“Back to normal” is no longer a realistic marker for American office culture as the COVID-19 health crisis ushers in a work-from-home paradigm shift.
“People have woken up and you can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” says Greg Carter, a local tech consultant who’s also a mandolin player and songwriter. “We’re never going to get away from some level of remote work because it’s so much more productive.”
As such, a certain type of corporate gig – where musicians perform exclusively for the workers of a company – could likewise “Zoom” into a new era. Carter identified that nearly two months ago when he began organizing virtual office performances for the music patronage nonprofit Black Fret, of which he’s a member. That Happy Hour Concert series, tapping three Austin musicians to swap songs in front of an audience of up to 100 corporate workers on digital meeting platforms, has taken off as a popular moral boost companies can provide to their employees.
To date, the program has staged 29 workforce concerts and paid over $40,000 to Austin musicians who’ve been largely out of work because of an industry-wide shutdown. Each artist gets paid a base rate of $500 plus tips, which Carter says have averaged $100-$200 per performer thus far. Repeat performances pay roughly $300 after tips.
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