TORONTO – Music Canada tabled a new report Thursday identifying programs and public policies to stimulate the development of Canada’s commercial music sector. The Next Big Bang: A New Direction for Music in Canada proposes a renewed industrial strategy for music and pinpoints key recommendations in the following areas: music education, digital innovation, music tourism, export expansion and interconnected tax credits.
The report demonstrates that by addressing these areas, music can contribute more substantially to the broader economy. The commercial music industry employs thousands of people in a highly creative and dynamic field that has been reshaped by the digital revolution, adds the organization's press release.
“The commercial music sector has the potential to support government efforts to improve economic performance and job growth at all levels. We want to get the message across that music can help in a multiplicity of ways,” says Graham Henderson, President of Music Canada, in the release. “Music’s potential can be fully realized, and Canada can secure its place on the global cultural map, by updating current policies and programs from the analog era in which they were created.”
Music Canada says the report is intended to stimulate a broader conversation about how best to strengthen Canada’s music business. The report was developed after months of research, interviews and expert submissions. Contributors include the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), Nordicity, digital expert Darlene Tonelli and Austin’s Titan Music Group.
The report’s recommendations are designed with the realities of today’s music industry in mind. Among these realities, it says, are:
- Digital revenues have grown significantly but do not yet make up for the massive losses in physical sales
- Legitimate music services still must contend with unlicensed music sources that do not pay artists and music companies
- In 2012, for the first time in over a decade, the global market for recorded music increased slightly over the previous year
- Music companies, despite the implosion of revenues, continue to invest in talent development
- Music discovery has largely moved online
- Live performance constitutes an increasingly important part of an artist’s income
The report contains 17 recommendations, including:
- Given the strong evidence that music education prepares workers who are more creative, better problem-solvers, and possess soft skills that are critical in the digital economy, as well as the correlation between music scenes and tech clusters, governments should invest more in music education and should consider music scenes as a tool for economic development;
- Music funding programs should reward innovation;
- Efforts should be made to support the discovery of Canadian music online through partnerships with digital music services;
- Cities and regions should develop a music tourism strategy in partnership with their local music community;
- Canada should develop a national music export office to better assist music companies and artist entrepreneurs to expand their export markets;
- A presence for the Canadian music industry should be established in Los Angeles to stimulate exports to the U.S. market and attract more music recording activity to Canadian recording studios; and
- Tax credits for music companies should be modernized and expanded, (replicating the best practices established in film and TV at the federal and provincial levels) resulting in jobs, economic activity and contributions to the tax base.
“Tax credits have been very effective as a creative industry stimulus,” said Peter Lyman, senior partner at Nordicity. “Properly enhanced, they could power even more growth in the music sector and its spin-offs in the economy at large. For instance, music could take a leaf from success in the film and TV business – and leverage foreign as well as domestic investment in Canada through tax credits.”
Click here for the full report.
