With the likes of Bandcamp waiving their fees for a day and SoundCloud slashing the price of its premium account, the music industry is rolling up its sleeves and taking care of its own during the global Corona pandemic, particularly when it comes to underground and independent musicians.

With thousands across the Middle East rocked by the inability to tour and record, another gesture of goodwill has been extended to give these guys and gals some semblance of stability. This time round its Songtradr, a music licensing platform that has over 400,000 artists and acts from 190 countries on its books.

To cut a long story short, Songtrdr deals in sync licensing, which is a set-up that allows for the use of a piece of work in anything from movies, to ads, to video games, with the composer/publisher receiving a fee for said use.

What will of be of particular interest to musicians across the Middle East is that Songtradr also acts as a gateway for artists to get their music on streaming platforms such as Anghami, Spotify and Deezer – and they’re taking no fees for their part in the process till April 18th to support artists whose livelihoods are in danger.

“From Songtradr’s inception, our mission has been to connect music artists to content creators across all media. This has not changed,” CEO, Paul Wiltshire, said in a statement. “To increase artist’s revenue during this time, and inspire our music buyers to participate in making a difference, we are giving our share of any new licensing transactions directly to our artists.”

Find out more here.