Halestorm Singer Says Pandemic Put Her Career and Income in Jeopardy Lzzy Hale (lead singer of the band Halestorm) is one of many women in the music industry struggling financially during the Corona Virus pandemic of 2020. At the beginning of the pandemic music tours were postponed or canceled. With no live shows scheduled, Lzzy’s income is in decline.
Musicians depend on touring to make the majority of their income and promote their music. Merchandising online and at live shows also earn the musician a good portion of their income. The reason musicians depend so much on performing live shows is music fans are not buying physical CDs as much as they used to. In the early 2000s music artists lost a lot of income to file sharing. Also, with the introduction of iTunes in 2001, music fans could now buy single songs instead of buying the whole CD.
A lot of the public don’t feel bad for celebrities who are not working during the Covid pandemic. There is an assumption that they are paid well, so not working for a while won’t hurt their bottom line. This is far from the truth for musicians.
In an interview with Forbes Magazine Lzzy said talked about how much musicians depend on touring to earn their income and promote their music. She told the magazine: “Well, I think that a lot of people look at musicians and look at people that have record labels or albums coming out and they think, ‘Oh, they’re set, they’ve made it, and they’re millionaires. I think that if you are somebody of note and you have saved up and you have a brand that you have built over the years, maybe you’re going to be able two hang on for a little while longer.”Referring to her band Halestorm, Lzzy also told Forbes Magazine: “We had played the biggest places that we’ve ever played overseas, and during the last record cycle we were really building something there, but do we have to start over again because of this?”
Lzzy and Halestorm are currently writing new material for the follow up CD to their 2018 release “Vicious”.