Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also want to thank committee members for allowing us to testify today.
ADISQ, the Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo, is an association of some 200 Quebec music and concert entrepreneurs. Their expertise makes it possible for Quebec artists to be heard and to build careers in the long term.
In this increasingly digital world, discoverability of local content on streaming platforms is a constant battle. We are going to be drowning in an ocean of music content. More than 100,000 new titles are uploaded to these platforms every day. In this hyper-competitive universe, there are also algorithms that often promote big international stars who have enormous financial resources at their disposal and who capture a large share of attention, and this makes visibility more complicated for our artists. At the same time, we are seeing fragmentation of listening habits. The result is that reaching the public has never been so complex, and this heightens the challenges for our companies. The effect of this imbalance is a decline in revenue for Canadian producers, while costs keep rising, making it hard to develop careers in the arts in the long term.
In 2018‑19, given this situation, the Government of Canada granted the Canada Music Fund an extension of $10 million over a five‑year period, bringing it to $35 million during that period. This fund supports the Fondation Musicaction and FACTOR, the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings, two key organizations that support the production, distribution and promotion of Canadian music projects. On this point, it is important to note that this support was not related to the pandemic. After this, in the 2021 election campaign, the Liberal Party of Canada committed to increasing the fund to $50 million annually by 2024‑25 to meet industry needs and ensure the predictability of the CMF's funding.
Last year, as the deadline for extending the funding approached, we appeared here to argue the importance of continuing to support the music sector and fulfilling that promise, but our appeal was only partially heard. In its last budget, the government granted funding in the amount of $16 million annually, but only for a two‑year period. Even so, the entire industry breathed a sigh of relief.
We are aware of the present budget constraints and the political context. We are appearing here today to try to persuade you to secure permanent funding for the Canada Music Fund. Predictability of programming is the cornerstone on which companies will be able to invest with confidence in the development of artists' careers.
In addition, the difficulties we have faced for years in our industry also result from the Copyright Act, which has become obsolete. We therefore hope to see two minor changes made that would, most importantly, have no budget impact for the public purse.
The present definition of “sound recording” in the Copyright Act excludes recorded music used in the soundtrack of a television broadcast or a film. The rights holders are therefore not remunerated for the use of their music. We are therefore asking that this definition be amended so that rights holders can receive remuneration when the fruits of their labour are incorporated into an audiovisual work.
Our second request relates to the private copying scheme, which has been a significant source of income for rights holders since it was created in 1997. This is a system of royalties charged on the media and compact disks used for copying music, in order to provide compensation for copies made by individuals for personal use. This scheme has never been revised, even though major changes have taken place in how music is copied. Many countries have revised their scheme to include MP3 readers or smart phones, with no resulting increase in the price of those devices. We are therefore asking that the private copying scheme be revised so that it is technologically neutral and allows royalties to be collected on media such as electronic tablets or smart phones.
We urge the government to act rapidly and incorporate these changes into the Copyright Act in this year's fall economic statement. Providing stable funding for our music and our companies means supporting an industry whose economic benefits help our culture to flourish.
Thank you for your attention.