MusiCares launches Help for the Holidays on Giving Tuesday

Organization giving gift cards to music people in need

For those in the music industry, life remains uncertain as the global pandemic continues to devastate their professional landscape and additional government assistance remains on hold. As we enter the holiday season, conditions are worsening for music people, including needs for the most basic of life’s necessities. In response to the urgent need, MusiCares is launching Help for the Holidays, an e-card aid program, on Giving Tuesday, December 1st.

As part of continued COVID-19 Relief, MusiCares is offering $250 essential goods e-cards to the first 4,000 eligible applicants. Applications open on December 1st. Additionally, MusiCares has updated its list of COVID-19 relief online resources, which now includes a food insecurity hotline (1-800-5HUNGRY) and Find Food search with WhyHunger, a leading organization working to end hunger and advance the human right to nutritious food in the U.S. and worldwide.

The COVID-19 Relief effort started in March 2020 with initial seed donations of $1 million each by MusiCares and the Recording Academy. To date, $20 million has been distributed to help more than 20,000 music people across a wide variety of genres and roles in the industry. However, more is needed to meet the demand.

“Layoffs have left bands, crews and music support people jobless and struggling to attain basic provisions, from food on the table to gasoline in the car,” says Laura Segura, Executive Director of MusiCares. “Despite the support we’ve been able to provide to date, the situation has yet to improve for the music industry and the need grows. We continue to encourage all music lovers to support impacted industry professionals, especially during this holiday season, one that we know will look wildly different than years past.”

Any professionals with at least three years of past employment history in music and demonstrated need can apply for the essential goods e-card from MusiCares. All genres and professions are eligible, including artists, musicians, production crews, technicians, business teams and anyone impacted by the loss of income due to live music event cancellations.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com