Canadian music is good music – you know it, I know it and apparently the rest of the world is starting to learn that too.
Last week, SOCAN released numbers that demonstrate the fact that more and more music fans from around the world are tuning into the sounds coming out of the Great White North. In fact, SOCAN reports that earnings of its more than 115,000 members have increased from $39 million in 2007 to $47 million in 2012.
That’s a lot of money in international royalties, which can be encouraging for emerging artists like Saskatoon’s Close Talker or Halifax’s Ryan Hemsworth.
But it can also mean there is a greater financial burden on Canadian artists when it comes to touring, which is a necessary evil if you want to survive in the industry. And while couch surfing across Canada has a cost, it pales in comparison to the costs of having to go south of the border or worse still, overseas.
In fact, most acts who are touring these days usually have to apply for grants, of which there are a limited number with an even more limited amount of dollars. The whole application process is arduous and then you have x-number of agonizing weeks to find out if you got any money. Add to that continual cost cutting to programs and funding for the arts and it gets really hard to plan a tour properly.
But as social media has an uncanny knack to save the day, more and more musicians across Canada are turning to crowdfunding as a means to take control over their fate. In fact this social media (and socially acceptable) way of asking for money is quickly becominng the default for musicians looking to fund tours, record albums and acheive any number of goals associated with following their dream.
But here’s where crowdfunding versus grant money proves to be interesting in light of Canadian music becoming more popular in other countries: the money these bands raise comes from the nation’s people. The support artists receive is because individuals have chosen to support them with their own hard-earned cash. While our government may be making it increasingly difficult for local bands to find footing in national and international markets, the people are helping to make it easier.
Here’s the thing: by making the choice the people are, in essence, practising a form of utilitarianism.
They are choosing to give the Canadian music scene the financial opportunity to grow and mature in other non-Canadian markets, where currently the only Canadian representations are more often than not Justin Bieber and Celine Dion. Could it be that Canadian people are fed up at having to defend our music scene every time Bieber shows up to serenade his grandmother in his birthday suit? Damn straight we are. By choosing to put our money where our mouths are we are doing something for the greater good (which is what utilitarianism is), of the entire Canadian scene so we can get back to enjoying it rather than just defending it.
So go out and do something good for the greater good by supporting local music with your ears and your cash.
Photo: Ryan Hemsworth’s Facebook page