I’ve spent a bit of 2025 out on the highway doing sold-out talking engagements, protecting (to date) Victoria and Nanaimo, B.C., to Ottawa. Fredericton, N.B., Halifax, Toronto and Whitby, Ont., are arising earlier than the tip of the month (solely Fredericton nonetheless has tickets) and there’s discuss of doing one thing in Quebec in additional factors east within the fall.
I name these talks “salons,” a chance for like-minded music followers to collect to debate what’s on their thoughts in relation to the present state of music, the trade, radio, expertise and extra. I additionally discover them very helpful as a result of I spend most of my time in a soundproof room speaking to myself with completely no concept if something I do and say has any impression on the general public. Like I inform audiences, there’s nothing like having a room stuffed with strangers let you know the reality about your work in actual time.
I’ve performed greater than 100 salons during the last 5 years, and I all the time discover it instructive to study what’s on the minds of Canadian music followers. Right here’s what I’ve realized to date.
The value of live performance tickets is simply too excessive
This can be a subject that comes up nearly each single time. Why is it so arduous to get a ticket as of late? Why do they price a lot? And the way excessive will costs go? Canadians love their reside music and so they’re extraordinarily annoyed by the hoops they’ve to leap via and the ticket-buying bots they should battle. Many consider that Ticketmaster units the worth of a ticket (it doesn’t; that’s the only real area of the artist) and hate the idea of dynamic pricing (one other choice made solely by the artist). I’m additionally shocked at how many individuals consider that Ticketmaster owns StubHub (it doesn’t, though Ticketmaster does interact in reselling tickets by itself platform).
How lengthy will Canadian audiences be keen to pay increased and better costs for live performance tickets? If the individuals I talked to are any indication, they’re already trying out, deciding to spend their after-tax leisure {dollars} on necessities relatively than enjoyable. If this sentiment spreads from my salons to the nation at giant, we may even see numerous non-sellouts this summer season, together with drastic last-minute drops in live performance ticket costs simply to fill the constructing.
Canadians nonetheless take heed to radio
And so they adore it. Stats say that round 85 per cent of Canadians take heed to the radio each week and take into account it to be an necessary a part of their leisure and knowledge habits. However these audiences have additionally informed me they’re anxious about the way forward for the medium, particularly in relation to the rise of streaming. This often results in a dialogue on how streaming doesn’t present any context to any tune served up by algorithms. Music followers nonetheless need to know the tales behind artists, songs, albums, scenes and sounds, one thing you don’t get from simply listening to a stream. Radio is superb at offering that info, one thing for which music followers stay grateful.
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Canadians love Canadian music
Nearly each salon has included a dialogue of the state of Canadian music and CanCon rules. The lengthy and in need of it’s that there’s a very, very robust love for home music mixed with the ever-present frustration that some nice Canadian artists can’t appear to interrupt it in the US. As for CanCon — the thought of Canadian radio taking part in a minimal quantity of Canadian music every day — it isn’t actually a difficulty. Not like the ’70s and ’80s, when CanCon was synonymous with dangerous music (properly, within the ears of some), there’s robust musical nationalism on this nation. And after I level out that Canada is the eighth-largest music market on the planet (and the nation within the prime 10 with the smallest inhabitants), there are all the time cheers.
Relating to CanCon and streaming, there’s actual concern that Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and the remainder of them aren’t pulling their weight in relation to selling Canadian music. If the individuals behind Invoice C-11 need to know if their efforts have help, they need to come out to one in all these salons. They are going to be happy. And after I inform them that the federal government goes to carry public hearings on the way forward for CanCon, they get very excited. They need to present enter.
Synthetic intelligence is an actual concern amongst music followers
Each evening, somebody brings up the problem of how AI is affecting music. The gang agrees that they don’t need to be bamboozled into liking one thing that was made by a software program program, though the dialogue does result in conditions the place AI could be a great tool for songwriting and recording. We talk about how we’re on the similar stage with AI right now as we had been with sampling in about 1987. The regulation must catch as much as the expertise to stop abuse, rip-offs and the passing off of machine-made music as human. We’ll get there. I hope.
Folks love storytelling in relation to music
Every night inevitably has me telling some tales about artists, songs, albums and numerous private experiences I’ve had over my 44 years within the enterprise. Can Spotify present that service? Perhaps via podcasts, however there’s nonetheless nothing like having an actual, reside human let you know a narrative in particular person. These are my favorite moments with these salons. I’ve additionally realized that there’s an actual thirst to know how music and the music trade actually work. The reasons behind how the star-making equipment works are greeted with rapt consideration.
Many venues I seem at have a resident canine
That makes me comfortable. I miss my bull terriers after I’m on the highway. Slightly canine time earlier than a present is all the time welcome.
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