Canadian Heritage committee  If I may, it really is a double-edged sword. Following on what Chris is saying, technology and the digital world has enabled artists and companies to more efficiently record and distribute. It allows artists more of a level playing field; they can get their product into market,

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for the invitation to present to the committee today. My name is Stuart Johnston. I am the President of CIMA, the Canadian Independent Music Association, and with me is Chris Moncada of eOne Music, Last Gang Music, a CIMA board member and v

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, I guess the bottom line is that those who create need to be compensated. That's the fundamental. Our industry has splintered so much in terms of the types of revenues we need to draw from. The old cliché is that it used to be a dollars business. Now it's a pennies business,

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, for sure. There's an area where it just takes a regulatory change, we believe. The CRTC right now is undergoing a radio review to determine future policies relating to the broadcasters, the Broadcasting Act, and whatnot. One of the challenges the CRTC has is enforcing co

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I can say that we have a number of organizations representing different aspects of the music industry. As I said at the top of my remarks, the industry is not homogenous, so each individual component I think requires its own voice, because there is a uniqueness to each one.

Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon. I am president of the Canadian Independent Music Association. Joining me today is Shauna de Cartier, owner of Toronto-based record label and management company, Six Shooter Records, and the current chair of my organization's board of directors. Thank you very muc

Canadian Heritage committee  All right, no problem. Thanks. However, our industry is not without its challenges. As small businesses that discover and develop Canadian artists, create and commercialize music, access to capital is our number one issue. Banks by and large do not lend money to the music indust

Bill C-11 committee  No, I did not mean to suggest that we will collapse as an industry. What I was suggesting is that $22 million is a significant amount of money for my industry. And $20,000 for one of my labels is a significant amount of money. It could mean the difference between signing a Canadi

Bill C-11 committee  I can illustrate in broad terms, and maybe Bob can add a little bit more. The majority of my members are struggling; they are definitely within the definition of “small businesses”. They make annual revenues of $200,000, $100,000 in some cases. Some might make $500,000, and a f

Bill C-11 committee  We are aware of that practice, and that's why we have the amendments before you. We recognize that the broadcasters need a certain window to convert the music into a broadcast format, a 30-day window, and that's perfectly fine. It's part of the business. What we are concerned abo

Bill C-11 committee  Simply put, that's almost $22 million of revenues that go into the industry at a time, as Bob indicated earlier, when revenues are dramatically shrinking. My members are very adept at stretching a penny into a dollar, but they can only do that so many times. They are literally st

Bill C-11 committee  I don't think I'd want to speculate on that.

Bill C-11 committee  There is the attempt at tools. We believe those tools will enable isoHunts to get away with impunity and will force Bob to take them to court. And they know that Bob's not going to do it. He's a small-business guy. He does not have the means to do that every single time. So I thi

Bill C-11 committee  That is the intent, yes.

Bill C-11 committee  When it comes to “notice-and-notice”, I think by and large it would probably work in many cases. People keep bringing YouTube into the argument. YouTube would absolutely respect a notice-and-notice. They have proven they would do it. They are good business partners. We're not tal