A Struggling Musical Artist in a Global Pandemic

Take a moment to imagine: you graduate a year early from a prestigious university with the whole world in the palm of your hand. Instead of guaranteeing yourself a 9-to-5 job that would allow you to be financially stable, you move to Brooklyn to follow your dreams of being a musical artist. Then, a global pandemic emerges. You are left wondering, what do I do now?

For independent artist and producer Ethan Porter, this nightmare became his reality. At 21 years of age, Porter graduated from Northeastern University in three years with a major in finance and a minor in songwriting. He moved to Brooklyn to follow his dreams of being a musical artist. 

“A big part of my income right now is songwriting, audio engineering and at the same time I am trying to take this time to figure myself out as an artist,” Porter said. 

Porter believed in the idea of immersion. “If I want to be an artist, I need to immerse myself in the culture that is the world around me,” Porter said. “New York has defined that best.” 

Even though this immersion has allowed Porter to step into different areas of musical genres, he’s found himself frustrated and struggling with creativity much of the time. He felt more self-critical due to the talented pool around him, but this also pushed him to his creative limit.  

Even more, he believes that this struggle is necessary for self-improvement. Since the  pandemic, how artists communicate through music has changed.

“Music begs for people to interact because it is communicative,” Porter said. “...that’s why over 50% of the music industry is live shows, and now it’s not. In that way, the pandemic has caused issues in starting a career in music.” Live shows and performances at bars or restaurants were independent artists' primary way of producing financial stability and interactions with their audience.

But now, since the exposure of music is restricted to a virtual setting due to COVID-19, he said this atmosphere will showcase the importance of music and will take power away from the music industry's corporate dominance. 

“Everyone being stuck for a moment has really humanized everyone, even the elite members of the music industry,” he said. “I think that we were already at a point where independent artistry is blowing up and big labels are being criticized. So, I think that, those in combination, could just both lead up to this moment where we are kinda understanding that music can devolve back to something that is a lot more raw, a lot more human, a lot less business-oriented.”

COVID-19 created a new roadblock in an already pothole-filled road to success in New York City. To avoid crashing, artists have to adapt to new musical alternatives.