As well , if you ’ re incentivizing playing the smaller artists , does that inherently mean you ’ re discouraging playing the superstars ? That may make little difference to Drake , but as SOCAN Chief Membership & Business Development Officer Mike McCarty points out , what about the Canada-based infrastructure around Drake ? “ If you look at him as a business , and a business that ’ s largely exporting his product , he has created a massive economic influx of revenue into Canada ,” says McCarty , noting there are nearly 70 people , most of them based in Toronto , that have worked as co-writers and producers on Drake tracks . “ This feeds the Canadian economy and the Canadian music ecosystem and creates opportunities for the next person … So , we
cannot look at it as one or the other . It is both and we have to support the known artist and we have to support the unknown artist as well .”
McCarty makes a valid argument , but then radio will always play the hits . “ Drake would be playing whether he was Canadian or Lithuanian . It wouldn ’ t matter . A hit is a hit is a hit ,” says Cross . “ The Weeknd became a hit mostly in the United States . Remember , when The Weeknd was getting started in Canada , he was marketed as an alternative artist . But then he became a pop artist in the U . S . and kaboom ! Same thing happened with Shawn Mendes and the same thing happened with Bieber . A hit is a hit is a hit . So you would not be disincentivized to play Drake because Drake is a hit .” Adding yet another element to the debate over CanCon ’ s purpose , 604 Records co-founder Jonathan Simkin says that if you ’ re talking about shifting CanCon from being about Canadian versus American art to being big versus small artists , then that also becomes a debate over ownership of repertoire and label resources . “ I always understood the point of CanCon was Canadians versus Americans , not small artists versus major label artists , but it ’ s an interesting point . Maybe what needs to be done is exclude major labels from that equation ,” says Simkin , whose label represents Nickelback , Carly Rae Jepsen , and Marianas Trench among a number of smaller artists . “ But boy , would the major labels ever flip out if they changed it that way . But if the idea is to help the little guy , then I think it helps .”
As Cross warns , ingrained self-interest from all parties permeates the CanCon discussion and that is abundantly clear when
look at that statement and go , “ Good , one less American band on a Canadian label means one more label spot for a Canadian band .” It ’ s all a matter of perspective .
Another point of contention is just how much Canadian content is the right amount ? Under the original 1971 legislation , radio was given a mandated CanCon quota of 25 per cent . That was bumped to 30 per cent in the 1980s and again to 35 per cent in 1999 . “ CanCon worked very , very well ; however , in the ensuing years , it has been distorted on a couple of levels ,” says Cross . “ Now we ’ re up at 35 per cent as a result of a lot of lobbying that went on , on behalf of various music industry associations . A lot of radio stations are running 40 per cent and the reason they are offering 40 per cent is because they knew that a way to the CRTC ’ s heart was to over-promise Canadian content . What they ’ ve since done is distort the field so that some radio stations have to run 35 per cent and other radio stations over-promised at 40 per cent
CIRAA ’ s Gregg Terrence speaking with Simkin – and he ’ ll be the first person to acknowledge it . 604 Records being a Canadian label representing mostly Canadian artists that relies on radio to promote them , CanCon has helped a lot . “ So , from a purely self-interested perspective I like it , but in the bigger picture I sometimes wonder if it is really necessary anymore ,” he offers , noting the new reality of a strong Canadian music industry . “ The other negative side of it is that it really makes me reluctant to sign bands that aren ’ t Canadian . Now that we ’ ve done well internationally for a number of years , we get a lot of inquiries from artists from all over the world , but the truth is when I get an inquiry from an American band , I ’ m reluctant because I know that the playing field isn ’ t going to be even for them . So it has caused me to not sign a couple of artists who , were they Canadian , I probably would have .”
Of course , the CanCon defender may
SOCAN ’ s Mike McCarty
and that wasn ’ t necessarily for the good of promoting Canadian content ; that was ‘ get me the licence !’”
44 • CANADIAN MUSICIAN