The Coronavirus Means Curtains for Artists

The Nation: In attempting to understand the impact of the pandemic on artists and the arts, we need to start by recognizing that this new crisis has collided with an arts economy that was already severely weakened by 20 years of digital assault. The assault has taken the form, specifically, of demonetization. Any content that can be transmitted over the Internet—music, text, still images, video—has seen its price severely cut, often to zero.