Canadian Musician - November/December 2018

CHANGES Canada’s music rights industry, including the leaders of CIMA, SOCAN, and the Canadian Music Publishers Association, are applauding specific protections maintained or expanded in the new United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement (USMCA), which will replace NAFTA. Among the aspects of the USMCA being met CANADIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CHRYSTIA FREELAND & U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO warmly by the music industry is the continuation of Canada’s Cultural Exemption in the trade deal, which will, among other things, allow Canada to maintain music support mechanisms, such as Canadian Content regulations and the Canada Music Fund, without challenges from its trading partners. The new agreement also extends the term of copyright for performances and sound recordings to 75 years, from the minimum standard of 70 years, after the release date of the recording. It also extends protections for musical works from the life of the author plus 50 years to 70 years, bringing Canada’s copyright terms in line with those in the U.S. and Europe. The draft USMCA must still be approved by the federal governments in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, which is expected to be completed by the end of November. Toronto Star & CBC Investigation Exposes Ticketmaster’s Deceptive Sales Practices & Scalper Program Ticketmaster is now facing a class-action lawsuit and scrutiny from governments in North America and Europe following a joint investigation by the Toronto Star and CBC that exposed deceptive sales practices and its cooperation with professional scalpers. Among the revelations is that Ticketmaster created a profes- sional reseller program and software called TradeDesk, which is an inventory management system for scalpers. As well, repre- sentatives for Ticketmaster told CBC and Toronto Star journalists disguised as scalpers that, contrary to the company’s public assertions, Ticketmaster would not prevent scalpers from using ticket-harvesting “bots” or punish them for doing so. Also, by analyzing the availability of tickets on Ticketmaster to Bruno Mars’ Toronto concert over the course of months, the reporters also revealed sales practices that misled fans by manipulating the perception of ticket demand. “Within the course of the last decade, they’ve gone from outspoken denouncement of the secondary market scalpers and resale to gradually embracing it. It was just clearly an example of a company figuring out that if they can’t beat them, they should join them,” Cribb tells Canadian Musician. “What struck us about that is the obvious juxtaposition between [Ticketmaster’s] former statements publicly and what was happening with very little fanfare behind the scenes.” 12 • C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N MusiCounts Celebrates 2018 Scholarship Recipients in Toronto Canadian music education charity MusiCounts hosted the 2018 recipients of the MusiCounts Scholarship, present- ed by The RBC Foun- dation, in Toronto in late September. The six recipients from across Canada were treated to tours of Sir- iusXM studios, iconic venue Roy Thomson Hall, Roland Canada, record label Dine Alone Records, plus info sessions at eOne Music, Coalition Music, Spotify, and several music industry workshops. The 2018 MusiCounts Scholarship recipients are: Jenna Bjornson (Fanshawe College); Agneya Chikte (Humber College); Kassia Edwards (Nimbus School of Recording and Media); Julien Henry-Leblanc, (Musi- technic); Sergei Kofman (Wilfred Laurier University); and Jack Thomas (Nimbus School of Recording and Media). In addition to a $4,000 financial award, the students had the chance to attend multiple networking events in Toronto with notable music mentors. For more information, go to www.musicounts.ca. Listen to the Oct. 10 th episode of the Canadian Musician Radio podcast to get the behind-the-scenes story of the Ticketmaster investigation from Toronto Star investi- gative reporters Robert Cribb and Marco Chown Oved. Stream at CanadianMusicianRadio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Canadian Music Industry Applauds USMCA Trade Deal

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