Features
MusiCares’ Poster Art
MusiCares, the foundation that helps musicians in need of financial, medical or personal emergencies, is always trying to get its message out there – and music manager Michael McDonald just realized the best place for it – the green room.
MusiCares is offering up a poster, to be framed inside the green room, that explains its services and how to get in touch with the organization.
“It seems like an obvious place to start,” McDonald, who manages acts like Ray LaMontagne, Leon Bridges, and Walk The Moon, told Pollstar. “MusiCares is such a fundamental organization in the music community we should start at the ground floor, which is the musicians.”
McDonald is on the board of MusiCares and is a former tour manager, so he’s seen his share of green rooms. As one expression goes, you don’t pay a musician for performing, you pay the musician for waiting around, and musicians do a lot of waiting around in the dressing room – where there are posters.
So, McDonald recently asked promoters and venue execs to hang framed MusiCares one-sheets in the green rooms and he’s trying to get the word out nationwide.
“It seems like too simple of an idea,” he said. “And if one troubled artist stumbles across the information sheet, and reaches out for help, then we have done our job.”
McDonald added that, apart from the Person of the Year event during Grammys week, a surprising number of people in the industry are ignorant of MusiCares’ services for agents, promoters, managers and venue execs as well as the traveling musicians.
“I don’t think posters would have changed the course of my life,” he said. “Certain people feel there’s no hope or safety net, never take the time to take care of themselves if they’re suffering from addiction or just living in fear of getting hurt and not being able to work. I think just being constantly reminded there is a safety net, a community to help take care of them, would be reassuring.”