The first quarter of the year was off to a rocky start for the New York City audio scene. Friends of mine from most of the audio providing companies were calling and complaining about the doldrums we were all experiencing and engineers were reaching out to let me know they had free time and were willing to work. Granted, the first couple of months of each year are usually slow and unless something special, such as the Super Bowl, comes to town we all plan accordingly, but this year the sluggishness dragged on longer than customary. Generally, by mid-March, the darkness dissipates and spirits lift as the work begins to return and usually just in time. After all, there are only so many times one can assign shop guys to do the busywork of inventory and cleaning every cable in the shop. These are the things we have learned to do in the first two months of the year, and the sixth and seventh month of the year. Our business is cyclical, and as previously stated, we can plan on this cycle unless some extraordinary event is taking place.
A Slow Q1
By mid-April, the slow start was beginning to affect most companies’ bottom line, and we were concerned that layoffs were looming. While we are a gig-based economy, there is a certain number of staff that are required to drive trucks, do the shop work and assist when labor is required for gigs. The irony is that when it’s slow, all gigs seem to fall on the same days. We can be sluggish for a month, and then three last-minute shows pop up and the call comes in for all hands on deck. This can leave us scrambling for crew if any staff has been laid off so, as painful as it might be, it’s on the owner of the company to keep the staff. It’s not that I lack compassion for company owners, as I am aware they are required to reconcile their overhead costs, but I’m also aware that there are not many profit-sharing audio companies that boost employee pay when things are booming.
I’m not quite sure as to what the slowdown can be attributed, but speculation is that more venues have their own audio, fewer independent shows are being booked, or possibly the uncertainty of how tariffs will affect us and the economy. To diverge for a moment, while inflation during the first quarter of 2025 had shrunk a bit, so did the U.S. economy, which also coincides with the bad first quarter we had in the field of audio. This is an observation since I am not an economist, but the fact is, the current administration running the country is not the most music- or artist-friendly crew, and while POTUS is now the elected board chair of the Kennedy Center, it has not necessarily created an industry-wide excitement.
Even as I write this piece, the news is broadcasting that the administration is cutting funding for The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Will this have a great consequence on our industry? It depends. I do know that it would mean cutting funds to New York City’s Summer Stage program which, in effect, will financially impact New Yorkers in one way or another. Will this new policy affect anyone else? Let me say I did read that in January 2025, “the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced $36.8 million in grants to 1,474 individual artists, organizations, and museums across the United States.” How much to be cut remains to be seen, but it does not bode well for the musical arts or their equipment providers.
Not Now…
Anyway, getting back to our first quarter of the year, I was slow until April 30, at which point I received frantic calls regarding The Met Gala and shows at The Guggenheim Museum as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. To be fair, in the past, I have worked with the same people for these same events, and they are experienced professionals, which makes me wonder why they waited until the last day of April to call about events taking place the first few days in May. Except during the Covid pandemic, The Met Gala has always been held on the fifth day in May, and from what I understand, planning for each year’s gala starts in December of the year before.
Since 1995, Anna Wintour, the editor and chief of Vogue Magazine, has overseen the event. From 2007, the décor has been created at the direction of Raúl Ávila, and this year, star chef Kwame Onwuachi started overseeing the cuisine. Since the 2025 event is over and part of NYC lore, I can now break my non-disclosure agreement and tell you that entertainment in one room was Usher and in the other room was Stevie Wonder – both of whom are well known musical celebrities. The guest list for the gala usually includes famous A-listers the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna, the Kardashian women, Madonna and a plethora of other luminaries.
Top designers for the event include Chanel, Gucci, Fendi, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, Dior, Versace and Givenchy. For the world of fashion, this is the event of the year. That said, please allow me to postulate that regarding their gowns, most of these fabulous women had already started planning with one of the marvelous designers way back in December of last year. The menu preparations from Mr. Onwuachi’s repertoire have been in the works since around the same time, as were Mr. Avila’s décor designs for the evening. Knowing of Anna Wintour’s reputation for taste and perfection, I doubt that anyone involved with the planning of the event is leaving anything up to chance. If I had to venture a guess it would be that the musical artists are meticulously chosen and booked well in advance so to ensure their attendance and participation on May 5 at the most highly anticipated event of the year.
April 30? NOW!
While both mentioned musical artists may not be in their artistic prime, they are both top performers who still work all the time, and to guarantee the date, a signed contract needs to be confirmed and schedules coordinated. Therefore, it boggles my mind that I didn’t get the call to arms before April 30. Maybe my first quarter was slow because these production companies had all the work. I don’t know. Maybe there were different artists booked, but they had to cancel at the last minute, leaving a mad scramble to fill the slots. Maybe the band riders got lost in the mail and didn’t arrive until the 30th. Frankly, the truth is, I was happy to have the work after days of nodding off in front of my computer, and at this point, I’m over the drama of it all. Maybe I need to chalk it up to the cyclical nature of our work and accept that this last-minute mad dash end to the doldrums is just a bit of irony that I should be used to by now.
Contact Baker Lee at [email protected].
