especially to enable them to navigate challenges and new realities occasioned by the pandemic.