MILWAUKEE- Musicians have been on quite a ride over the past year with the music industry shutting down live shows and tours- not only in the U-S but around the globe.
Milwaukee musician “Cullah” has been a full time musician since 2016. He says his entire tour was canceled last year.
“I had a whole North American tour and European tour, half of it was booked. West coast was booked, half the east coast was booked. Everything was moving forward. Bought a bunch of vinyl ready to sell it on the road and then everything was canceled,” said Cullah.
With no tours and no shows, many musicians lost their primary source of income.
But Cullah says he was able to pivot.
“Luckily the majority of my income wasn’t from touring. This was my first year I was doing something on that scale. So most of my business has been through royalties and other ways to collect on the music that I’ve already made.”
One thing that helped Cullah pivot through the pandemic is an organization that’s designed to help musicians gather together, network and have their music be heard on a different digital space and platform.
Allison Emm is the founder and owner of Wisconsin Music Ventures which has become a resource for struggling musicians.
“I started Wisconsin Music Ventures in 2019 and it initially started as a pop-up style concert series where we put great Wisconsin musicians in great Wisconsin places but as Covid came around we decided to buckle down and do a little more for the musicians who were struggling. So, we started doing more workshops for them. We started hosting some industry talk sessions. Just offer a way to communicate and talk and network amongst the musicians,” Emm said.
To hear more about Cullah and Wisconsin Music Ventures click on the audio player above.