BEFORE the Covid-19 pandemic forced everyone inside, Izmarezam Mhd Aziz earned a steady living busking on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

As the movement control order (MCO) entered its third week, Izmarezam, known as “Tam”, has been forced to find another way to make ends meet.

The coronavirus has decimated the live music scene, and musicians and buskers like Izmarezam have taken their acts online to continue their passion and make a living.

Some stage solo acts from their parent’s bedrooms while others band together to hold online festivals to raise money for healthcare frontliners battling Covid-19.

The move online is driven by a need to continue making money but also to ensure that their talent and skills do not go rusty during the MCO.

“I used to have a steady schedule of performing at several areas in Kuala Lumpur and my monthly income was about RM4,000,” Izmarezam told The Malaysian Insight.

“Yet, ever since the MCO, my income has dropped to zero,” said the 40-year-old singer-guitarist.

The MCO, which began on March 18, is due to end on April 14. It was enforced to break the chain of Covid-19 infections nationwide.

As of yesterday, 3,116 people have been infected in Malaysia, while 50 people have lost their lives to the virus.

When Izmarezam did his first live stream over his Facebook account, he was just testing the waters and having a bit of fun while being homebound.

“I had also put up my account number in case some of my viewers wanted to contribute. Thank God after just three streaming performances, I have a few thousand viewers and the collection has been good.

“The money made busking online and off-line is almost the same,” he said.

“Some days you make money, some days you don’t make any at all,” said the father of four, who performs on his Facebook page.

Another busker, Akmal Hishan Baharom, has had three wedding performances cancelled along with his regular street appearances.

“I had prepared myself mentally for something like the MCO because I would watch films about pandemics and thought to myself, what would I do as a musician, if something like that happened here?”

He has so far performed two live streams and made five recordings at the request of his viewers.

“I’ve garnered about 200 viewers. I don’t really have a target. I do it to entertain people who are also stuck at home and to make some money to help my parents,” said Akmal, who is popularly known as Akmal Tim Hishan.

Akmal performs from his bedroom at his parents’ house where he lives and is helping to care for his sick father.

Performing arts and film lecturer Azmyl Yunor had joined other musicians to organise the live-streamed Festival Duduk Rumah (FesDuRu) or stay at home music festival.

Using the online tele-conferencing platform Zoom, the festival last month was aimed at entertaining stuck-at-home Malaysians, while collecting donations for Mercy Malaysia.

The festival managed to collect RM11,000, far more than what its organisers had hoped.

“After the festival, I’ve performed about two times on Facebook and plan to do so every Saturday evening,” said Azmyl.

However, for now, Azyml, who used to perform in underground gigs before the MCO, does not plan on asking his viewers for donations.

“I don’t want to collect money for myself because I don’t want to take away income from other musicians out there who are also performing online.

“They need the money more than I do,” said the father of two. – April 3, 2020.