Moments before taking the stage for a sold-out show Tuesday night at Toronto, ON’s Air Canada Centre, UK singer and 2014 breakthrough artist Sam Smith was presented with a Multi-Platinum award plaque by Universal Music Canada. The custom award plaque commemorates the recent Double Platinum certification of his debut album In The Lonely Hour as well as it’s accompanying singles “Stay With Me” (4X Platinum) and “I’m Not The Only One” (Double Platinum).
Prior to his concert in Toronto, Smith’s tour stopped in Montreal for a sold-out show at the Bell Centre. Smith expressed his gratitude for his enthusiastic Canadian fans in the Instagram photo below:
German house DJ Robin Schulz was in Toronto over the weekend for a series of performances including a Saturday night gig at electro-hub The Hoxton and a Monday evening meet-and-greet at HMV’s new downtown Underground performance venue. During the stop at HMV, Warner Music Canada presented Schulz with a Platinum plaque for his remix of “Prayer in C”, originally performed by Lilly Wood & the Prick.
Schulz expressed his gratitude over receiving the award by posting a photo on his Facebook page, thanking his Canadian fans for their support of the track. A few Canadian tour dates remain on Schulz’s world tour including Vancouver on January 14 and Montreal on January 24.
Below you will find Music Canada’s Gold/Platinum certifications for the week of January 5, 2015. For the latest certification news, make sure to follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page!
On the weekend of July 11-13, 2014, Big Music Fest took place at Kitchener, ON’s McLennan Park headlined by rock superstars Aerosmith and Bryan Adams. As reported by the Waterloo Region Record, Big Music Fest 2014 provided a significant $7 million impact to the local economy, more than doubling the projected economic impact of $3 million prior to the festival.
Of the 60,000 attendees, nearly 65% of spectators came from within 50 kilometers of the Kitchener-Waterloo area. The other 35% was made up of out-of-province and international concert goers, arriving in Kitchener from nearly 15 states and as far as Australia, England and Japan.
Prior to his mayoral election victory in October of 2014, then-Councillor Barry Vrbanovic stressed the importance of music as an economic driver and ensured continued development of the live music scene in Kitchener’s downtown entertainment district as part of his platform. Vrbanovic also represented Kitchener at NXNE 2014’s Music Cities Exchange panel hosted by Music Canada and 4479, which featured public and private representatives from six cities that are working proactively to develop their local music sectors. Following the festival, Vrbanovic shared his appreciation for the festival via Twitter.
Big Music Fest is scheduled to return to McLennan Park in 2015 from July 10-12. In 2014, the opening Friday night was reserved for a free Battle of the Bands. A video recap of the free community event can be seen below:
Republic Live, producers of the Boots and Hearts country music festival, have announced a new annual music and arts camping festival, taking place at Burl’s Creek Event Grounds in Oro-Medonte, ON, from July 24th to 26th, 2015. The festival is a collaboration between the Peterborough, ON-based Republic Live, and US promoter AC Entertainment, co-founders of the Bonnaroo Music Festival.
The festival’s name and lineup are still to be announced, but the release promises “an extraordinary lineup featuring some of the leading artists in music, the best selection of indie bands and local heroes.” The festival will include four stages, art installations, a late night forest, an on-site farmers market, and will be licensed across the venue’s 700 acre grounds.
“We’ve felt so fortunate to see Boots and Hearts grow in 3 short years to become Canada’s largest camping and country music festival, with the same aspirations for this new music and arts festival we’re excited to share more details including the name, brand and of course the line up, in the coming weeks,” Shannon McNevan, Executive Director, Republic Live said in the release. “We can see with the growth of Boots and Hearts that Canada, and in particular Ontario, has the appetite to sustain camping and music festivals and we believe that the location, being so close to the GTA, is the perfect site for a music and arts camping festival.”
The release notes that the new festival fits well within the Ontario Live Music Strategy, which was announced in January 2013 to strengthen Ontario’s position as a global leader for live music. Republic Live estimates, based on the Ontario TREIM model, that the new festival could generate approximately $13.6 million in economic impact for the province in its first year, with the opportunity to generate as much as $40 million.
In 2014, the Boots and Hearts festival generated approximately $17 million in economic impact in the Durham Region. The festival has been so successful that Republic Live is moving the 2015 Boots and Hearts festival to Burl’s Creek Event Ground, which will allow for expanded capacity and camping grounds. Boots and Hearts’ 2015 festival will take place August 6th to 9th, and will feature performances by Brad Paisley, Florida Georgia Line, Dallas Smith, Chad Brownlee, with more to be announced.
The City of Hamilton moved forward with a major step in the Hamilton Music Strategy this week, as the City’s Music and Film Office moved into their new space in the Lister Building (28 James St. N). The office provides resources and information to members of Hamilton’s music and film industry.
Hamilton’s Music Strategy celebrates “all things music” in Hamilton, and “guides the activities of its partners to create and nurture an environment where music and the music industry flourishes, grows and prospers,” as per the Mission Statement. The goals of the strategy are to strengthen the local music industry, grow audiences and appreciation of music, increase access to music experiences, and cultivate music creation and talent.
The creation of the office was an action item outlined in the strategy document as well as the item approved by Council last January, which stated “the purpose of the Music Office is to be the single point of contact for the music sector interface with City Hall. Staff is to lead public/private efforts to generate new economic activity in the City, ensure music alliances deliver results, and identify ways that music can be leveraged for other sectors such as tourism, investment attraction and business retention.”
Jacqueline Norton, Business Development Consultant, Creative Industries at the City of Hamilton spoke with CHCH about the new location and goals for the office with CHCH. “Over the next year hopefully we’ll be setting out some details of what exactly are we going to accomplish and we’re going to start hitting the low hanging fruit.”
2015 is set to be an extra busy year for music in the Hammer, which will host the 2015 JUNO Awards and JUNO Week, which is estimated to have an economic impact of $11.9 million in Hamilton.
“This will really benefit a lot of hotels, restaurants, and major venues, so this will spread across the community – but it is something that our residents and visitors alike can take part in,” said Sue Monach of Tourism Hamilton in a video last March.
“It’s massive economic impact, it’s great for the local music community, and now that we’ve just opened our Hamilton music office, the timing is perfect to sort of bring together all of the elements of what’s going on in culture on the music side in Hamilton, so it’s a perfect fit,” said Tim Potovic, Chair of the 2015 JUNO Awards Host Committee.
Yesterday, Music Canada President Graham Henderson appeared on CBC Metro Morning to discuss the recent shutdown of The Pirate Bay, and how to restore respect for creators’ work.
When asked why the Pirate Bay remained in operation despite legal threats for so long, Henderson replied, “I think it’s one of the realities of our digital environment, that if you are persistent, and you want to operate outside the law, there are ways to do it. And very clearly that’s what the Pirate Bay has been doing for these past years. But it also reflects an almost insatiable demand for music.”
“The site was popular, because music is popular,” said Henderson. “What we’ve seen for the past 14 years is an entirely avoidable, inappropriate loss of value for creators. I think it’s fair to say that musicians and creators in general today are worse off than they were in 1999 – was that the plan? I don’t think that was the plan, and in fact, I would suggest to you that there was an implicit promise that came from the intermediaries, that came from everybody, that creators were going to be okay – and they’re not, and I think we can thank The Pirate Bay for a lot of the reason for that.”
Host Matt Galloway asked why, with the emergence of licensed digital music options, “what still drives some people to a site like the Pirate Bay?”
“It’s not even a really good experience, we have to remember that,” said Henderson. “It’s free, but the contrast would be a service like Spotify, which is $10 a month. I think people are gradually migrating to legal – I think once they experience legal services, for example, there was a brand new high-def service named TIDAL launched here last week – once they experience these services, they realize there is a phenomenal customer experience there.”
“Intellectually, people understand that illegally downloading is like stealing,” said Galloway. “And yet they still do it – how do you convince them to make that intellectual leap, that downloading is no different than going and taking something from a store?”
“I think that a lot of people have lost the connection with the recording artist; I think we have to restore that respect for the creative process, restore the respect for the creator,” said Henderson. “I also think we need to acknowledge the elephant in the room: creators are not doing as well as it was suggested they’re doing – in fact, they’re worse off. I think when people realize that the direct consequence of their actions is to impoverish the musicians they love, then maybe we’ll move in the right direction.”
“Do you think people care if Taylor Swift doesn’t get more money because they are getting it for free?”, asked Galloway.
“I don’t think everyone does, because I think people can be quite selfish in terms of the way they behave – but it’s not about Taylor Swift – that’s an easy thing to say, but what’s happening is we’re seeing an unprecedented shift of wealth,” said Henderson. “It’s moving from creators to the hands of billionaires and trillionaires – that’s where it’s going, into the hands of intermediaries. Lost in this – Taylor Swift is doing fine. It’s like the 1% problem – more and more wealth, concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and the middle-class in the music environment: wiped out. We have more hobbyists than professional musicians. And I think it’s been very convenient in the past to think, ‘I’m doing this because rich artists are fine anyway.’”
Canadian audiophiles have a new option to get their fix of high-fidelity music: TIDAL, which offers streaming music in lossless quality (FLAC/ALAC 44.1kHZ / 16 bit – 1441 hbps), announced the launch of their service in Canada yesterday.
The service features a library of more than 25 million licensed songs, including catalogs of Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, as well as a host of independent labels, plus more than 75,000 music videos.
TIDAL features editorial content from music journalists, with articles, interviews, and playlists posted regularly at http://read.tidalhifi.com/.
“We are big fans of Canadian music, and look forward to working even more closely with Canadian artists and the local music scene,” says TIDAL’s Head of Editorial Sveinung Rindal in a release. “Through collaborations with local magazines and music journalists we plan to showcase the best in Canadian music, such as our recently added Loscil and Ryan Hemsworth recommendations and the new EP from one of Canada’s iconic punk rock figures, Art Bergmann.”
To celebrate their expansion, TIDAL has created an all-Canadian playlist featuring a mix of “big guns” like Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell, as well as “indie darlings” such as Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, and The New Pornographers.
The service is available now for a monthly subscription of $19.99, and is offering an introductory one-week free trial at for new customers.
With a new album and tour announcement, fans of American heavy metal act Slipknot had a lot to look forward to by the end of the 2014 summer. In late October, the band released their fifth studio album .5: The Grey Chapter and almost immediately took to the road for a North American arena tour along with openers Korn. On Sunday night, the infamous masked rockers arrived north of the border for a concert at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, the only Canadian date on the current tour.
Prior to their performance, Warner Music Canada and Roadrunner Records Canada presented the band with Gold plaques for the The Gray Chapter, which was certified only a month after its release date. The album title is a reference to the now late Paul Gray who passed away in 2010.
As reported by Aesthetic Magazine, frontman Corey Taylor revealed the plaques on stage in front of the ecstatic crowd, informing them that Canada is the first country to have the album certified. He went on to say “thanks for keeping the spirit of metal music in Canada.”
Today, the National Music Centre (NMC) released Fertile Ground: Alberta Music Cities Initiative, a new report on Alberta’s music sector that outlines the economic benefits of a strong provincial music industry. The report identifies the unique opportunity for the development of Alberta’s music sector and provides four key recommendations for further growth.
The NMC commissioned Music Canada to author the report, which was supported by funding from the Scotlyn Foundation. In a release, NMC President and CEO Andrew Mosker said the report was inspired by Music Canada’s success in demonstrating the value of provincial and municipal live music strategies in Ontario.
“Graham and Paul Lessard with the Scotlyn Foundation approached us, eager to do something meaningful for Alberta’s music industry,” said Mosker. “I was very aware of the incredible work Music Canada had done in Ontario, and wondered if the same strategic business approach could work in Alberta.”
The report notes that Alberta is already home to a number of key music assets, and that a strategic initiative to develop the music cluster would create the opportunity for diversification of the Alberta economy.
“This report is about breaking music out of the cultural box, and into the general consciousness of Alberta’s economic leaders, demonstrating its value and ability to attract and retain creative talent, support tourism and inspire investment across a variety of economic sectors, thereby supporting efforts to diversify Alberta’s economy,” said Amy Terrill, VP of Public Affairs at Music Canada and author of the Fertile Ground report.
Music Canada and NMC consulted a variety of stakeholders across Alberta in researching the report, including Alberta Music, tourism agencies, arts and culture organizations, and Alberta Chambers of Commerce. The report found that a strategic music initiative would “closely align with the priorities of numerous agencies and commissions involved in economic development, tourism and related fields, suggesting that it will be well received throughout the province.”
The four key recommendations to government and other sector partners are:
Develop a comprehensive understating of the economic profile of Alberta’s music cluster, with regional breakouts for Calgary and Edmonton as well as other smaller cities as appropriate.
Position music as a key economic sector, a vehicle for the diversification of Alberta’s economy, and a tool that municipalities can use to stimulate economic growth, increase investment, retain youth, and drive tourism.
Develop and implement a strategic plan to build the business capacity of the music industry in Alberta.
Develop and implement a live music strategy for Alberta to improve the live music product offering in Alberta and generate increased music tourism.
To view the full Fertile Ground report, visit the NMC site at www.nmc.ca/amci.
Music Canada