Independent Brooklyn label Temporary Residence Ltd is making an album a day on their Bandcamp “pay what you want” until a vaccine for coronavirus is discovered. "The goal is to offer fans who may have lost their jobs the opportunity to continue to invest in and be inspired by our music... while fans who still have job security can pay whatever they think is fair", Temporary explained. Temporary Residence’s catalog includes albums from Mogwai, Envy, Explosions in the Sky, Beak>, Mogwai, William Basinski, Steve Moore, Songs: Ohia, Maserati, Eluvium, Field Works, Nick Zammuto, and more.

Dolly Parton released a video with her reciting a new, witty poem about boredom and tension people are facing while everybody is at home. It's minute and a half long, a nice one: "This too shall pass as all things will. If the virus don't kill us, the staying home will. The kids are bored and restless. They scream and yell and squawk. And the teens and tweens, they're just plain mean. They bite your bleeping head off. And all those loving couples that were once so sweet and cozy? Now they fight like cats and dogs like Donald and Pelosi. Lord, get us back to school and get us back to work and get us out of this God dang house before someone gets hurt! And Lord, please find a vaccination in the form of a shot or a pill. Because if the virus don't kill us, the staying home will!".

A lovely column in the NPR about how sounds are beginning to emerge now that everything has stopped - the traffic, the daily commute, the stores are closed... Birdsong is more noticeable right now because noise pollution levels are down, so we're hearing the world as people heard it decades ago...

Listeners worldwide are tuning into chiller, more mood-oriented music in the time of the big lockdown, while children’s music has seen the biggest spike in listening, Rolling Stone reports. Spotify has noticed people adding songs that are noticeably more acoustic, less danceable, and have lower energy. Pandora is seeing increases in categories like "cleaning", "wind-down", "focus", and "family". On Deezer, playlists like their “cosy coffeeshop” increased by 486%, “lazy indie” saw a 180% uptick, and the use of “mellow days", which features older rock, soul, disco tracks, rose by 305%. Spotify noted an increase in music geared to help kids sleep, Deezer’s “happy kids” playlist spiked up over 100%, while both Apple and Deezer also saw a significant boost in fitness-related listening.

Apple Music is launching a $50 million advance royalty fund for indie labels, to offer them relief in time of coronavirus epidemic, the Rolling Stone reports. Independent labels that earn at least $10,000 in quarterly Apple Music earnings will qualify for the royalty advances. To qualify, the indie labels must have a direct Apple Music distribution deal. "Apple has a deep, decades-long history with music, and we are proud to be in close partnership with the best labels and artists in the world. We want to help” - Apple said in its letter to the indies.

Warner Records released two flagship albums simultaneously on Friday, March 27th: Dua Lipa's 'Future Nostalgia' and PartyNextDoor's 'PartyMobile', the latter featuring Rihanna’s first new vocal for three years. Warner's COO Tom Corson explained to the Rolling Stone: “Music is very of the moment - it captures a time. To say, ‘Let’s push these releases back a number of months,’ which we did consider, felt very risky from the standpoint that we had momentum and great music that people wanted to hear”. Streaming services were happy with the decision, Corson adds - "There was a real excitement of ‘This is just what we need!’".

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have translated the structure of famous spike protein of the notorious coronavirus into music, The Next Web reports. The sounds all represent different aspects of the spikelike protein, and like all proteins, the spikes are made of combinations of amino acids. Using a new technique called sonification, MIT's scientists assigned each amino acid a unique note in a musical scale, converting the entire protein into a music score. Sound quite classical, slightly disharmonic, and benign... Listen to the 2-hour long composition below.

Since the outbreak, the UK government has been meeting with Britain's supermarket bosses to align on communication strategies that can minimise disruptive or irresponsible shopper behaviour, according to Wired. Music is one of a host of tricks supermarkets are using to try and encourage shoppers to maintain social distancing, and not to panic buy. Some surprising turns - Britney Spear's ‘Toxic’ has been struck off, The Bee Gees’ ‘Stayin’ Alive’ was also flagged as inappropriate, Lewis Capaldi isn’t getting much air time anymore as curators avoid ballads and downbeat tracks. Music policies, in general, have been made even more stringent to maintain a positive, if restrained, atmosphere.

Lady Gaga is to curate 'One World: Together at Home', a live-streamed and televised benefit concert with some of the biggest stars performing in support of the World Health Organization's Covid-19 solidarity response fund and in celebration of health workers around the world, CNBC reports. The lineup includes Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas, Lizzo, J Balvin, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Burna Boy, Andrea Bocelli, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Elton John, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, and Lang Lang. American talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert will host the event, which broadcasts live across the US television networks ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as being streamed online - on Alibaba, Amazon Prime Video, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, LiveXLive, Tencent, Tencent Music Entertainment Group, TIDAL, TuneIn, Twitch, Twitter, Yahoo, and YouTube. It's on April 18 (at 8 p.m. New York time, 2 a.m. at Sunday 19 Geneva time, 8 a.m. Wuhan time)

Approximately 40,000 masks will go to Tennessee, 50,000 to Rikers Island in New York, and 5,000 to Parchman in Mississippi. Additionally, 2,500 masks were sent to Rikers Island's medical facility, CBS reports. The rappers' donation will help protect staff and inmates from the spread of COVID-19, which has increased significantly in correctional facilities because prisoners live in crowded quarters and are unable to practice social distancing. Last week, rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine - who suffers from chronic asthma, putting him at increased risk for catching the virus - was released from jail and will serve the remaining four months of his sentence under home confinement.

Pantera is promoting social distancing in the shadow of coronavirus pandemic with a limited edition of 'Vulgar Display of Power'-styled shirt bearing the 'Walk' lyric, "Be yourself, by yourself, stay away from me". The iconic album art has been reworked to express precautions currently being taken to limit the spread of the coronavirus, Loudwire reports. Pantera's new T-shirt will ship in about three weeks and is selling for $30 with 40 percent of the proceeds being donated to the MusiCares Covid-19 Relief Fund to aid musical artists impacted by the coronavirus.

The Guardian has an encouraging article about how music helped the humanity during the times of pandemics. When plague struck Sparta in the 7th century BC, city leaders petitioned the poet Thaletus to sing hymns. In summer of 1576, when plague of Saint Charles devastated much of the Italian north, thousands of Milanese men, women and children opened their windows and sang. Now, people in Italy, Spain, Canada and the wider world have used music to bring their communities together on a truly impressive scale. Dr. Chris Macklin, a former professor of musicology at Mercer University, explained to the G that “music was not a luxury in times of epidemic uncertainty – it was a necessity”.

A group of Chicago-based stand-up comedians shot a lo-fi video inspired by this year’s Icelandic entry to Eurovision, Daði Freyr’s funny 'Think About Things'. Garrett Williams and his four housemates shot the video in a couple of hours, edited it and posted on Twitter. The video attracted more than 7m views by now. The ironic take on the ironic original inspired some un-ironic hommages.

Madonna has donated $1 million to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help fund research into creating a coronavirus vaccine. Pink, who recovered from coronavirus just recently, has pledged $500,000 to Philadelphia’s Temple University Hospital Fund, and $500,000 to the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Emergency COVID-19 Crisis Fund. Metallica's charitable foundation, All Within My Hands, has announced four grants totaling $350,000 to Feeding America, Direct Relief, Crew Nation and the USBG National Charity Foundation. R'n'b singer H.E.R. has provided her team with money to support them over the coming months.

R'n'b singer Ciara and her American football husband Russell Wilson are donating 10 million meals to nonprofit Feeding America, for its COVID-19 relief effort, MSN reports. Feeding America has estimated that a $1 donation can provide 10 meals, so according to that, Wilson and Ciara have pledged $1 million for the organization’s relief efforts. In the meantime, Feeding America got the biggest donation in their history - $100 million from Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

Pitchfork assembled a list of foundations, reliefs, grants, and other ways of helping musicians in the time of the big lockdown. It's aimed at artists in need and fans looking to do some good.

Adam Schlesinger, the co-founder and songwriter of alter-rock band Fountains of Wayne, has died from complications of COVID-19, at age 52, Rolling Stone reports. He left plenty of work behind: six Fountains of Wayne albums, five Ivy albums, one Tinted Windows album, 157 songs for the TV series 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend', one Broadway musical, one off-Broadway musical, one unforgettable hit song for a fake '60s rock band in a Tom Hanks movie, and plenty more.

Billboard has an encouraging story about 10 bands that made music while their members were (physically) distant. The Postal Service, innovators of long-distance recording, used physical mail as their communicative medium - hence the name. Superorganism - with musicians from the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and Japan - united in an indie pop group after connecting via various channels over the years and their debut single, 'Something for Your M.I.N.D.' came out before all eight members had ever been in a room together.

Live Nation has established Crew Nation, a new charitable fund to help support concert crews around the world impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, Variety reports. "Crew members are the backbone of the live music industry" - the entertainment company said, committing $10 million - a $5 million donation directly to the fund and another $5 million to match contributions by artists, fans and employees dollar-for-dollar. Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino's family will be personally donating $250,000. Crew Nation has been designed to help tour managers, production managers, riggers, sound engineers, backline techs, lighting directors/designers, special effects teams, carpenters and more.

Jazz great and trumpeter Wallace Roney, who studied under Miles Davis and played with Art Blakey and Herbie Hancock and more, died on Tuesday (March 31) due to complications from COVID-19, at age 59, NPR reports. Roney recorded 21 albums as a leader, performed with his idol Miles Davis at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival (watch it below), and won a Grammy with the surviving members of the Miles Davis Quintet for the album 'A Tribute to Miles'.

"The USA will get through this in spite of the catastrophic shortcomings of the current administration. How? You. Your strength, compassion, smarts, cool, and tenacity will be what allows us to get control of this very real crisis" - Henry Rollins told Rolling Stone about the corona epidemic. While being alone, Rollins says he engages in "two kinds of listening. Protein and carbohydrate. Protein is records I’ve never heard before, where I have to lean in and focus. Carbohydrate is music that’s familiar to me. Right now, I’m in a 90/10 protein-carbohydrate ratio. New records by Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, Coriky, Cold Beat, Wasted Shirt, Wolf Eyes, Crazy Doberman, Primo, and Lamps are all really good".

Lyricist Dana Jay Bein and vocalist Adrian Grimes remade Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' as 'Coronavirus Rhapsody' in light of the ongoing Covid-10 pandemic. Cheeky lyrics include nods to hand sanitizing and self-quarantining. Grimes describes the parody as an attempt to harness "some humor to see us through the COVID-19 crisis".

Universal Music Group announced a multi-million dollar initiative UMG All Together Now Foundation intended to support its artists, songwriters and employees over the next several months while the coronavirus shutdown is in place. UMG employs 8,800 workers around the world, with the foundation offering enhanced HR offerings and other programs, as well as a commitment that any employees who cannot work remotely will not see their pay change through at least June 30. The company is also offering a suite of economic flexibility initiatives to its artists and assorted companies, including interest-free royalty advances and fee waivers, Billboard reports. The company is also donating directly to MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund (a source says UMG has made the largest contribution there of any record label) and the Help Musicians UK charities, and has committed to matching donations that U.S. employees make to those organizations as well.

Fielding Hope, a senior producer at the London-based venue Cafe Oto, published a list of experimental musicians who are available for lessons and consultations. Having to stay at home - a perfect time to learn new stuff, right?!?

Consequence of Sound shared tips on how to help musicians in the time of the big lockdown:

Social media - the most direct way for musicians to let fans know how they can help during these thin times

Live streaming - can be a revenue source for independent and smaller acts thanks to Venmo and PayPal, or simply by pointing viewers towards online merch and music shops

Merch - if you’re fortunate enough to still have some disposable income, put that money towards a T-shirt, a poster, pins, badges, a shot glass

Music - buying it is the best way, Bandcamp is much more generous towards artists than Spotify

Crowdfunding - can be a vital way for fans to promptly support artists in their time of need

Billboard has compiled a rundown of music companies who have pledged their support during this time of the big shutdown, which resulted in lay-offs and cuts. The independent concert promotion and production company has launched the I.M.P. Family Fund to assist the company’s hourly employees. Streaming service Mixcloud is waiving its revenue share for the recently-launched Mixcloud SELECT platform. British collecting society PRS For Music has launched the PRS Emergency Relief Fund to support members affected by the pandemic. Music service Qobuz is waiving its revenue share on all download sales. The music-centric finance firm Sound Royalties has dedicated $20 million to offer a no-cost royalty advance funding option on every new application. Music Business Worldwide asks whether the music industry can do more to help artists and songwriters whose income has been hit by coronavirus?

In the time of self-isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, the internet usage is going through the roof, so YouTube is already taking the preemptive measure of cutting its video quality worldwide due to some massive traffic surges. At first it was limited to Europe, now the streaming service has decided to limit video resolution across the globe, Bloomberg reports. The YouTube initiative started Tuesday (March 24) and will last for at least a month. However, users will still have the option to stream in high definition if they want; it just will no longer be automatic.

English singer-songwriter Ralph McTell wrote a new verse of his legendary 1969 hit 'Streets of London', something he'd always previously refused to do. He changed his mind, as he's explained to the BBC, because of the "huge" threat posed by the coronavirus epidemic. With its focus on the homeless, the new verse calls for help for thousands of rough sleepers across Britain.

The German federal government has allowed aid package for the country’s creative and cultural sectors with €50 billion in grants and loans, Artnet reports. Culture minister Monika Grütter said “the creative courage of creative people can help to overcome the crisis... Artists are not only indispensable, but also vital, especially now”. In the US, songwriters, along with other “gig economy” workers in the music industry ranging from producers to roadies, will be eligible for grants and loans under the $2 trillion (that's a 1 with 12 zeros following) stimulus bill passed by the US Senate in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Variety reports. The coronavirus stimulus bill gives the music industry a fighting chance, Rolling Stone comments.

Last week, in the shadow of the coronavirus outbreak, R.E.M.’s 1987 classic 'It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)' unexpectedly re-entered the American singles charts. 'End of the World' was the 22nd most purchased song in all-genres last week, which pushed it, combined with 1.7 million streams, to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart. Some other songs saw unexpected sales as well - Disturbed’s 'Down With the Sickness' and Gloria Gaynor’s 'I Will Survive' are both popular at the moment, as is The Knack’s 'My Sharona', just because it rhymes with “corona”. Similarly, riding the COVID-19 wave are songs with especially thematic titles, like Shwayze’s 'Corona and Lime', The Minutemen’s 'Corona', 'Isolation' by Joy Division, and 'Quarantined' by At the Drive-In.