Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. Actually, just before we get there, I'm curious. How do you currently measure it? How does the government measure this right now?

Canadian Heritage committee  It used to be measured by record sales. It used to be measured by units. That's just no longer the case anymore. The gold record used to be 50,000 units sold in Canada. It's now gone down to 40,000, and it may go even further down, for certifications. We've seen that happen globa

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, there already is. Again, I spent 25 years as head of A and R, artists and repertoire, for a label, and there are all different levels of success that can happen. Some artists need to go global and need to take on the global economy; other ones don't. You have artists like R

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. Again, TD gives us over $200,000 a year for this program and they are ecstatic with what's coming to them from a media opportunity, a marketing opportunity, and they're not crass about it. They have been amazing partners for us, but if I were to go to them and tell th

Canadian Heritage committee  I would too, and when you say “new tools”, what do you mean by that?

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I think obviously FACTOR plays a very important role. New technology, as we've said, has changed this business incredibly, in some ways for better, but unfortunately in other ways not for better. When it comes to sales, as Louis was saying, and you see your statements come i

Canadian Heritage committee  Your daughter?

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I would believe so. TD is a brand-new client to us. They came in as a partner of MusiCounts. Actually, it was interesting. What TD did is they put out a call to the industry and to advertising agencies saying they wanted to be the bank of music. It's one of their main platfo

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll answer first, obviously on the music ParticipAction piece. It's a brand-new concept that was literally just tabled at the minister's round table in Winnipeg. I think a lot of the organizations have all wondered how they would keep moving forward music education and the impor

Canadian Heritage committee  Music is a community builder. Actually, there is a program I should make you aware of that you need to tell both those organizations about. Through MusiCounts we've always been focused on the classroom primarily, but last year we started a brand new program with TD Bank, which

Canadian Heritage committee  And honestly, it makes better young Canadians. We are teaching these kids teamwork and discipline and self-esteem, and they walk out of there.... We do these Band Aid celebrations at schools where we actually go in and we'll present a school with a $5,000 or $10,000 grant. Ac

Canadian Heritage committee  How would I frame it? Well, I think it has to be a national strategy. It needs a lot of consultation to first get it started. It's not going to happen overnight. I think we have to bring the stakeholders together, look at what it is, and do it with a focus on the benefits of musi

Canadian Heritage committee  I think it is. Obviously, we would need support from the federal government to do it, but I think we need to engage many stakeholders, the provinces, obviously, because it is education; organizations such as Music Canada, the Coalition for Music Education, CARAS, the Juno Awards.

Canadian Heritage committee  Mr. Chair, thank you very much for inviting me to take part in this presentation to your committee today on behalf of CARAS, MusiCounts, and the Juno Awards. The Canadian music industry is a billion dollar a year business encompassing sound recordings, songwriting, publishing,