I’ve spent a bit of 2025 out on the street doing sold-out talking engagements, overlaying (to this point) Victoria and Nanaimo, B.C., to Ottawa. Fredericton, N.B., Halifax, Toronto and Whitby, Ont., are developing earlier than the tip of the month (only Fredericton still has tickets) and there’s speak of doing one thing in Quebec in additional factors east within the fall.
I name these talks “salons,” a possibility for like-minded music followers to collect to debate what’s on their thoughts relating 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 thought if something I do and say has any affect on the general public. Like I inform audiences, there’s nothing like having a room stuffed with strangers inform you the reality about your work in actual time.
I’ve accomplished greater than 100 salons over the past 5 years, and I all the time discover it instructive to be taught what’s on the minds of Canadian music followers. Right here’s what I’ve discovered to this point.
The worth of live performance tickets is just too excessive
It is a matter that comes up nearly each single time. Why is it so onerous to get a ticket as of late? Why do they value a lot? And the way excessive will costs go? Canadians love their reside music they usually’re extraordinarily annoyed by the hoops they’ve to leap by means of and the ticket-buying bots they need to battle. Many imagine that Ticketmaster units the value of a ticket (it doesn’t; that’s the only area of the artist) and hate the idea of dynamic pricing (one other resolution made solely by the artist). I’m additionally stunned at how many individuals imagine 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 larger and better costs for live performance tickets? If the individuals I talked to are any indication, they’re already testing, deciding to spend their after-tax leisure {dollars} on necessities somewhat than enjoyable. If this sentiment spreads from my salons to the nation at giant, we might even see loads of non-sellouts this summer season, together with drastic last-minute drops in live performance ticket costs simply to fill the constructing.
Canadians nonetheless hearken to radio
And so they adore it. Stats say that round 85 per cent of Canadians hearken to the radio each week and think about it to be an necessary a part of their leisure and data habits. However these audiences have additionally advised me they’re nervous about the way forward for the medium, particularly relating to the rise of streaming. This normally results in a dialogue on how streaming doesn’t present any context to any music 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 excellent at offering that data, one thing for which music followers stay grateful.
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Canadians love Canadian music
Virtually each salon has included a dialogue of the state of Canadian music and CanCon rules. The lengthy and wanting 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 USA. As for CanCon — the concept of Canadian radio taking part in a minimal quantity of Canadian music every day — it isn’t actually a problem. Not like the ’70s and ’80s, when CanCon was synonymous with unhealthy music (effectively, within the ears of some), there’s robust musical nationalism on this nation. And once 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.
In terms of CanCon and streaming, there’s actual concern that Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and the remainder of them aren’t pulling their weight relating to selling Canadian music. If the individuals behind Bill C-11 need to know if their efforts have assist, they need to come out to one in every of these salons. They are going to be happy. And once 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 night time, somebody brings up the difficulty of how AI is affecting music. The group 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 generally is a great tool for songwriting and recording. We focus on how we’re on the similar stage with AI in the present day as we had been with sampling in about 1987. The legislation must catch as much as the expertise to forestall abuse, rip-offs and the passing off of machine-made music as human. We’ll get there. I hope.
Folks love storytelling relating 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? Possibly by means of podcasts, however there’s nonetheless nothing like having an actual, reside human inform you a narrative in particular person. These are my favorite moments with these salons. I’ve additionally discovered 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 completely happy. I miss my bull terriers once I’m on the street. A bit canine time earlier than a present is all the time welcome.
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