As you might have heard, last week was a special edition of #AusmusicTshirt Day. People hunted through their clothes to get to that prized shirt from their favourite Australian Musos or, where possible, bought brand-spanking new merch.

This time has been hard on everyone, whether we are simply staying home (going slightly stir-crazy) or working in the front lines (as nurses, doctors, truck drivers…), and it’s had an unprecedented effect on every facet of our lives.

Across multiple industries, people are finding themselves without a source of income, often unemployed or with jobs on hold. And the music industry is one of those most affected. Artists who rely on gigs and festivals as a source of income have suddenly found themselves in a pretty bleak situation.

Precisely for this reason, #AusmusicTshirtDay was moved from November to last Friday 17 April. In a post by the Triple J, they said this special edition of AusmusicTshirtDay was ‘as a way of hopefully throwing our arms around some of our country’s many fine musicians, and those that work alongside them’.

Usually, #AusmusicTShirtDay happens at some point during November – Ausmusic Month. It was started by Triple J back in 2013, inspired by the BBC’s radio DJ Steve Lamacq who cooked up ‘Wear Your Old Band T-Shirt To Work Day’ back in 2007.

In 2017, they partnered with Support Act – an incredible charity dedicated to helping Australian artists and musicians. This turned #AusmusicTShirtDay into something bigger than just selfies on Instagram.

Now, when so many musicians are struggling, buying merch is one of the best ways to show your love for your favourite musos – especially emerging ones. Merch is big business for artists, who sometimes earn even more from it than touring and music sales.

AusmusicTshirtDay was last week, but there is no reason why you can’t rep your favourite bands and lend them a hand. If you can, buy some merch, if you can’t, stream their music. And for those in a bit of a better financial position, support act has set up a COVID-19 emergency appeal to help our beloved musos.

In case you do want to buy some Australian musician’s merch, Sound of Silence is a great resource created by Support Act, here they collated an impressive list of retailers for Australian artists!

Music has been there for us in almost every moment of our lives, let us be there for our music industry as best as we can!