COVID-19 has huge impact on music industry

Nashville based songwriter Phil Barton was in London to perform for the Country to Country Festival when Donald Trump announced travel restrictions from Europe to the United States.

The festival was immediately cancelled.

“This was so devastating for Country fans in the UK and I was caught up in the mad chaos to get home – this was just the start,” said Mr Barton.

COVID-19 had a huge impact on the music industry, with all live concerts and performances cancelled into the foreseeable future, bringing the music business to a stand-still. However, as a songwriter it has been possible for Mr Barton to write via the Zoom platform, which has become the new normal.

“Strangely it has allowed a lot of artists that were extremely busy on the road to concentrate on writing new material,” he said.

Mr Barton has also been lucky to still be able to write with Artists from Australia, the United States, Europe and Canada thanks to technology in this crazy time.

He has learnt to adapt to new creative possibilities, which have had to be invented, to work through challenges and to be able to produce new music works in new way. He has also learnt patience: “to be able to do what we usually do in our studios and offices, across a myriad of technologies”. 

Mr Barton urges people to be safe, stay home and save lives.

“In many professions you can still be proactive by thinking outside the box and dedicating time every day to your craft. Embrace different situations to be able to get long term results, whether that be by utilizing time for things that required time that you just didn’t have, that will now improve your skillset and work better for the future,” he said.

Phil Barton completed a Bachelor of Arts at Southern Cross University which was conferred in 1995. He co-wrote the song ‘A woman like you’ which was a number 1 hit on the American Country Music charts in 2012.