Candy Reduction Musicians Fund has partnered with Sweetwater to launch a brand new initiative aimed toward tackling probably the most distinguished well being crises dealing with the music trade immediately: noise-induced listening to loss.
Unveiled this week, the Listening to Health Fund gives musicians and music trade professionals with free listening to screenings and high-fidelity earplugs in an effort to curb the continual concern, which impacts hundreds annually.
In response to the Candy Reduction Musicians Fund, roughly 40% of musicians and music trade staff expertise noise-induced listening to loss. The danger is especially acute for reside performers, audio engineers and venue workers, a lot of whom function in environments that commonly exceed secure decibel ranges.
The difficulty, nonetheless, extends to the broader music group as properly. A 2023 EDM.com ballot discovered that almost 50% of music pageant attendees don’t put on ear safety, underscoring a wider lack of adherence to greatest practices at reside occasions.
The Listening to Health Fund will present a free three-part listening to screening administered by licensed audiologists. Along with a evaluation of outcomes and training round listening to preservation, recipients will obtain Etymotic ER-20XS Excessive Constancy Earplugs, designed to guard listening to with out compromising the listening expertise.
“Screening is essential to protecting musicians from hearing loss because once the damage is done, there’s no going back to ‘normal,'” mentioned Dr. Todd Web page, Sweetwater’s in-house doctor. “It’s heartbreaking telling a fellow musician their tinnitus isn’t fixable; that it’s too late to reverse it, and all they can do is adapt and try to keep it from progressing.”
Sweetwater, greatest often known as one of many world’s largest on-line retailers of musical devices and kit, additionally gives immersive sound experiences for venues and stadiums throughout the nation. The corporate’s funding within the fund displays a broader mission to assist not solely sound high quality, but additionally the well-being of those that create it.
The Listening to Health Fund is offered now by way of Candy Reduction Musicians Fund. Full particulars will be discovered on the group’s official web site.
