Exclaim reviews the current state of the Canadian music industry, lamenting the support for Bill C-61 from CRIA and CIRPA.
Exclaim on the Canadian Music Business in 2008
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From the article “Luckily, no matter how crappy things in the business get, artists and their fans will find each other. In 2009, the way forward is to begin all business propositions working with that fact.”
It’s not just with fans. Artists are ditching the “traditional labels” for an opportunity to connect not just with the fans but within side the industry, and are taking a bigger role in promotions and success of their tracks.
It doesn’t matter where government turns at this point. The major 4 labels are no longer a significant part of the industry, and shouldn’t be treated as such. Artists/Fans and new media producers have much more of a personal bond then before. Anything the Government produces in legislation that effects that will be largely ignored. However do caution that pissing off the consumer is not a good idea especially now, and with the bottom already reached in the media industry according to this article, best not to force this bottom to the lowest level. But what can you say, the people voted in a Conservative Government who doesn’t seem to listen or give too hoots about what Canadian Industries need.
The people of Canada will get what they voted for and the price will be incompetence, and a lot of families on social assistance. Canada will be lagging behind quite a bit in all industries because of this incompetence. Have a good holiday season everyone, the next one we’ll all be begging for food. Enjoy it while you can.
Just as an additional note to this. It doesn’t seem logical to support legislation that puts criminal restrictions on the sharing of media, when the head of the CRIA and other Canadian media Industries were quick to point out that they wouldn’t go after consumers for downloading and sharing content online.
As a part of the media industry I can tell you that the servial of Universal, EMI, Warner, Sony/B
Engineer/Producer
Back in the 80s the Government set up a thing called the Levy on Blank Media to help starving artists recover costs lost to people putting music on cassette tapes for personal use. The Levy to my knowledge still exists.
I have 2 questions about the levy.
1. How much money has been collected on artists behalf since the inception of the Levy and how many of these starving artists (musicians, producers etc.) have received monies from the Levy fund? (rumor has it that no one but fund administrators has ever received any monies from the fund.)
2. If the government insists on pursuing and finalizing these draconian copyright laws, will they be abolishing the Levy or will all these starving artists and producers (read Record Labels) be allowed to double dip off of my paycheck?
the fallen music business.
radio is already talking about the decline in quality of new music product being made. this is because record producers are leaving the industry in droves, leaving the production of music in the hands of hobbiests and amateurs. those who are hanging on are dealing with budgets 5-10% of what they once were. consumers will have much more music to chose from, but most of it will not be worth listening to. as for the aspiring artists, very few will be able to make a living at it and most will give up trying much sooner than in the past.
what industry?
outside of what the big 4 are doing, there IS no industry. what others are doing amounts to lots of bloggery, facebook and myspace itis, but no actual revenue. cant really call that an industry. i know of a small canadian record label who in the 90’s used to sell 800k albums in canada per year. they are down to about 10k now. they converted all the back catalog to digital, which now grosses approx $50 per month. i’m all for the demise of the record industry, but artists are not any better off.