At Our Core: Supporting Creators and Communities

We all miss heading to a show with friends, discovering a new artist’s intimate concert, or making plans for a festival. The experience of live music is unparalleled in its ability to unite crowds of people. But audiences aren’t the only people suffering a loss — this is undoubtedly a wildly challenging time for artists as well. In a study, The Music Industry Research Association found that the average U.S. musician made the majority of their income from live show performances — about 81%. Now with closed venues and social distancing orders, this revenue source isn’t an option. But showing continued support for these artists is.

Creativity in Times of Chaos Though filled with uncertainty, the past few months have seen encouraging trends in the music world. DJ Khaled, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga are among musicians that have donated to relief organizations. Singers such as John Legend and Dua Lipa are giving performances from their homes via live streaming. And creators of all types are producing like crazy. In fact, Monthly Active Users of Pandora creator tools such as AMP and Next Big Sound are up +7% from last month.

And our U.S. ad sales partner, SoundCloud, is also seeing creativity spike. SoundCloud saw a +50% surge in creators uploading in March, and has seen more than 30,000 tracks uploaded that are titled or tagged COVID-19 since the start of the year. What’s more, almost a third of creators on SoundCloud say they’re messaging or interacting with their fans, collaborators and fellow artists.

The foundation of SiriusXM, Pandora and SoundCloud’s platforms are built on creator communities, and we’re dedicated to finding new ways to offer support to creators so they can continue the craft they love. Here’s what’s happening:

MusiCares & Ad Council Pandora and SiriusXM are contributing to MusiCares relief fund to support music workers whose livelihoods have been impacted by the Coronavirus crisis. Additionally, Pandora, SXM and SoundCloud are working with the Ad Council alongside other major companies in tech to donate ad inventory to help share critical messaging around the crisis

SoundCloud Creator Contest: Music Beyond Borders This time of isolation can, for some, also be a moment of inspiration. As part of its latest wave of creator support initiatives, SoundCloud is driving deeper artist-to-fan connections with the launch of a new creator contest — encouraging uploading quarantine-inspired songs — and a new direct fan-support button where fans can instantly and directly show their support.

SoundCloud also announced $5M in free promotional support for all creators via Promote on SoundCloud to drive more plays on the platform. Creators can simply tag their uploads with #GetMorePlays for a chance to be featured.

SoundCloud x Twitch Partnership SoundCloud and Twitch are partnering to fastrack SoundCloud creators directly to Twitch affiliate status. This means creators can start earning money from their Twitch streams instantly, and keep their career more on track.

Social distancing and stay-at-home orders will eventually be lifted, and concerts and festivals will take place again — but we need to support each other and encourage listeners to support their favorite artists now so we can all be together later.

Want to show your support? Reach out to your Pandora sales rep to learn how to get involved in Pandora’s Listen In With series and SoundCloud’s Music Beyond Borders creator contest to inspire creativity, galvanize music fans to tune in, and support creator communities through the power of music.

Pandora is here to help you navigate through this new time. We recently launched SoundCheck, a place where you can find trends and insights about the impact of the current crisis and resources for optimizing your creative with Studio Resonate. Let us know how we can best help you.