Concerts and festivals will not go ahead in the UK until at least next year - Cambridge University lecturer dr Chris Smith tells BBC about the prospect of music events by the end of this year. Smith believes it is "too optimistic" to think such social gatherings will take place - "we won't even have got a vaccine into people by then". Dr. Smith is confident we will ultimately return to enjoying such collective experiences - as they "appeal to the human nature" - but only after most people in the country have either been infected with the disease (herd immunity) or inoculated (vaccines or combinations of drugs) in some way. "I think this year is basically a write-off, if I'm honest with you," he adds.

The cold sobriety of lockdown has a way of sucking the colour and joy from the jetstream of youthful abandon. Did I really waste my life in the hands of crap rock’n’roll bands? No, I refuse to be pandemoralised. If I’m forced to assess my musical life and loves thus far just because the world pressed pause, I’m going to replay the biggest hooks proudly, be they by Foals or The Farm, by REM or, yes, Razorlight - Mark, My Words brings the light into the time of greyness...

Electronic musician Marc Rebillet has announced the first drive-in concert tour in the US, Pollstar reports. Rebillet, also known as YouTuber "Loop Daddy", will embark on the seven-date drive-in tour beginning in June, with socially distant concerts scheduled in North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. In lieu of opening acts, each show will screen short films. Additionally, attendees will be able to purchase merchandise, food, and more. It comes after promoters in Denmark invented the drive-in concert, and German concert-engineers innovated drive-in rave, or the Autodisco.

Ireland government announced exit plan from coronavirus lockdown, revealing that festivals with the appropriate distance between individuals practiced could return in August, NME reports. The final, fifth phase – which will be introduced on August 10 – mentions the return of larger social gatherings, including music festivals, but only “in accordance with both indoor and outdoor number restrictions and where social distancing can be complied with”.

“Morning routines have changed significantly. Every day now looks like the weekend” - Spotify announced in their quarterly report. The change of trends in Spotify usage is mirroring, of course, the change of daily habits of workers who don't commute and listen to music on their way to work anymore, TechCrunch reports. Spotify says that it now has 286 million monthly active users worldwide (an increase of 31 percent) and 130 million subscribers (also up by 31 percent), with revenues in Q1 standing at €1.848 billion (up by 22 percent). Music Business Worldwide has put these numbers into perspective. Spotify’s ARPU – the average revenue paid each month by its Premium subscribers around the world – fell by 7% at constant currency, year-on-year, to €4.42m in Q1 2020. It’s the first time in history that Spotify’s official ARPU has fallen to less than half the €9.99-per-month subs price it launched with, in Europe, in 2008.

Since the beginning of the big lockdown, distribution platforms that cater to unsigned acts are seeing huge surges in activity, Rolling Stone reports. TuneCore, Vydia, CD Baby, Soundrop, United Masters, and Ditto all push music to streaming services for a fee, providing a useful service for acts without a label, or artists who want to retain ownership of their songs. All six platforms have observed surges in activity since the start of the pandemic and quarantine - in some cases, music uploads are up 300 percent.

"When you’re just overloaded on news, it can be demoralizing. This is where artists and writers have the ability to step in and really give people what they need. Sometimes the point is to make something that gives people joy, so that they have a break from the panic" - Tori Amos argues in favor of artists being a positive force in dark times, in New Yorker interview. "I really think that even in the darkest of times, our ancestors got something from art, some kind of spiritual manna—or, as the British would say, the bloody bollocks to move forward and not get stuck".

More than 400 of the UK’s leading artists, among them musicians Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Rufus Wainwright, Jamie Cullum, Katie Melua, Stephen Hough, Terry Hall, Meera Syal, have signed a letter calling on the UK government to release funds to support the creative industries, Guardian reports. The artists warn that unless more is done the country could become “a cultural wasteland” because of the economic damage done during the Covid-19 outbreak. Find the letter text in full with list of signatories here.

Professional Spanish dancer Albert Garcia has not been able to dance freely, so he took the opportunity to dance in an empty street in Valencia while taking out the garbage. He says performing in the street felt like "pure freedom", adding the applause he got from his neighbours' balconies felt so warm, like the ones he got dancing in Berlin Staatsoper and La Scala in Milan. BBC reports on the heartwarming story.

YouTube’s lo-fi hip-hop channels are becoming more popular than ever in time of the pandemic, not just as background music, but as ways to find community in a difficult time, The Verge reports. The lo-fi channel College Music has increased the number of subscribers to their channel by 40 percent over the last 28 days, with total channel views up by 46 percent. ChilledCow added 340,000 subscribers in March (compared to 160,000 in January). The lo-fi channel Nickolaas has seen "a significant" rise in views.

Guardian journalist Brigid Delaney curated her own three-day multi-arts, multi-platform culture festival, from the comfort of her own home. She went to a nightclub - "it’s so fun, no one’s sleazing on anyone and I don’t have to worry about getting an Uber home" - and danced from 9:45 p.m. to 1 a.m.; she watched Isolaid for two hours - "not only reconnected me with my favourite artists (and their houses) but introduced me to a heap of new music"; she saw Australian Chamber Orchestra play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony while drinking wine, texting wine and eating pepperoni pizza - "but this immense work by Beethoven remains undimmed"; dropped by a Broadway piano bar - "singing via the internet is better than having no singing at all". Her conclusion after three days of some of the best art and culture the world has to offer – "without the festival crowds and a posse of friends it’s like the proverbial tree falling in the forest".

Many festival organisers are hoping that people who have tickets will keep them for next year because if they need to refund on mass, they might not be able to return next year, according to the UK Association of Independent Festivals (AIF). Staging festivals is a year round endeavour, the BBC reports. There's a cashflow concern and a lot of money has already been spent that festivals won't get back - festivals of all sizes have already paid out on things like artist deposits, contractors' deposits and fees, press and marketing, staff costs and infrastructure.

The big lockdown has erased the festival and live music industry for this season, but it has also badly hurt the fashion industry as well, the New York Times reports. “For some brands, festivals aren’t just a season like summer or fall, but the season of the year to build relationships with a certain kind of shopper, who buy fun new extra additions for their wardrobe that they wouldn’t normally be tempted by” - said Lucie Greene, a trend forecaster and the founder of the Light Years consultancy. “They define an entire aesthetic of collections and products for some labels”.

David Guetta performed a two-hour DJ set from a balcony in Downtown Miami, with eight thousand Miami residents watching and dancing from their own balconies, while an additional 12 million people streaming the performance live online. According to EDM, Guetta raised $780,000 for the World Health Organization, Feeding South Florida, Feeding America, and the French Fondation Hôpitaux de Paris. Watch his performance here.

Complex did a great job of highlighting seven companies and apps that are empowering both musicians and fans to create and connect in time of quarantine. So, what does everybody need? Qello - founded in 2010, grown into an impressive hub of live music since. Stationhead - a social radio, and music streaming app. Splice - offers well organized, diverse sample libraries. Songfluencer - works directly with artists and labels to disseminate music to influencers on Instagram and TikTok. LÜM - allows fans to find artists early, listen to them on the app, provide direct support through virtual gifting, and be acknowledged for their finds. Resonate streaming service launched in 2015, seeks to put artists and human curation back at the forefront of music. Tracklib - offers pre-cleared samples at a wide-range of prices.