Canadian Heritage committee  Once a grant is given to an artist for a given music project, it should automatically come with a salary. It should not be an advance from a record company, an advance that will eventually have to be reimbursed. The grant should be attached to the project as payment to the artist while he works on his project, even if it represents a minimum wage.

Canadian Heritage committee  We recommended that to help artists to focus on their work. If we want a rich culture and artists to offer good products, they must be able to focus on their work. If they are forced to work 30 or 40 hours a week at another job, then...

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much.

Canadian Heritage committee  Currently, in Europe, the highest royalty rate for music streaming is 0.00084%, whereas the lowest rate can be as low as 0.00048%. In order to make minimum wages in Canada, your song would have to be streamed from 25 to 30 million times. At such rates, it is impossible to make any money.

Canadian Heritage committee  Is the question for us?

Canadian Heritage committee  There is some funding for performers in Quebec, but it is very little and it is in no way enough to live on and to dedicate oneself completely to creating and recording. Very small amounts are provided for a project. A project lasts approximately two years. The funding in question covers the cost of living for three or four months at the most.

Canadian Heritage committee  That is the standard. This industry has been built over the years and for all intents and purposes volunteer work is the standard. Careers have become shorter and shorter. Artists dream of having a career. They start one and then they get to the point where they understand that they will never make any money.

Canadian Heritage committee  Now we would like to speak about support for performers in the music industry. To date this support has been directed to production companies rather than to the performers themselves. In the same way that the music industry needs support, so do the performers. Performers who work on an album are not compensated for the time they spend doing that and only receive a small amount for their studio recording sessions.

Canadian Heritage committee  There are also on-demand broadcasts, i.e., broadcasts for which the audience pays something and chooses what they want to hear, such as on Rdio, Deezer or ZIK. For these other broadcasts, the performers have to negotiate compensation under their recording contract. However, a number of songs on these sites come under contracts that were entered into at a time when such technological developments were inconceivable.