Time for a deep dive into the Canadian music industry. Back in 2007, I went to Toronto and Montreal to report on just what had made the country’s domestic music industry so vibrant and prolific.
That was the era of Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Feist, Wolf Parade, Metric, Stars and dozens more, a grand parade of indie and alternative talents who were enjoying big international breakthroughs.
Since then, the roll-call has expanded to include such pop giants as Drake, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber and many others. New guns are always on the way – for example, Kaytranada's new album 99.9% is well worth checking out – so Canada doesn't have a problem finding and developing new acts.
But what was clear at this year’s Canadian Music Week (CMW) in Toronto is that such an enviable talent pool doesn’t mean the country can avoid the questions currently facing every other international music market. At this year’s conference, there were discussions around those issues, from streaming to social media, which occupy the to-do lists of music executives worldwide.
Back in 2007, I talked to Jeffrey Remedios at the offices of Arts & Crafts, the independent label and hothouse which he co-founded and co-owned with Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew. Now he’s the president and CEO of Universal Music Canada and was giving one of the keynote addresses at CMW.
He talked about how the industry found itself in “a time of experimentation” with technology disrupting every part of the production and distribution chain.
“Some of it is really healthy and exciting,” he noted, “and some of it is very challenging,” before going on to talk about some blockbuster albums getting released exclusively on certain streaming platforms. It was almost, he mused, a throwback to the old retail days.
Remedios wasn’t the only one who saw the current era as ripe for experimentation. You could extrapolate similar notions from the speeches, presentations and contributions by Glassnote boss Daniel Glasser, music industry analyst Mark Mulligan, one-time Taylor Swift manager Rick Barker, X Ambassadors manager Seth Kallen and Concerts West/AEG Live promoter John Meglen. All noted in different ways that the industry’s current flux allows interested parties the leeway to put new thinking into action.
Virtual reality
John Textor was in Toronto to talk about a more vivid type of experimentation. He's the virtual-reality pioneer behind the Tupac Shakur and Michael Jackson holograms which caused a wow at the Coachella festival and Billboard Music Awards respectively.
Talking about the huge advances in the field, Textor believes much more is to come in the music-related VR/AR field once users become more comfortable with the experience. Certainly, live music giant Live Nation will be hoping this becomes the norm given its recent announcement about a future series of VR concerts.
One of the most fascinating panels was about measurement metrics for radio audiences. It turns out that the Canadian for JNLR is Numeris and, as with the Irish quarterly results, everyone sort of claims the numbers make them a winner.
The discussion produced some great, candid insights about such concerns as the usefulness of daily measurements and the ability of wearable tech to produce much more accurate user data.
One strange omission at CMW was the lack of representation from the next generation running domestic labels and music operations. It’s always good to hear war stories from back in the day, but the new school also need to be prodded, poked and promoted. Something, perhaps, for 2017.
