Canadian Heritage Committee on Sept. 18th, 2018

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Bryan Adams]

—but now that you mention it, it will be in January.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Good luck with that. Let's hope next time it will be 10 years earlier.

[Bryan Adams]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

On that note, we will go to Mr. Long, please.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Gervais and Mr. Adams, for coming today to give us your presentation.

Mr. Adams, congratulations on your wonderful, beautiful music career and the beautiful music you provide us with.

[Bryan Adams]

Thank you.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

I still say—let me indulge—that yours was the best rock concert I have ever seen. I'm from Saint John, New Brunswick, and you played at Harbour Station in 2005. You came back with an acoustic tour a few years ago.

[Bryan Adams]

Oh, wow. Thank you.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

The concert you gave in 2005 still gives me shivers.

My background is major junior hockey. I was part owner of the Saint John Sea Dogs major junior hockey team. Certainly I've dealt for years with agents and players in negotiations and whatnot. My question to you—you've kind of answered around it a little bit—is that good negotiation always comes with leverage on both sides. Both sides of the party need a little bit of leverage to have good negotiation. One thing I've certainly seen with artists in music...and you'll have to forgive me here. I'm new to the committee, so I've missed a lot of the previous testimony.

I grew up listening to music by the Stampeders, Edward Bear, Lighthouse, Chilliwack and artists like that. Those artists and new artists have no leverage. As you mentioned in your testimony, you were just happy to sign a deal to pay your rent. This is kind of a two-pronged question, but structurally, just name me a couple of things we can do as government to help give new artists more leverage. What can we do?

[Bryan Adams]

Boy oh boy, I don't know if I can answer that question, because it's such an individual thing. Each artist is so unique and each situation is unique. I don't know that—

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

That's fair, but there must be a couple of things, though, that we could do to help artists, just at a higher level, to have a little more leverage when they're doing these things.

[Bryan Adams]

Leverage with whom, though?

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

With the people they're signing the copyright with. You yourself said that you were happy to sign it to pay your rent. What can—

[Bryan Adams]

Yes, but that's what it comes down to. It comes down to the fact that most people.... If you're a young artist, you've probably worked for a couple of years or a few years trying to get somewhere, and suddenly someone says, “You know what? I think we can make something out of this. You sign here and we'll see what we can do.”

Sometimes you get lucky, but it's not a guarantee. There's no guarantee that just because you sign a deal with somebody you're going to be a hit. There are a lot more factors involved.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

That's right.

[Bryan Adams]

I mean, one of the things that people said to me when I walked in was, “Do you have a band?” Well, no. They'd say, “Do you have a manager?” No. They said, “Well, then, get on your bike.” There wasn't.... You need to have all the components in the beginning.

Look, I was really lucky. I signed when I was 18. I went on to have a couple of albums that were duds. My record company supported me through the duds, and then we had a hit record. With artists nowadays, if you don't come with your best foot forward, you're pretty much toast.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Right.

[Bryan Adams]

That's why a lot of artists go to hit-making machinery. They go to people who are songwriters, to other songwriters, other teams, and other producers, to try to make their record so that they do have their best foot forward when they come out. It doesn't necessarily make for an individual's artistic stamp. It takes time to develop things.

In the beginning, you have to be grateful for the opportunity that you can pay your rent and that you can get to the point where you are in control of what you're doing, but at that point you need to be able to take over and let your artistry do the talking.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Okay. Fair enough.

[Bryan Adams]

That's what happened to me. Once I figured out what I was doing, it was like, okay, I know what I'm doing now. I've done the university of rock. I've played every club in this country.

By the way, a lot of the clubs don't even exist anymore. How do young artists even go out and get their music played? They think that going to the Internet is going to make a difference, but it doesn't guarantee anything. No one.... How are you even going to find this person?

There are a lot of factors involved in getting to that point, but in the end, the most crucial thing is having that talent, having the song. It's an elusive thing. It doesn't happen every day and it doesn't happen to everyone.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Right. Thank you for that.

I have another question, just out of curiosity. Again, I'm new to the committee.

You have it here right in front of me that 25 years is enough time for copyright to be exploited by an assignee. My question is, why not 20?

[Bryan Adams]

Why not 10?

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Yes, so where's that sweet spot? Why are you settling on 25? I'm just curious.

[Bryan Adams]

I'm not actually settling on 25. I'd be happy if you went for 10.

If you look at the way that things have been done in the past, if 35 years after death was fair up until now, what's fair going forward? The paradigm has changed so much. Should we not reconsider something that's fairer to artists? Hence my appearance today. I agree with you that it doesn't have to be 25 years. It could be less.