I’ve spent a bit of 2025 out on the street doing sold-out talking engagements, overlaying (thus far) 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 possibility for like-minded music followers to assemble to debate what’s on their thoughts in relation to the present state of music, the trade, radio, know-how 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 affect on the general public. Like I inform audiences, there’s nothing like having a room filled with strangers inform you the reality about your work in actual time.
I’ve carried out greater than 100 salons over the past 5 years, and I all the time discover it instructive to study what’s on the minds of Canadian music followers. Here’s what I’ve realized thus far.
The worth of live performance tickets is just too excessive
This is a subject that comes up virtually each single time. Why is it so laborious to get a ticket lately? Why do they value a lot? And how excessive will costs go? Canadians love their dwell music and so they’re extraordinarily annoyed by the hoops they’ve to leap by way of and the ticket-buying bots they need to battle. Many consider 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 consider that Ticketmaster owns StubHub (it doesn’t, though Ticketmaster does interact in reselling tickets by itself platform).
How lengthy will Canadian audiences be prepared to pay greater 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 massive, 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 they like it. Stats say that round 85 per cent of Canadians hearken to the radio each week and take into account it to be an essential a part of their leisure and data habits. But these audiences have additionally instructed me they’re nervous about the way forward for the medium, particularly in relation to the rise of streaming. This normally results in a dialogue on how streaming doesn’t present any context to any tune served up by algorithms. Music followers nonetheless wish 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
Almost 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 within the United States. As for CanCon — the concept of Canadian radio enjoying a minimal quantity of Canadian music every day — it isn’t actually a problem. Unlike the ’70s and ’80s, when CanCon was synonymous with dangerous music (effectively, 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 this planet (and the nation within the high 10 with the smallest inhabitants), there are all the time cheers.
When it involves 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 Bill C-11 wish to know if their efforts have assist, they need to come out to considered one of these salons. They might 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 wish to present enter.
Artificial intelligence is an actual concern amongst music followers
Every evening, somebody brings up the problem of how AI is affecting music. The crowd agrees that they don’t wish 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 useful gizmo for songwriting and recording. We focus on how we’re on the similar stage with AI immediately as we have been with sampling in about 1987. The regulation must catch as much as the know-how to forestall abuse, rip-offs and the passing off of machine-made music as human. We’ll get there. I hope.
People love storytelling in relation to music
Each night inevitably has me telling some tales about artists, songs, albums and varied private experiences I’ve had over my 44 years within the enterprise. Can Spotify present that service? Maybe by way of podcasts, however there’s nonetheless nothing like having an actual, dwell human inform you a narrative in individual. Those are my favorite moments with these salons. I’ve additionally realized that there’s an actual thirst to grasp how music and the music trade actually work. The explanations 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 satisfied. I miss my bull terriers after I’m on the street. Slightly canine time earlier than a present is all the time welcome.
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