Canadian Federation of Musicians
Alan Willaert
AFM VP from Canada
The American Federation of Musicians
of the United States and Canada (oper-
ating in Canada as the Canadian Feder-
ation of Musicians) is the largest union
in the world representing professional
musicians. www.cfmusicians.org.
CM: What are some of the key issues or
trends currently facing your members
or the Canadian music industry as a whole that you’ll be focusing on
throughout 2019?
AW: At the CFM office in Toronto, we deal with a wide variety of ser-
vices, ranging from immigration assistance (for gigs in the U.S.); the
collection and distribution of New Use payments (royalties) for use of
recordings; lobbying government for various issues such as copyright
reform, changes to the labour code, and employment standards act;
as well as serving on an advisory committee for NAFTA. Our office
is negotiating and servicing national agreements with broadcasters,
production companies, record labels, and festivals and settling claims
for non-payment on behalf of our members. We sit on the executive
committee of the International Federation of Musicians (FIM), an
organization of musicians’ unions from more than 75 countries, as
well as the Canada Council of the Canadian Labour Congress. We
are the head office for 25 Canadian Locals, located in major cities
from Victoria to St. John’s and providing services to 17,000 Canadian
musicians.
CM: What are your ideal outcomes for some of these initiatives, and
how do you plan to work towards them?
AW: Our efforts have, for 2019, achieved changes to the upcoming
Passenger Bill of Rights, which establishes policies for how airlines
accommodate musical instruments as carry-on luggage. We have
just completed a successor agreement with the jingle industry and
the CBC and have negotiations pending with TVO/TFO. In addition, we
will be bargaining first-ever agreements with Bell Media, Rogers Com-
munications, and Corus Entertainment. CFM is in the middle of nego-
tiations with the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) in an
effort to ensure all independent production is done under a union con-
tract with appropriate fees and benefits, which is especially important
with the arrival of Netflix as a major producer. Musicians are protect-
ed by our agreements when they work Canadian Country Music Week,
East Coast Music Week, and the JUNOs, as well as variety TV such as
The Launch. Internationally, we work with our partners towards better
compensation for artists on streaming services.
50 CANADIAN MUSICIAN
Canadian Independent Music
Association
Stuart Johnston
President
CIMA is a not-for-profit national trade
association representing English-
language, Canadian-owned and con-
trolled businesses of the domestic,
commercial music industry from coast
to coast to coast. www.cimamusic.ca.
CM: What are some of the key issues
or trends currently facing your members or the Canadian music in-
dustry as a whole that you’ll be focusing on throughout 2019?
SJ: First, mandated funding from private radio broadcasters that
supports several programs for the commercial music industry is fore-
casted to significantly decrease over the next five years. Revenues
from both physical and digital album sales are plummeting. For the
overwhelming majority of artists and producers, especially those in
the independent sector, earning a living from streaming revenues is
extremely challenging. Because a music company’s “product” is largely
intangible intellectual property, the traditional banking system is reluc-
tant to provide capital to music companies in the manner that it does
for other industries. Funding and access to capital are the most signif-
icant obstacles facing our independent music sector.
Also, Canadian music companies, artists, and industry associa-
tions like ours are all actively engaged in global exporting. Per CIMA’s
2016 Music in Motion report, almost 90 per cent of those surveyed
identify exporting as extremely important to their business, with
almost 60 per cent noting it is necessary for their survival; however,
music export investments cost double domestic activities and can
cost 21 times more for breakout artists (per artist) than for emerging
artists. This cost is highly burdensome and a significant barrier for
our industry.
CM: What are your ideal outcomes for some of these initiatives, and
how do you plan to work towards them?
SJ: CIMA has been aggressively lobbying the federal government for
a permanent increase to the Canada Music Fund (CMF) of $10 million
a year to support the industry’s exporting initiatives. The CMF assists
artists and entrepreneurs with sound recordings, music videos, tour-
ing and showcasing, and marketing and promotional initiatives in an
increasingly global, digital marketplace. It also allows Canadian con-
sumers to access high-quality music choices. This support is lever-
aged by the music sector for much-needed capital into the professional
and artistic development of emerging Canadian artists.
We’ve also been actively engaged in both the Copyright Act Re-
view and the Telecommunication and Broadcasting Act Review.