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Tag archive: Kate Taylor (3)

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Miranda Mulholland to address the Economic Club of Canada on ‘Redefining Success in a Digital Marketplace’

On Wednesday, May 24, singer, songwriter, violinist, label owner and music festival organizer Miranda Mulholland will address the Economic Club of Canada on the reality for music entrepreneurs in the digital age.

Below is the event description:

Music unites us, bridges linguistic, cultural and income divides. Music heals. It connects. It provides a soundtrack to our greatest struggles and our highest triumphs.

Since the arrival of the digital age, music is more readily created, released and shared. It is available at our fingertips and it’s reaching more people than ever before.

With music’s intrinsic value in our lives and this new accessibility, one would expect that the people who create this unifying force would be thriving.

There is a widely held perception that the advent of the digital revolution has enhanced how music is created, money is made and creators’ lives are lived. There is a perception of a level playing field.

But it’s time for a reality check.

Join Artist and Entrepreneur, Miranda Mulholland as she talks about the creative process, reveals actual numbers, discusses how creators are faring in this new landscape and suggests a way forward.

The event runs from 11:30am – 1:30pm at the Toronto Marriott Eaton Centre (525 Bay Street). Lunch will be served. Tickets are available for purchase on the Economic Club of Canada’s website.

Miranda’s speech will be followed by a question and answer discussion with Kate Taylor, author, film critic and arts columnist at The Globe and Mail.

On November 1, 2016, Miranda shared her incredibly pertinent experiences as an artist entrepreneur operating in the digital age during her closing remarks at a speech delivered by Music Canada’s President and CEO, Graham Henderson, titled The Broken Promise of a Golden Age: How creators underwrote a tech revolution and were betrayed. Miranda’s remarks were so powerful they inspired the Economic Club of Canada to invite her back to headline her own event.

Be sure to get your tickets early, as this is sure to be a timely and impactful event!

VIDEO: Miranda Mulholland’s closing remarks at Graham Henderson’s speech to the Economic Club of Canada on Nov. 1, 2016

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Music Canada AGM 2016 panel discussion: Creative Professionals – Bridging the Income Divide and Canada’s Cultural Policy Review

The panel discussion at Music Canada’s 2016 AGM put the spotlight on the ability of creators to earn a living in the digital age. Sharing perspectives from two of Canada’s great cultural industries, writing and music, John Degen and Graham Henderson discussed something common to all of Canada’s cultural sectors – the need for a functioning marketplace that properly remunerates creators when their work is used. John and Graham were interviewed by Kate Taylor, an expert in Canadian cultural sovereignty in the digital age.

The panel was introduced by Steve Kane, President of Warner Music Canada.

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John Degen is a poet and author, and the Executive Director of the Writers’ Union of Canada. For the last two years, John has chaired the International Authors Forum, an umbrella organization for authors’ organizations around the world, with a network of around 650,000 authors. John is a long-time partner of Music Canada on issues affecting creators in Canada and an outspoken advocate for creators’ rights.

Kate Taylor is an award-winning novelist and journalist with the Globe and Mail, where she currently serves as lead film critic. Kate previously hosted Music Canada’s Global Forum at CMW 2015, where the topic was The Survival of the Creative Class.

Graham described how remuneration for creators has steadily eroded over the past 20 years, and how it’s harder than ever for a middle class of creators to earn a living from their work. Graham summarized the effect of the digital shift with a quote from Francis Gurry, Director General of WIPO, as a “seemingly avoidable and inappropriate loss of value to creators, performers and the creative sector.” Graham noted the key was that this was avoidable; it didn’t have to be this way. Wealth created by the enormous opportunities technology, which creators have embraced, brings is not finding its way to the creative side of the ledger, despite the best intentions of the lawmakers who wrote the rules currently governing the digital environment.

A 2015 Writers’ Union study titled Devaluing Creators, Endangering Creativity found that, taking inflation into account, writers are making 27% less than they were making in 1998 from their writing, while 45% of writers say they must do more to earn a living now. John confirmed that trends in Canada are happening all over the world. The conditions under which creators work are becoming increasingly difficult. Globally, there has been a 27-29% decline in authors’ income.

Regarding the current Canadian cultural policy review, titled Canadian Content in a Digital World, the panel agreed the goal for creators is to have a functioning marketplace in place. John called the review a golden opportunity for a necessary conversation about “fair trade culture,” so that people who “only identify as consumers of culture understand just what underlies the value of the product that they’re buying.”

Graham also spoke to the shape he hopes the review will take. “For us, what would be epic, would be a meaningful review of the rules that were put in place in the late 90s, and the rules that were put in place in 2012, to take into account this new reality; the reality that we have no middle class,” he said. “It increasingly looks like a lottery and if you win the lottery, you win an enormous amount of money, and everybody else is struggling. I think the question we have to ask Minister Joly and the government is – is creation a profession, or do they think its a hobby? And if you think it’s a profession then they have to, and we have to, stand up for the rights of creators to be paid appropriately.”

The full video of the panel can be viewed below.

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For more photos from the Annual General Meeting, visit our photo album on Facebook.

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Global Forum 2015: The Survival of the Creative Class

The Global Forum at Canadian Music Week has earned a reputation as a hub for insightful commentary on issues pertinent to creators and the creatives industries. In recent years, the Global Forum has discussed grassroots advocacy with Blake Morgan, brand supported piracy with David Lowery, Chris Ruen, and Chris Castle, strategies for eliminating the digital theft of cultural content with Robert Levine and Dr. Brett Danaher, and how corporations enable digital theft with filmmaker Ellen Seidler. Music Canada is proud to return as a sponsor of the Global Forum, which features a compelling group of panelists for the 2015 edition.

For ten years or more we have heard about the importance of the creative class: that it is essential to the growth and success of businesses, as well as cities and regions. Cities that don’t attract the creative class, apparently fail.

But have we forgotten the fundamental elements of survival? Attracting the creative class is one thing but its members must be able to afford to work in their fields.

Scott Timberg is one of a growing number of people who say the creative economy is broken. According to Timberg, it is virtually impossible for creative artists from musicians to filmmakers, to journalists and book sellers, to earn a living. And the impacts are far-reaching.

Zoë Keating has experience trying to make a living as a full-time musician. A Canadian cellist, Keating didn’t set out to become an artist advocate but was thrust into the spotlight when she refused to back down against one of the largest intermediaries of music, YouTube, over her right to control how and when her music is distributed.

Blake Morgan is no reluctant advocate and since his appearance at The Global Forum in 2014, has seen his I Respect Music campaign log a major success with the recent introduction of bipartisan legislation in the U.S. to ensure artists are fairly paid on digital services and AM/FM radio.
Is survival of the creative class at risk? Has the artist middle class disappeared?
If so, at what cost? And what can we do about it?

Kate Taylor, a columnist with The Globe and Mail and frequent writer on technology, the media and music, will lead the panel in an hour-long discussion. The panel will be followed by moderated table discussions on potential solutions.

Update: video from the panel is now available online, and is embedded below.

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