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Vancouver City Council to Consider Music Friendly Policies

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The Commodore Ballroom
Earlier this week, a motion to explore options for increasing city support for music and musicians was brought before Vancouver’s City Council. The motion was raised by Councillor Heather Deal and was referred to the City’s Standing Committee on Policy and Strategic Priorities.

“Vancouver is home to a vibrant, multicultural music ecology,” the motion reads, calling attention to the numerous musicians, live music venues, independent music producers, and recording studios which call the city home. It also recognizes the recent announcement by the Government of BC which will see $15 million in funding towards the creation of a BC Music Fund.

The motion proposes that city staff explore options which would make the city more music and musician-friendly. These include:

  • creating a working group focused on music,
  • advocating for and supporting music education,
  • exploring a multi-city music alliance with other cities with a strong music community,
  • working with Tourism Vancouver and Business Improvement Areas to identify and support tourism opportunities,
  • seeking further opportunities to leverage city-owned properties for use by artists, including musicians,
  • continuing to reduce unnecessary processes and regulations which affect music production and performance.

The Downtown Vancouver BIA was instrumental in sparking the conversation regarding city music policies, by bringing together Vancouver’s business and music community, as well as City staff and Councillors Elizabeth Ball, Heather Deal, and Adriane Carr, for a discussion on music cities earlier this month. Music Canada’s Graham Henderson spoke at the event regarding the role cities can play in incubating music scenes, and presented findings from Music Canada’s The Mastering of a Music City report, which outlines a roadmap that communities of all sizes can follow to realize the full potential of their music economy, as well as our new report, BC’s Music Sector: From Adversity to Opportunity, which highlights British Columbia’s wealth of talented artists and music assets and the factors that have put these assets at risk.

The report, citing in-depth interviews with more than 100 individuals in BC’s music sector, details the numerous benefits that a vibrant music economy, alongside supportive city policy, can bring. These benefits are not limited to quality of life and cultural development, but include economic diversification, the attraction and retention of talent in other industries, and music tourism.

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Ottawa’s MEGAPHONO to feature Music Cities panel

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From February 2-5, 2016, Ottawa will host the 2nd annual MEGAPHONO music festival, showcasing the nation’s capital’s burgeoning music scene to fans and industry professionals alike. The festival will feature a packed schedule of club gigs, free shows in the Centretown & Hintonburg neighbourhoods, and daily panel discussions beginning February 3.

On Thursday February 4, the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition (OMIC) presents the panel In Search Of The Music City: What Does Local Business Have To Gain? at Live On Elgin (230 Elgin, 2nd Floor). The discussion will be moderated by Music Canada Live‘s Erin Benjamin and will feature panelists Mark Garner (Downtown Yonge BIA), Councillor Jeff Leiper (City of Ottawa), Amy Terrill (Music Canada) and Tim Potocic (Sonic Unyon / Supercrawl).

The discussion comes at a crucial point in Ottawa’s push towards growing its thriving music scene, an effort panelist Councillor Jeff Leiper has shown favourable support for. At MEGAPHONO 2015, festival director and Kelp Records’ Jon Bartlett revealed the Ottawa music report Connecting Ottawa Music: A Profile of Ottawa’s Music Industries.

“It’s an exciting time to be working in music in Ottawa,” said Jon Bartlett at the report’s launch. “It’s like nothing I’ve felt in 15 years of living here. We are in the middle of a musical boom here in Ottawa.”

Also in 2015, Music Canada released its Live Music Measures Up report analyzing the economic impact of live music in Ontario, as well as the report The Mastering Of A Music City.

Panel attendance is open to delegate pass holders and MEGAPHONO artists. Delegate badges are still available for $100, as well as general festival passes for $50.

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London’s Music City Initiative Highlighted in 2016 State of the City Address

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Yesterday, London Mayor Matt Brown delivered his 2016 State of the City address to the London Chamber of Commerce, which outlined a number of initiatives aimed at moving London forward.

Among the initiatives aimed at benefiting London’s culture and tourism sector, Mayor Brown cited the City of London’s Music Strategy.

“We set a goal to become a Music City and this began to take shape in a big way this year,” said Brown. “To lead the way, the City of London developed a Music Strategy that will make London a Music City and a music attraction.”

The event kicked off with a performance from Canadian country music artists Autumn Hill, a nod to Country Music Week and the Canadian Country Music Association Awards, which London will host for the first time this fall. The pair of events are expected to directly benefit the local economy with the booking of approximately 2,000 hotel room nights and an anticipated economic impact of $6-8 million dollars. The CCMA & JUNO nominated duo performed acoustic versions of their hits ‘Anything At All’ and ‘Blame’, which were a highlight for many in attendance.

 

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Mayor Brown also referenced live music in regard to plans to reinvigorate London’s downtown core. The Downtown Plan builds on the success of previous investments in Budweiser Gardens, the Covent Garden Market, and Central Library, and looks to make downtown London “an irresistible destination and an exciting place to live,” said Brown.

“It’s time for Dundas Street to become Dundas Place – a transformational project that will see the creation of a flexible street between Wellington Street and the Thames River,” said Brown. “A space for cars during the day and a people-first space on evenings and weekends; a place to stroll, shop, or visit with friends. A place to be entertained, a place where services spill out onto the street and we can enjoy live music, culture and great food.”

With the execution of the London Music Strategy, including the hiring of a Music Industry Development Officer, the launch of the London Music Division incubator, and creation of the Music Industry Development Task Force, London is showing that a targeted music strategy and coordinated efforts can pay dividends for a city looking to draw tourists, create jobs, and enhance local quality of life.

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Calgary kicks off Year of Music

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2016 is now, officially, the Year of Music in Calgary. Mayor Naheed Nenshi issued a proclamation outlining the multitude of music events taking place in Calgary this year, as well as recognizing the talents of Calgary musicians and the economic benefits of the music sector, at an event in the observation deck of the Calgary Tower yesterday.

“Calgary is home to a vibrant music scene. Each year our city produces hundreds of festivals, events, concerts, shows and performances in venues ranging from elegant concert halls to local parks to vintage clubs filled with character,” the proclamation reads. “This year we celebrate the extraordinary talents of musicians who make their living here, the burgeoning music economy and all those whose efforts contribute to the musical vitality of our community.”

Cited among the reasons that 2016 will be such a remarkable year for music in Calgary are:

  • The 45th annual JUNO Awards, taking place April 3rd at the Scotiabank Saddledome
  • The launch of Studio Bell, home of Canada’s National Music Centre, opening in East Village this summer
  • The 60th Anniversary of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
  • The 50th Anniversary of the Alberta Ballet
  • The 30-plus musical festivals that take place in Calgary annually and enrich the city’s cultural environment

The announcement coincided with the launch of this year’s One Yellow Rabbit High Performance Rodeo, Calgary’s International Festival of the Arts, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2016. The event runs from January 7th through 31st, at 14 venues across Calgary.

The event also revealed the songs that make up the Calgary Songs Project, which compiles 30 songs released by Calgary artists over the past 30 years, in celebration of the High Performance Rodeo’s 30th anniversary. The list, compiled by the High Performance Rodeo, songwriter Kenna Burima, and the Calgary Cassette Preservation Society, can be heard in a variety of ways during the Rodeo:

As part of the Year of Music celebrations, Tourism Calgary has launched a new website, www.pushplaycalgary.com, which features live music listings and markets Calgary as a destination for music tourists. The Year of Music could bring an economic boost to Calgary’s tourism economy, said Tourism Calgary’s Jeff Hessel in MetroNews.

“What makes next year special is that we have the Junos, and the opening of the National Music Centre definitely makes it a very special year,” said Hessel. “We’re here to increase the economic impact of tourism for Calgary. If we can do anything that increases incremental visitation and spending for Calgary, then we’ll do that.”

Mayor Nenshi also touted the economic and city-branding benefits of music in an address at the Calgary City of Commerce last month.

“At a time when the Canadian dollar is low, it’s an opportunity to attract tourism right now. I love music, but it’s also a marketing opportunity to rebrand ourselves to a national and international audience about the culture, the vitality and the life here in the city,” the mayor is quoted as saying in MetroNews.

In the same article, the National Music Centre’s Andrew Mosker backs up the mayor’s statements on music’s economic impact, pointing to the Alberta Music Cities Initiative’s Fertile Ground report, which outlines a strategy for a stronger provincial music sector. Music Canada authored the report in 2014 after being commissioned by the NMC to take a critical look at Alberta’s music landscape.

The Year of Music celebrations continue tonight, with the launch of Music Mile, which recognizes the stretch of Calgary’s 9th Avenue from the Blues Can in Inglewood to Studio Bell in East Village as a music mecca. Home to live music venues such as Ironwood Stage & Grill, The Lantern Church, Festival Hall, and Vagabond Calgary, Music Mile brands the area as a formal music district where fans can find live music any day of the week.

Invoking the success of music districts such as Nashville’s Broadway and New Orleans’ French Quarter, Music Mile organizers spoke of the value of branding the location of Calgary’s music scene in an interview with Global Calgary.

“All over the world there’s this notion of a place where you go for music, not just a venue,” said Bob Chartier.

”Everybody sees this as a place-making project – having a district, rather than just a club to go to,” added Meg Van Rosendaal.

With all of the action happening in Calgary in 2016, it’s clear that Year of Music is more than a slogan. It’s a reflection of Calgary’s rise as a cultural hotspot and live music destination. For more on all the events happening in Calgary this year, see the video below, and visit www.pushplaycalgary.com.

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Music Cities article featured in Huffington Post

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Music Cities bannerWhat is music’s place in our heritage? How important is its preservation? In Making Music History Work For The Present, Music Canada’s first article published on Huffington Post Canada, Amy Terrill (VP Public Affairs) discusses music’s importance in honouring a city’s cultural heritage as well as ensuring a healthy and vibrant future, citing specific examples from Music Cities around the world like London, Nashville, New Orleans, and Toronto.

For further information on the topic of Music Cities, you can download Music Canada and IFPI’s 2015 report The Mastering Of A Music City.

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UNESCO recognizes 10 new cities with City Of Music designation

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This year, the UNESCO City of Music designations have more than doubled the list of cities to be recognized by the organization. 10 cities around the world have received new designations as cities of music under the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. These include:

  • Adelaide, Australia
  • Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal
  • Katowice, Poland
  • Kingston, Jamaica
  • Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Liverpool, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • Medellín, Colombia
  • Salvador, Brazil
  • Tongyeong, Republic of Korea
  • Varanasi, India

UNESCO’s Creative Cities program was started in 2004 as an initiative to unite cities from across the globe through creative industries. This policy-driven initiative involves stakeholders at all levels of government. The larger network currently includes 116 cities, covering seven creative fields — crafts and folk art, design, film, gastronomy, literature, music, and media arts. Cities apply for their specific field, and cannot hold a designation in more than one category.

According to UNESCO, this network aims to “stimulate and enhance initiatives led by member cities to make creativity an essential component of urban development, notably through partnerships involving the public and private sectors and civil society.” This can be done through sharing best practices and knowledge, pilot projects, artistic exchanges, or research, among other things.

The network is designed to encourage cooperation among cities that value investing in creativity. Applicants prepare detailed proposals that commit their municipalities to sustained programs that assist in developing these creative industries both within their home territories, and through international cooperation. Some factors that are included in applying for a designation include: historical importance of the city, potential contribution of the cultural and creative assets of the city, and expertise of the city in organizing events and initiatives at the local, national, and international level.

As this list has grown, it is noticeable that there are currently no North American cities holding a music city designation. In the wider network of creative cities, no Canadian cities have been designated, and only three US cities have qualified in other sectors:  Austin for Media Arts, Detroit for Design and Tucson for Gastronomy.  As a result, the field is wide open in North America to claim this UNESCO designation.

Learn more about UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network here: http://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/content/call-applications

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Music City Focus comes to Melbourne

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The first ever Melbourne Music Symposium, which takes place later this week, will feature a presentation by Music Canada’s Amy Terrill on The Mastering of a Music City report.

Terrill is one of three keynote speakers during a sold-out full-day symposium that will gather key elected officials, staff and music community leaders, as well as some of the preeminent thinkers on music strategy from around Australia.  The day will include four workshops designed to produce tangible outcomes for Melbourne as it continues to set a gold standard when it comes to engaging the local music community in the development of comprehensive music strategies.

The day will begin with an address by The Right Honourable Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and end with closing comments by Councillor Rohan Leppert, Chair of Arts and Culture Portfolio.

In addition to the symposium, Terrill will participate in the Face the Music conference which immediately follows in Melbourne, as well as meetings in Sydney.

For more information on Melbourne’s Music Symposium, read here.

For more information about Sydney’s Face the Music, read here.

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London UK Tackles Failing Music Venues

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Today in London, one of the world’s most prominent Music Cities, Mayor Boris Johnson made an historic announcement in hopes of stemming the threats posed against live music venues in the city.

As described in The Mastering of a Music City, Mayor Johnson established a Music Venues Taskforce earlier this year that was chaired by Mark Davyd of the Music Venue Trust. The task force has paved the way for a commitment by the City of London to a number of key policies described and recommended in our report, including:

  • The Agent of Change principle which has been effectively used in Melbourne and Montreal;
  • The London Music Development Board, an advisory board with broad representation from the music community and key public sector departments;
  • A champion for the night-time economy; and,
  • A pro-music planning approach with such things as a Culture and Planning Guide that provides ideas as to how planning policy can protect venues and cultural spaces, and an upcoming symposium with developers.

In addition, the Mayor’s announcement says that his office “will continue to work closely with local authorities, developers and the music industry to encourage a pro-culture approach, particularly in areas where there are music zones and clusters for example Camden, Denmark Street, Hackney and Soho.

The Mayor’s Venues Taskforce conducted a census of the live music venues in the city and found that 35% had been lost since 2007. The Mayor’s press release notes the importance of venues as incubators of talent, and drivers of music tourism. Musicians Frank Turner and Ed Sheeran also commented on the announcement, reinforcing the importance of the availability of spaces for new talent as they hone their skills and develop an audience.

We’re pleased that The Mastering of a Music City has been helpful in this exercise, but the real work has been done by the members of the task force and local advocates like Shain Shapiro of the Music Cities Convention and Tim Arnold of Save Soho. Congratulations! A lot is at stake in London, a great Music City where artists from around the world go to perform.

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Columbus, Ohio: Percolating Ideas for a Music City

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Creativity is practically flowing in the streets of Columbus: from artists and musicians to business leaders and city agencies, everyone is walking to an up-tempo beat in this city of more than 800,000.

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During the Independents’ Day Festival, a local music, arts and food experience located in the East Franklinton neighbourhood, the city’s newest cultural hub, I participated in a discussion about an effort to build a Music City. The “How To Build A Music City” initiative has been spearheaded by the Columbus Songwriters Association but has quickly gained the support of the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the city’s tourism agency, Experience Columbus, as well as roughly 100 volunteers. Signs look promising that the initiative will soon receive city funding. At the helm is organizer Joey Hendrickson, who leads the initiative with passion and drive, and a willingness to learn from other cities.

While the initiative is in its early days, some of the program ideas that have broad appeal in the community are live music venue support, honouring “Columbus Sound” and history, a music tech incubator, and an annual music conference.

Columbus impressed me with its investment in creative spaces, a key component for a successful Music City. While that hasn’t translated yet into the much aspired-to music tech incubator, or live music venue support, the city has definitely figured out how to leverage public-private partnerships in order to stimulate creative growth. The East Franklinton area is a case in point. Once a rundown area of the city, just a short walk from City Hall and the State Legislature, East Franklinton is now brimming with creative activity.

I toured two large factories, one that has been converted into artist studios, event and performance spaces and a restaurant. The “How to Build a City” event was held in this building, immediately followed by a music performance. 

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The second factory has been renovated to house what is apparently the largest “makerspace” in the U.S. – The Idea Foundry. The Idea Foundry consists of more than 20,000 square feet of space divided into work areas by discipline, including woodworking, metalworking, blacksmithing. It has over 200 members who pay a monthly fee to use the machinery and tools, and who also gain access to lower priced workshops and training.

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Each of these co-op spaces was created with a combination of public and private investment; according to Hendrickson, this is typical of Columbus’ approach to revitalizing neighbourhoods, and has earned the city much recognition.

With built-in affordable living and working spaces for artists of all descriptions, East Franklinton seems less likely to fall victim to the often-quoted sequence of gentrified neighbourhoods that we reference in The Mastering of a Music City: rundown area; artists and musicians come in, make it ‘cool’; rents go up and artists and musicians can’t afford to stay there any longer.

If the How to Build a Music City initiative is predicated by this same balanced approach, I am confident it will be very successful.

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Toronto Mayor John Tory speaks at 2015 Music Canada Annual General Meeting

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Yesterday we had the pleasure of not only coming together with our peers in the industry for the Music Canada AGM, but to host a number of wonderful speakers on the subject of Music Cities. Since the release of our report The Mastering of a Music City in June 2015, we have passionately pursued this subject around the world, learning from our colleagues in more than 40 cities. Yesterday it was especially special to talk about what Toronto is doing at home, with our own “music-friendly mayor” and champion of the music city: Mayor John Tory.

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In last year’s municipal election, Mayor Tory had a music platform that included tourism, enhanced live performances and festivals, and a standalone music office. Now, nine-months into his term, many of those things have become a reality in a short period of time. In a candid conversation with Music Canada President and CEO Graham Henderson, Mayor Tory spoke about the strides we’ve made so far, what’s next, and what inspires him in his vision of a music city.

We asked whether he remained optimistic about continuing to see this music platform develop – he looked to his trip to Austin, saying: “I stand here more committed because I’ve now seen another place where they made this a success – and we aren’t going to be Austin. We’re different. But I’m encouraged…and I think we’ve got to put our energy…with perhaps getting some more help behind making some of this stuff happen.”

Looking at Austin, he realized that “when the city is fully committed to all aspects of music, and the performance of music, and to the attraction of musicians to the city…they got great things done…It had gigantic economic benefits for the city that went way beyond the jobs created by the music industry and spoke to the whole question of the attraction of global companies, technology companies and so on.”

This is a vision he has for Toronto: seeing the same kind of support rallied around music in the same way as we have done for film for the past 30 years.

According to the Mayor, “we have all of the ingredients here” to build this. He elaborated, saying that the music industry is further ahead of where film was 30 years ago, but that we haven’t yet fully pulled together the industry and the infrastructure. He committed support from the government, saying they could provide support “by way of helping to make opportunities available, helping to showcase, helping to facilitate things, helping to modernize regulations, and secondly, helping by sort of getting out of the way.” In recognizing the ongoing struggle against bureaucratic red tape, he said “if you’re really committed to being a music city, you have to put your money where your mouth is.”

His determination was clear – “I’m very determined at the end of 4 years…when my term happens to be up, that we can look back and say: we actually got something done here, moving us towards what we are in film, and what we can be for sure in music…It starts with yes, the regulatory framework that is better defined and better accommodating of music, but it also starts with an administration that…says we’re going to find a way to say yes as opposed to automatically saying no. And I think that’s going to be big and…start to come next year with the plans people have to do bigger things. They’re going to be a little bolder because we’ve got to be bolder, we have to find places to do bigger and more things…it’s all part of building a great city.”

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