Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is François Bissoondoyal and I am the Director of Labels at Spectra Musique, a division of L'Équipe Spectra.
I will briefly introduce our company, which has been active on the Canadian cultural scene for more than 35 years.
L'Équipe Spectra owns two concert halls in Montreal: Le Métropolis and L'Astral. It also manages three large-scale events: The Montreal International Jazz Festival, the FrancoFolies de Montréal, and Montréal en lumière. We are also an agency for artists and a record label, and we produce more than 30 artists.
I will now get to the heart of my arguments.
As you know, the music industry has not been doing well for the past several years. Several previous witnesses explained this. There are three major points, notably the almost unlimited access to musical works, which means that it is increasingly difficult to protect copyrights. Then there is the decrease in royalties. There is also the growing popularity of streaming, which allows people to listen to songs without buying them. Users pay a monthly fee of between $5 and $10 and can access 10 or even 30 million songs. In such a situation one might wonder why they should buy an album. The consumer's way of setting priorities has also changed. The cost of living is going up and consumers may cut down on buying so-called luxury items.
We propose three solutions or possibilities.
The first is to get royalties from the sale of MP3 players. Such royalties already exist for blank formats such as CDs. So we could simply extend those royalties to other devices.
The second solution, as was mentioned earlier, would be to give a tax credit for production and marketing of sound recordings. This tax credit would be given to companies whose shareholders are Canadian, of course. This would allow us to increase the production of new Canadian content, and therefore to create or maintain jobs. Furthermore, it would reduce the financial risk for producers. It is very important that this credit be offered in addition to what the Canada Music Fund already provides. In Quebec, there is already a tax credit for producing sound recordings. In Canada, there is a tax credit for film, as was mentioned earlier.
The third solution is somewhat more technical and concerns entrepreneurs in the music industry. Currently the number of units sold is the basis for determining how much support will be given. In order to compare various companies more objectively, it seems to us that it would be fairer if the Canada Music Fund set up a new system that placed more value on a record label's willingness to take risks. The formula for calculating the amount of support given would be based on a points system taking the following three things into account: the company's investment in production and marketing; the number of albums produced and marketed; and the revenue generated by these activities through a sales bonus.
The goal of all this would be to support and maintain the careers of Canadian artists.
In conclusion I would simply say that of course, we support the measures recommended by the ADISQ.
Thank you for having given us the chance to speak to you.