Breakdowns and Breakthroughs: Observing Musicians' Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper describes results from a study examining how musicians have been affected by the restrictive environments imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the corresponding technological implications. Through a survey of 29 musicians and additional interviews with 7 professional improvisation musicians, we observe the challenges musicians face in 1) finding the technological infrastructure and shared spaces necessary for dynamic, remote creative collaborations, 2) producing the mindset, free time, and sources of inspiration necessary for initiating creativity during times of stress, and 3) maintaining (and potentially expanding) the social connections and creative community vital to creative practice. We also report on how some musicians have creatively leveraged the radical changes in their lives to drive new artistic practices and styles of music. Collectively, these data illustrate the resilience of certain existing remote collaboration and creative tools, while suggesting ways other digital tools could more flexibly accommodate new use cases. The data also suggest the value of tools and services that help people creatively cope with radical changes to their lives and livelihoods.