Ephemeral income: Considering Covid-prompted loss of ephemerality in live music through the dichotomy between labour income and capital income

Abstract

There are two main types of income earned by musicians. The first is capital income, which is the type of income derived from owning the intellectual rights to music, either through record sales or leveraging moral rights. The second is labour income, which is generated from live performance and takes the form of performance fees. Historically, these two activities are considered separate with some ontological and economic interdependences, creating two different streams of income; however, we present a case which shows that the two merged when much 'live' music appeared online during the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of livestreams. These livestreams theoretically allow musicians to earn bo..