Thank you very much.
Good morning, everybody.
On behalf of my colleague and president of the Canadian Music Publishers Association, Jodie Ferneyhough, thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee. My name is Elisabeth Bihl, and I am the executive director of the CMPA, the oldest music industry association in Canada, which was founded in 1949.
The CMPA represents 75 music publishing companies across Canada. Our members work on behalf of hundreds of Canadian and international songwriters, including high-profile established artists and the up and coming stars of tomorrow.
Music publishers help songwriters make a living. Songs generate income through a variety of sources from everywhere in the world, radio airplay, placement in films, TV shows or commercials, licensing for a toy, game, or video game, recordings and releases on discs, iTunes, or streaming services. Publishers administer and collect the income through various channels on behalf of the songwriter.
A publisher is often the first to invest in a songwriter’s career and also supports him or her with advances against royalties. Music publishers are key to the development of the music industry, because there would be no industry without the songs.
CMPA has been advocating to members of Parliament of all political stripes over the past few years for a study into funding programs for the Canadian music industry. By recommending such a study, this committee’s report could be a catalyst for growing the economic and cultural impacts of music. In 2011 alone, the music industry made expenditures and investments in the country that exceeded $800 million, sustaining over 4,100 jobs.
Government investment has allowed the music industry to punch well above its weight. While Canada is the 35th most populous country, we boast the seventh largest music market.
Music publishers have a good news story when it comes to a funding program being run very effectively and exceeding expectations. Over the past five years the annual $500,000 spent by the Music publishers program under the Music entrepreneur component accomplished the following: the number of Canadian musical works published has increased by 25%; the number of foreign works published increased by 36%; the number of Canadian songwriters under contract has more than doubled; and the number of foreign songwriters has increased by almost 300%; and the number of people employed by these participating publishing companies increased from 4% to 6%.
The Department of Canadian Heritage has validated this success and has increased the annual funding envelope by 25% to $625,000 for 2014.
Of course, there are always things that could be done more efficiently. The president of CMPA, Jodie Ferneyhough, will talk about this next.