I have a record label, and I'm also an artist manager. As an artist manager, I do work very closely with artists and performers who make records and tour nationally and internationally.
I just can't say enough about how important the support of FACTOR is. It makes it possible for a struggling artist to figure out a way to get their record made, to get even just a tour across Canada, to get from Vancouver to Edmonton to Winnipeg to Toronto. That's how we know how to do it. That support, I feel, has created an infrastructure here in Canada of an independent community that is sustainable. Our main point is that we're grateful the funding has been made permanent, so to speak.
We have lots of other ideas. For example, exporting is something that all independent artists need help with. It's something that CIMA is doing. We could use the support to do that better and do more of it, but we don't want to see that at the expense of the core: production and marketing and touring.