Thank you, Carol.
First of all, I would like to touch on what we call the musical ecology system in Canada. At one end of the spectrum, it includes the highly commercial entertainment side of the music industry. This includes radio, television, record labels, and the musicians who are able to get recording deals with major labels or who are working towards that end. Such musicians and their record labels are able to access readily the funding from FACTOR and MUSICACTION.
On the other end of the spectrum, the ecosystem also includes young, mid-career, and more established musicians in less commercial genres like contemporary classical music, world music, jazz, folk, and audio sound art. As the department's website notes, and I quote:
This is music not generally part of prevailing musical trends, as it emphasizes artistic considerations—creativity, free expression and/or experimentation—that do not necessarily meet conventional criteria and formats as defined by the popular music marketplace.
These are the professional musicians in whom the Canada Council has been investing. These professional musicians have been able to access small grants to make high-quality recordings for sale and promotional purposes for the past 23 years under what is now called the Canadian musical diversity component of the existing Canada Music Fund.
The combination of all types of music produced in Canada makes up this vital and dynamic ecosystem, and it includes the funding ecosystem in which the council has been pleased to share a role. The ecosystem is now threatened by the likely loss of funding for the musicians who have received support for recording activity from the Canada Council.
These musicians have had access to about $1.3 million or just 5% of the $27 million or so in the new Canada Music Fund. The success rate, even in the council's small part of the Canada Music Fund, has only been about 22%. That is to say, fewer than one in four applicants received a grant from the Canada Council through the two programs we delivered. It is never, ever a slam-dunk to get a grant from the Canada Council.
The artists who the council invests in are as intent on developing and sustaining careers in music as those on the more commercial side of the music industry. This means that every two or three years they must be able to record a new high-quality CD to maintain and develop audiences and new markets.
So how could the revamped Canada Music Fund affect these musicians? A summative evaluation conducted by the Department of Canadian Heritage in 2007 with respect to the Canada Music Fund highlighted that more than 80% of the artists who benefited from the Council's Canadian musical diversity component achieved increased technical quality of their sound recordings.
In today's digital world, high-quality sound recordings are essential for the artists who seek our support to secure touring opportunities and to promote their music in Canada and around the world. Again, Canadian Heritage's summative evaluation found that more than 86% of recipients of the Canadian musical diversity component confirmed that the funding enhanced their career in exactly this way.
More controversially, it has been stated that there was considerable overlap between the projects supported by FACTOR and MUSICACTION and those of the Canada Council and that the artists supported through the council's component of the existing fund would, for the most part, by implication, be accommodated by other partners in the newly constituted Canada Music Fund.
Without trying to be argumentative, our own analysis of all funding—Canada Council's, FACTOR's, and MUSICACTION's—for the past three and a half years plus the findings of the summative evaluation raise serious questions about this conclusion.
I should note that we were trying to determine impact on recording support opportunities for these artists who come to our component, and we recognize that the artists who come to our component are also exactly the same artists who come to our touring programs, our career development programs, and all of those other program supports as, similarly, those who are mostly supported by FACTOR and MUSICACTION for recordings are also supported through their programs for touring and market development.
Our statistics show that the overlap between artists supported by any of the Canada Council music programs and those supported by any of the programs at FACTOR and MUSICACTION is about 15% annually. This means that, at most, 15% of the artists receiving support from the Canada Council for activities such as touring, market promotion, showcasing, and sound recording, also receive support from FACTOR or MUSICACTION's similar programs. We consider, when I mention ecosystem, that this is both appropriate and part of what we think is how you deliver support to the entire community. In other words, a minimum of 85% of the musicians the council supported may not be able to find similar support elsewhere at the federal level in the future.
In looking at the last 18 months, our research showed that of the 2,770 grant recipients from both FACTOR and MUSICACTION combined, only 79 of those recipients, or 3%, received sound recording funding from the Canada Council in the same period.
For the professional musicians, ensembles, and groups served by the musical diversity program where the traditions of working as independent artists have been the norm, the reduction of recording costs and the practice of selling from the stages of the festivals, churches, community centres, auditoriums and clubs in which they play, as well as through self-developed distribution channels, are proving to be a significant advantage at the moment, as long as the recordings can be made to an acceptable professional standard. This is not a given if funding is unavailable to these artists to achieve that goal.