A Message from the President (August 2017)
August 11, 2017
Partner Spotlight: MusicOntario
September 19, 2017In The News (September)
This section of the newsletter is comprised of news stories, press releases and links to Internet articles that are sent in by our members who believe they will be of general interest to the membership. We include them as a courtesy to our members but do not verify or edit their content. Their inclusion does not constitute an endorsement by the CMAOntario nor do their contents reflect the views or opinions of the CMAOntario.
ole Signs Co-Publishing and Administration Deal with The Reklaws
ole, the world’s fastest-growing independent music publishing and rights management company, announced it has entered into a worldwide co-publishing and administration deal with Cambridge, Ontario-based country music singer/songwriter duo, The Reklaws.
Winners of the 2012 CCMA Discover Program and the 2013 Boots and Hearts Emerging Artist Showcase, the sibling duo of Jenna Walker (vocals) and Stuart Walker (guitar and vocals) are signed to Universal Canada. Their single, “Hometown Kids,” is currently climbing the Canadian country charts behind the upcoming release of their debut album.
The Reklaws first single, “Kiss Kiss,” was released in 2013 and kicked off their career in the Canadian country music industry. The duo has opened for such acts as Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Thomas Rhett and others.
“We are pleased to welcome the Reklaws to the ole family,” said ole VP Creative, John Ozier. “ole’s cross-border capabilities fit this talented duo extremely well and we look forward to working with them and their team on having success in both Canada and in the US.”
Orangebox, LLC – a publishing and production company – will also co-publish the group’s music along with ole. Orangebox co-owner Robert Ellis Orrall remarked, “we have long thought that ole could be the piece of the puzzle that would take this project to the next level, and we are excited that Gilles Godard, John Ozier and ole CEO Robert Ott share that vision and enthusiasm.”
Gabrielle Goulet Nominated at The 39th ADISQ Awards
It was at the famous Montreal venue Club Soda, where Gabrielle Goulet learned of her first ever nomination at the ADISQ Awards in the Album of the year – Country category.
The Ottawa-based artist was delighted by this major news. “I’m so excited! To have the opportunity to be nominated along side of some of Quebec’s greatest artists, I’m at a loss for words!” she said, adding “someone pinch me!”
A steady stream of hits has flowed from Gabrielle, who released her second album, entitled “Elle sait” this past March 31st. Her single “Pas plus que ça” hit the top 10 on the “Top 100 Francophone Radio BDS” commercial radio chart for twenty weeks in early 2016, earning her the “Buzz Énergie” title in March 2016, shortly after being selected as Rouge FM’s “Rising Star”.
Click here for the full release.
More Than ‘A Little Bit Country…’: Couple Turns Passion for Music into Labour of Love
Who would believe a Mecca of Canadian country music has been tucked away in an old New Edinburgh farmhouse for decades? Even more incredible, it was a three-decade labour of love of a couple that has been together since high school.
Not only have Larry and Joanne Delaney been married for 53 years, they spent 32 working side by side. Their home office became a must-see for country music royalty, who, Joanne says, were just as eager to talk about the old house, their dogs and cats and their kids, as they were to talk shop.
Click here for the full story.
Steve Rivers Announces Piece of Your Time Tour
Steve Rivers will be going out on a mini tour this October with good friends and fellow songwriters Kari Lynch and Justin Eames. The “Piece of Your Time Tour” will be a 9-day songwriters series full of original songs and the stories behind them. The tour kicks off at The Country in Nashville TN on October 12th then heads up through the midwest playing various house concert venues and breweries in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.
How Tim Hicks’ “Stronger Beer” Hopped Up His Career In 2017
It was the non-hit that wasn’t supposed to happen that put Tim Hicks in a league of his own.
When the St. Catharines-born-and-based country star initially wrote the unlikely pro-Canada anthem “Stronger Beer,” it was a ruse.
“That song was meant purely as a joke for my day-to-day manager from West Virginia,” Hicks explained to FYIMusicNews on Monday. “He doesn’t understand why we have milk in bags here, and I wrote about things that were uniquely Canadian. That was only supposed to be for his ears – and people just seemed to love it.”
Full story: FYI Music News
Boots & Hearts 2018 Dates Announced
Boots & Hearts Music Festival returns to Burl’s Creek Event Grounds in Oro-Medonte, Ontario on August 9th-12th, 2018.
Nielsen Publishes Its First Canadian Live Music Report
A Nielsen survey reports that Canadian fans devote 60 percent of their annual music spend on attending related musical events and 40 percent reports making CD purchases on the grounds.
Both numbers are considerable and suggest that festivals and concerts offer significant opportunity for targeting active music fans and increasing sales for pre-recorded music.
By comparison, only 20 percent report having downloaded featured artist’s music after an event. The uptick in streaming is well below CD purchase as well, at 29 percent.
Full story: FYI Music News
Tebey hits No. 1 on US country charts
Canadian songwriter Tebey is wearing a seriously big smile. “Somebody Else Will,” a song he co-wrote with Kelly Archer and Adam Hambrick and was recorded by Justin Moore, reached the No. 1 spot on two different US country music charts, Mediabase and Billboard.
In a FB post, Tebey noted ” I’m just a Canadian kid from a small town in Ontario who followed a dream to Nashville and somehow wound up here. Chase your dreams and follow your heart, cause if you don’t ‘Somebody Else Will.” Now Nashville-based, he has a publishing deal with BMG Nashville.
Full story: FYI Music News
The Canadian Music Café Welcomes Leading Music Supervisors to this Year’s Showcase During TIFF
The Canadian Music Café has announced its line-up of 12 prominent music supervisors who will participate in this year’s 9th edition. The list was specially curated to include some of the most accomplished international supervisors who shape the sound of film, television, advertising and video games. This year’s Café will take place September 11-12, 2017 at the xoTO Filmmakers Lounge (270 King Street West @ Duncan) and will be open to accredited filmmakers, producers and industry professionals attending the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). For a full list of artists participating in this year’s showcase, click here.
Notable supervisors participating in the 2017 Café include top music supervisor Joe Rudge whose high-profile film credits include Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Big Sick and The Glass Castle; Brienne Rose whose company Noise/Racket has a client roster that includes Spotify, Google and Squarespace and Garrett McElver whose TV credits include Better Call Saul, Ray Donovan and The Walking Dead.
This year’s music supervisors include:
- Brienne Rose – Noise/Racket (Spotify, Squarespace, Google)
- Erik Sutch – Good Ear Music Supervision (Gap, Apple, Google)
- Garrett McElver – SuperMusicVision (The Tick, The Walking Dead)
- Jen Malone – Black & White (Atlanta, Baskets, Lady Dynamite)
- Joe Rudge (Blue Valentine, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Room)
- Justine von Winterfeldt (The Catcher Was a Spy, Impulse, Black Box)
- Laura Webb – Webb Worldwise Music (Teen Wolf, Girlfriend’s Day)
- Madonna Wade-Reed – whoopsie daisy (American Crime, Reign)
- Melissa Chapman – Groove Garden (Target, Hershey, JC Penney)
- Rob Lowry – Sweater Weather (The Bold Type, Man’s Seeking Woman)
- Sean Mulligan – eOne (Welcome to Me, Molly’s Game)
- Sophie Urquhart – Tin Drum Music (Adidas, Virgin Media)
To learn more, please visit www.canadianmusiccafe.com.
New Live Album from The Lovelocks
The Lovelocks dropped a LIVE, full-length album last month full of fan favourites. After playing at Stampede City Sessions in Calgary back in April, they decided to release “THE LOVELOCKS – LIVE AT STAMPEDE CITY SESSIONS” and share it with everyone. The performance also aired on PBS for over 2 million people on Aug 19.
Click here to download the live album.
New Authenticated Tracking Service Targets Indie Musicians
For years the indie music scene has been without accurate tracking data for songs that are getting played on radio and TV, but that’s all changed now.
Yangaroo’s Digital Music Delivery System (DMDS) has launched a new service that integrates with Nielsen’s BDS Radio, giving trackers, artists, and small labels an affordable pay-as-you-go package to track songs on radio and TV in Canada and the US.
The new service is on offer at a very reasonable price point of $75 per track/video per 8-week period.
Full story: FYI Music News
CMT Gives The Boot To Country Music
Canada’s Country music industry and musicians have been waiting for the boot to drop at the Corus-owned cable specialty channel and the fix was in effective August 27.
That’s when the channel licensed as Country Music Television in 1994 officially dropped playing music videos as part of its programming service.
Under the original condition of license, the channel was a TV jukebox, mandated to program a minimum of 90 percent country music videos. This was amended in 2006, reducing the obligation to 50 percent under the proviso that CMT Canada invests in the creation of original Canadian TV content.
Full story: FYI Music News
Wooing Country Music Fans To Embrace Music Streaming
Country music fans have been slow on the uptick in embracing music streaming, but a technocracy of big brands want to corral them and convert them to their online services.
Nielsen Music Canada reports that Audio On-Demand streaming in the Country genre is up by 78 percent this year, which is higher than genres such as Dance/Electronic and Alternative Rock; however, Country represents a pithy six percent of overall on-demand streams which is the lowest of all the major genres.
Full story: FYI Music News
Ships, shops and music on Manitoulin
Over 100 motor homes, camps and tents, and thousands of happy music fans in their chairs, were solidly in place for Manitoulin Country Fest on Aug. 10-12. The Abrams Boys performed, playing feisty violin and guitar music with their band as part of Thursday’s entertainment.
This is what KT and Craig Timmermans’ yearly Country Fest is all about, hearing the best country music, dancing and singing with the groups, seeing your friends, and gratitude for the accomplishments and details the Timmermans have achieved, putting this all together. I sang and danced, and enjoyed the amazing music.
Full Story: Sudbury Star
BMG Expands In Canada To Build Its Records Business
Last month BMG announced that it is scaling up its recorded music operations in Canada with dedicated A&R, marketing and promotion resources in Toronto for the first time.
The development comes via an innovative partnership with leading Canadian independent Black Box Music, headed by Jason Murray. Murray will lead the operation in Canada, reporting to Zach Katz, BMG US President Repertoire & Marketing and Jon Cohen, BMG EVP, Recorded Music.
The move demonstrates BMG’s commitment to the fast-growing Canadian market. Figures from Nielsen show the music market grew by 14.4% in the first half of 2017 compared with the same period in 2016.
BMG has recently signed two of Canada’s biggest stars, singer/songwriter Avril Lavigne and acclaimed rock band Nickelback. Nickelback’s new album Feed The Machine was released on June 16 debuting Top 5 in the U.S., Canada, and around the world. Lavigne is currently in the studio finishing work on her highly anticipated new full-length album to be released later this year.
BMG’s publishing roster of Canadian songwriters already features the legendary Paul Anka, Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings (The Guess Who), award-winning hitmaker WondaGurl (Drake, Rihanna, Travis Scott), electronic musicians Keys N Krates, as well as rising stars NAV (Drake, Travis Scott), Jazzfeezy (Drake, T.I.), Jessie Reyez, and rockers The Glorious Sons.
Zach Katz said, “Canada has a long history of generating great artists. Canadian people are great music fans. So it is absolutely natural for us to have a strong presence in Canada. We have made no secret of our goal to build a recordings business as strong as our presence in music publishing. Scaling up in Canada with a trusted and credible partner like Black Box will enable us to further improve our service to artists.”
The alliance with Black Box will support Canadian artists in their home territory, help discover new Canadian talent and also enable BMG to optimize sales in Canada from its growing stable of international artists.
Jason Murray said, “In an ever-changing musical landscape that has more than ever before become an industry without borders, it’s exciting to be part of a forward-thinking global music company. Watching first hand what their team have built in both the publishing and recorded music businesses, in such a short period, is awe inspiring.”
Said Jon Cohen, “Jason and his team are bright, knowledgeable, well respected and we are confident they will effectively serve as a direct extension of BMG’s current US label hub. We have a great longstanding relationship with Black Box Music and look forward to continuing our partnership.”
Recent successes from BMG artists include the US and Canada chart-topping, Grammy-nominated and Gold certified blink-182 album California and newly released California (deluxe edition), global phenomenon LP’s Lost On You, At The Drive In’s in•ter a•li•a, Blondie’s Pollinator, and 311’s MOSAIC, along with upcoming BMG album releases including PVRIS, MadeinTYO, Big K.R.I.T., Fergie, and A Perfect Circle. BMG US recorded music roster also includes upcoming releases from BBR Music Group (Broken Bow Records, Stoney Creek Records, Red Bow Records, Wheelhouse Records), Rise Records, and S-Curve Records.
According to the 2017 IFPI Global Music Report, Canada is the world’s sixth biggest global music market.
Shania Twain: New Single & Tour Details
Shania Twain has announced that she will be touring in support of her upcoming album Now, to be released on Sept. 29.
The superstar with five Grammy wins and over 70 million global album sales announced the 2018 Now tour dates on Twitter, which include 14 concerts in Canada.
This is Twain’s first big tour since 2015’s Rock This Country.
Twain kicks off the tour in Tacoma, Wash. on May 3, before her block of Canadian dates and six back-to-back shows.
Full Story: FYI Music News
Winding Roads Country Festival Takes Place September 23rd
The Winding Roads Country Festival takes place September 23rd in Port Perry. The festival will feature live entertainment from The Road Hammers along with opening act Kris Barclay.
Tickets are $60 per person and include: Traditional BBQ Grub, Silent Auction, Raffle, Dancing and Cash Bar.
The event is being organized by Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Durham.
Click here for tickets.