Canadian Music Resource Blog

Welcome to the new blog URL!

Canadian Musician Resource Blog — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:32:25 +0000

Great Opportunity for Quebec born Musicians!

Canadian Musician Resource Blog — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:45:11 +0000

The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec is one of the best resources for funding in the whole country. However it is only made available to Quebec-born residents of the province. The Counseil grants works in a unique way compared to other Canadian grant agencies. The Counseil first ensures that your project is not for profit.You must then find an active professional involved in music industry to act as your mentor during the time you are receiving funding. You will then periodically check in with the Counseil concerning the needs and progress of your project. If you are accepted you may receive thousands of dollars and even $500 monthly allowances for living expenses.

Definitely worth checking out.

http://www.calq.gouv.qc.ca/index_en.htm

Canadian Music Funding Resource List

Canadian Musician Resource Blog — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:36:20 +0000

The lovely people at SOCAN, a Canadian performance rights collection and distribution agency, has provided the master list of institutions currently distributing grants for Canadian musicians. Check it out here!

http://www.socan.ca/jsp/en/pub/music_creators/REFundList.jsp

If I Had a Million Dollars…

Canadian Musician Resource Blog — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:32:21 +0000

One of the most pressing issues for all musicians is money. Gear, recording, press and distribution are all huge investments for independent artists to make, none of which have a guarantee of return. How is an musicians supposed to nurture and support their own talents when the initial costs of getting started in the music industry are too much? Fortunately for Jessica and other independent Canadian musicians, there are a variety of options and opportunities available.

There are 3 major options for funding in Canada:

1. DIY

If you already have your own gear and maybe even a some decent recordings, it’s worth (at least for awhile) trying to fund your own project. This would involve focusing on alternative forms of distribution for your music such as myspace, CBCRadio3 and other social networking sites. These facets are hugely influential, especially in the Canadian industry.

2. Private

The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR) distributes over $11.5 million dollars annually to Canadian musicians. Funded by private radio broadcasters, FACTOR is a hugely important resource for Canadian musicians for two major reasons:
– It’s made exclusively available to Canadian citizens
– FACTOR allocates money for different types of funding including recording, touring and video production. This means you’re more likely to receive grants even if you’re a lesser known artist.

http://www.factor.ca

3. Government

The Canadian Government has always made steps to ensure the adequate distribution and production of Canadian owned and produced content within the country. Because of those, several resources have been made available to Canadian musicians that ensure the funding of their projects. These include…

Canada Music Fund (CMF) http://www.pch.gc.ca/cmf-music/

Artist House Music http://www.artistshousemusic.org/

Canada Council for the Arts http://www.canadacouncil.ca/

Canadian Music Creators Coalition

Canadian Musician Resource Blog — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:39:50 +0000

As a Canadian musician Jessica should also should be aware of the Canadian Music Creators Coalition http://www.musiccreators.ca/wp/. The Canadian Music Creators Coalition is a public coalition of Canadian artists, songwriters, producers and music promoters who strive to have their voices heard.

Until the coalition was formed in 2006, a group of multinational record labels did most of the talking about what Canadian artists need out of copyright. As a collective the coalition has come up the changes they believe need to be made with Canadian laws and policies. The goal of the coalition is to create a gift economy where both musical artists and music consumers benefit and are protected within the distribution of music.

SOME OF THE ARTISTS INVOLVED: Alexisonfire, Avril Lavigne, Wolf Parade, Billy Talent, Broken Social Scene, Feist, Metric and Sarah McLachlan.

As part of the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, in 2006 Steven Page, former member of the band Barenaked Ladies wrote a Guide To Music Copyright Reform. As Canadian music creators, according to the Barenaked Ladies, the Canadian Music Creators Coalition has identified three core principles that should guide copyright reform and cultural policy in Canada.

Ultimately, the Canadian Music Creators Coalition believes that the continued growth of Canada’s vibrant music scene requires policies that prioritize musicians, and not large business and corporations. Jessica can easily become apart of the Canadian Music Creators Coalition by emailing musiccreators@gmail.com and representatives will get Jessica and her bands information and add it to their list of artists.

Canadian Copyright

Canadian Musician Resource Blog — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:31:42 +0000

As a Canadian musician trying to make it in the music industry, it is very important that Jessica has an understanding of the laws and regulations that surround Canadian Copyright. In the most general sense, copyright is understood as the rights to copy. Generally when someone has a copyright on their work, it means that only the creator of the work or the owner of the copyright has the right to produce or reproduce the work or to give permission to another person to do so. Copyright applies to all original literary, dramatic, scientific, musical and artistic works, and within each of these general categories is a wide range of creations. Jessica can view the official Canadian Copyrights Act and examine it by individual sections if she clicks on this link http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/C-42/FramesView.html.As a musician Jessica specifically needs to have an understanding of:

Once Jessica has an understanding of each of these sections, it is easy for her to verify if she is violating any copyright laws. More specifically, Jessica is able to make sure that she is not producing or reproducing work that she needs permission to use.

One of the main forms of infringement Jessica needs to avoid is plagiarism, which is understood as copying someone else’s work and claiming it to be your own. Jessica needs to make sure that her lyrics, musical compositions, musical recordings and musical performances are original and do not violate any copyright laws. By clicking on the Canadian Copyrights Database section on the Canadian Intellectual Property Offiice Website http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/cpyrghts/dsplySrch.do?lang=eng Jessica will be able to search all of the Canadian copyrights registered as of October 1991, free of charge.

Once Jessica is sure that she is not involved in any copyright infringement, she must decide what types of protection she wants to have on her original works. Jessica has three main options:

OPTION 1:

The first option Jessica has would be to have zero official protection over any of the original work she has created. Copyright exists automatically in Canada when original work is created, however Jessica would need to officially register with copyright in order to obtain the certificate that states that she is the owner of her work. By not registering for this certificate Jessica would not have anything to use in court as evidence of ownership. This means that potentially anyone can reproduce and use the original work Jessica creates. For example another musician could copy her songs and claim them to be their own, thus they could collect royalties from Jessica’s original work.

Ultimately, choosing to have zero protection over her work would allow for a lot of freedom, however it would leave her vulnerable to exploitation.

OPTION 2:

The next option Jessica has is to have her work registered with Canadian Copyright. By clicking on this link http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/vwapj/guideDA-guideCR-eng.pdf/$FILE/guideDA-guideCR-eng.pdf which is provided on the Canadian Intellectual Property Office website, Jessica will have access to the official Guide to Copyrights. Within this document Jessica will find everything she needs to know about copyright and how to register her original works with copyright. More specifically the guide gives information on what Jessica can copyright, how and where to register for copyright, application forms needed, fees, duration of copyright ect. If Jessica decides she wants to get her original works copyrighted, she will need to know all the necessary steps to file a copyright application with the Canadian Copyright Office. Jessica can find all of this information on The Canadian Intellectual Copyright Office website http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr00051.html#form. After browsing the website, Jessica will learn that she can register for copyright online, via the Intellectual Property Website. In order to do this, Jessica needs to create a username and password so she can access the necessary application form (the copyright form is located on a secure server website). In the application form Jessica needs to give:

Category of her work
Title of her work
Publication
Author
Owner
Declaration
Agent

Once she correctly fills out the application form online, all she needs to do is press submit. When submitting her form online Jessica also has to pay a fee of $65 dollars in order for her copyright application to be reviewed. In the application form Jessica is able to select whether she wants the official Copyright Certificate mailed to her, or if she wants to pick it up in person at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office located in Quebec. It takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks for copyright application forms to be reviewed, thus once considered complete, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office will assign Jessica with a registration number and give her an official certificate.

OPTION 3:

The next option Jessica has is to get her work registered with Canadian Creative Commons. Creative Commons attempts to find a happy medium between innovation and protection – a compromise between having zero protection of your work and having total control or all rights reserved. Creative Commons allows Jessica to keep her copyright and protect her work, however she can also declare “some rights reserved” allowing certain uses of her works for others. On the Creative Commons website http://creativecommons.ca/ Jessica is provided with a plethora of information and resources regarding Creative Commons. On the website Jessica is even given a list of “things she should know before licensing.” Similar to applying for copyright, Jessica can register with Creative Commons online via the Canadian Creative Commons website. By clicking on this link Jessica can fill out the online application and get her work licensed with Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/choose/?jurisdiction=ca. On the online application Jessica needs to fill out:

If she wants to allow commercial use of her work
If she wants to allow modifications of her work
The jurisdiction of her license
The format of her work
Title of her work

After filling out all of this information, Jessica will be provided with the information in regards to the type of license she has chosen. Also, Jessica has the option to give Creative Commons her website information (band myspace) and Creative Commons will add an official license icon to her page allowing her visitors to know what licenses apply to her work.

The MAPL System, Canadian Content and The Radio

Canadian Musician Resource Blog — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:23:04 +0000

Perhaps the best way to understand why the Canadian government is so involved in the national music industry is their highly founded fear of exiting to the larger American market. Jessica had considered pursuing her career in music hubs like New York and Los Angeles but realized that if her product did not adhere to specific Canadian guidelines found in the MAPL point system her music may no longer qualify as Canadian content, meaning it would be much more difficult for her to get her songs on the radio. When Canadian content regulations were being established by the CRTC in the early 1970’s they decided the best means to consider a song an authentically Canadian product would be to allocate points concerning the Music, Artist, Performance, and Lyrics creating the MAPL system, if enough criteria was met than the song could be used to fulfill a stations requirements and thus more likely to get airtime on the highly regulated Canadian Spectrum. Jessica was sure to meet the criteria for Canadian Content and decided that a good starting place was the CBC Radio 3, the self-proclaimed “Home of Independent Canadian Music”, so she went to the artist registration page, and put her band on the ever growing list of over 20,000 other independent Canadian musicians.

The broadcasting licenses granted to private radio stations, as well as the government run ones, have a provision similar to the public interest legislation designated when the radio spectrum became private, however, this provision guarantees that all radio stations in Canada give a percentage of their airtime to Canadian Content. Every station will have a different quota that is calculated primarily according to their genre. As Jessica’s Ukulele rap is highly experimental it was unlikely to get airplay on popular music radio stations right away, but because it had been broadcast on smaller, more niche radio stations to fulfill their content requirements it had the potential to gain steam and even cross over to mainstream success.

Cultural Protectionism in Canada

Canadian Musician Resource Blog — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:23:46 +0000

So Jessica and her band Blink 361 have moved to Montreal and are trying to make it happen, but there is one problem, they are broke. She considers looking to the government for assistance but asks herself does the national level still matter when households have access to global media flow?
The answer is YES! The Canadian government plays a promotional role for local talent that can be seen in Broadcasting Regulations (CRTC), State-Run Services (CBC), Censorship, Law and Copyright, and Cultural Policy.

Jessica decided to check out these sites http://www.pch..ca/cmf-music/ , http://www.pch.gc.ca/cmf-music/pades-srdp-eng.cfm for more useful information and contacts.

Here she found that the Department of Heritage for Canadian Sound Recording had established the Canadian Music Fund to help people just like her and divided into seven components to better suit her specific needs.

Welcome to the Blog!

Canadian Musician Resource Blog — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:18:27 +0000

Hello everyone! Welcome to Adam, Chrys, and Rebecca’s COMS-361 group project blog. Our goal will be to expose emerging Canadian music artists to the vast array of resources made available to them by the government and other private facets. Here is a fun little video called “Culture in Danger” that presents one perspective of what it is currently like to gain funding as an artist, it is our hope that by the end of this project people will not find it so difficult.