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Fresh ideas needed to revitalize music industry - McCabe

3/29/01

Toronto, - Michael McCabe, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) yesterday kicked off Canadian Music Week with a call to the music industry for greater collaboration to address the need to create more Canadian music stars.

In his address, Canadian Music at a Crossroad: 10 Reasons Why Canada's Music Industry Needs a New Policy Framework, Michael McCabe underlined the necessity for the Canadian music industry to work with Canadian private radio broadcasters to explore new ideas and develop new partnerships to foster a Canadian star system.

"Our country must be a place where music artists can establish rewarding careers," said Michael McCabe. "And then from their Canadian home base go out and conquer the world. Many in our industry are concerned about the continued shortage of high quality Canadian music that appeals to mass audiences."

The speech acknowledged Canadian content requirements helped to lay a solid foundation. However, Michael McCabe said that governmental mechanisms should not be expected to create the next generation of music stars and that the private radio industry has long recognized this fact and has developed a number of initiatives to develop new Canadian talent.

He also addressed the significance of the copyright burden on private radio broadcasters and appealed to the music industry to ensure that the copyright burden be fair, stating that the "copyright burden should never so great as to hamper radio's ability to carry out its part of the bargain, which is to provide exposure to Canadian music stars."

McCabe also spoke to the effectiveness of the structure of the music industry, raising the question whether "it makes sense that 239 small companies in the Canadian music industry fight over $200 million in business, while a handful of multinationals controls $1 billion of Canadian record sales."

Citing ten Canadian artists who went abroad to become music stars at the top of the speech, Michael McCabe concluded by listing ten nominees for the 4th Annual Canadian Radio Music Awards, a CAB-led initiative to recognize emerging Canadian music stars of tomorrow. He reminded the audience that all the stakeholders in the music industry must embrace change and consider new partnerships, new practices and new policies, because it is all about music and at the end of the day, that is all there is.

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