Music Canada Live’s third AGM, held on Monday, September 18th, in Toronto’s Velvet Underground, continued its tradition of bringing together the nation's live music stakeholders to exchange views on trade issues, activities, highlights and successes of the association. 

This year featured an interview with Vice Media’s Chief International Growth Officer, David Purdy, on the intersection of content and the live music space. The event was live-streamed for members and attracted a who’s who of music industry leaders.  

“It’s extraordinary to be able to point to the main milestones from the past year, and connect them to our mission and priorities moving forward,” said Erin Benjamin, Executive Director. “We set out to achieve something as a community, and we are doing just that. Live music in Canada has never been more relevant to the lives of artists and their fans.” 

Most noteworthy, Music Canada Live demonstrated its impressive growth by singling out a variety of the main advocacy priorities it has championed in the past par year including: 

• The release of the report 'Striking a New A-Chord:  Recommendations for the Growth and Development of Canada’s East Coast Music Industry' 

• Partnering with CMW to deliver the second annual Canadian Live Music Industry Awards

• Continuing leadership of Ontario’s Live Music Strategy, which will set out a vision for the next wave of growth in Ontario’s live music sector 

• Engagement in the major areas affecting live music such as: 

• Secondary Ticketing Legislation 

• The BC Music Fund 

• Challenges facing small venues 

• Noise bylaws and zoning reviews 

• Strategic music cities work 

Music Canada Live cited membership growth of close to 50%, with a total of 145 members across Canada.

During the event, Music Canada Live also welcomed Victoria Shepherd as its first-ever Director of Operations.  With over twenty years in the music industry, she was most recently Connect Music Licensing’s long-time Executive Director.   

For more information, contact: ebenjamin@musiccanadalive.ca.

To see David Purdy’s interview, click here.

You can read the 2016-17 Music Canada Live Annual Report  here.