News Archive—March 2022
16 March 2022 - What do we do with Chester Zoo?
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The year was 2020. In response to the pandemic, the UK government announced the first lockdown in March. This lockdown obviously affected many businesses, Chester Zoo being one of them.
In June 2020, it became clear that Chester Zoo was foreseeing serious financial difficulties if the zoo was to remain closed. Despite non-essential shops being allowed to reopen on 15 June[1], outdoor attractions such as Chester Zoo, even with social distancing measures already in place, still could not reopen. However, the care for the animals could not stop. Zookeepers still needed to maintain the park, and animals still needed to be fed. And without the main income from visitors, the zoo was looking at losing £1.6 million per month[2].
On 5 June 2020, our first album, In Stereo, was officially released. Included on it was our song Zoo in Chester. Even though we can neither confirm nor deny that Chester Zoo was the inspiration for this song, we felt a connection to the park. Chester Zoo is, after all, one of our favourite attractions in Chester. If the government restrictions would've caused the zoo to close permanently, it's safe to say we would've been very sad indeed.
So we decided to do our part in order to help the zoo. We pledged to donate all proceeds from our first album to the Save Chester Zoo fundraiser, from the album's release until the end of the pandemic[3]. We tried to get the word out by tweeting our intentions, as well as sending press releases to local newspapers. Despite this, it seems our efforts had a very limited effect, and we can now report that in the near two years our album has been available, we still haven't earned enough to even withdraw from our distributor.
As reporting of streams and purchases are lagging behind by several months, we can only report on earnings from June 2020 until December 2021. As we want to be transparent as to what we earn in royalties from our music, we will be releasing a more detailed report in the future. It is not our goal to make music commercially. Although we do want to make money in order to pay our bills, we would simply want to be able to make a normal living, and help the community where possible with any excess earnings. Our promise to donate all earnings from our first album to Chester Zoo is completely in line with this philosophy. We made the promise, so we will deliver on that.
Now the UK government has announced rules regarding travelling to come to an end this week, and free testing to end this month, we can say that the pandemic has come to an end. We don't want to claim this to be the absolute truth, but how we look at the situation, it seems this is what the government is trying to communicate with these requirements ending. For this reason we have taken a look at the finances. As mentioned earlier, we only have data up to December 2021, and while our streams have picked up a bit in the last month, we can make decisions on the information we have now, and adjust as necessary in the future.
In the 19 months our album has been available for streaming, it has generated just under $3 in royalties. According to Google, at this moment, that equates to about £2.30. We realise Chester Zoo is not saved with a £2 donation. The zoo's Support Us page does give the option to donate both £3 and £5[4]. However, we felt that that is too low for our donation, so we decided to increase our donation to £10. With Gift Aid, this donation is increased to £12.50.
We would like to thank everyone who made it possible for us to make this donation today. If you wish to make a donation yourself, you can do so on Chester Zoo's Support Us page.
[1]Timeline of UK government coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions; Institute for Government
[2]Chester Zoo at risk after order to remain closed 'indefinitely'; Chester Zoo
[3]'The end of the pandemic' may not be announced as such.
[4]Support Us; Chester Zoo