It started with a few B.C. musicians being pressured by their labels and management to move to Ontario, where government incentives were making it cheaper to record.
But over the past three years, Sarah Fenton says Ontario’s burgeoning music industry has created a “mass migration” of West Coast artists to Central Canada.
“The answer is super boring. The answer is funding,” said Fenton, general manager at Vancouver’s Watchdog Management, whose company represents acts like Hedley and Mother Mother.
“The B.C. music industry has been absolutely annihilated by the OMF [Ontario Music Fund].”
The province and Music Canada agree.
The industry advocacy group released a report February 11 calling on the B.C. government to implement 26 recommendations to stimulate the province’s music industry. They include updating liquor laws and event licences to make it easier to support live shows.
The province responded by launching a $15 million music fund – one of the report’s recommendations – that same day to compete with the OMF and help return wayward musicians, engineers and producers to their home province.
“It would have the effect of immediately levelling the playing field,” Music Canada president Graham Henderson told Business In Vancouver.
Mike Schroeder, CEO of Vancouver’s Nimbus School of Recording Arts, said the loss of B.C. talent has been widely felt across the local industry in recent years.
“We’ve seen a lot of artists, they develop, they work their way up the artists’ ladder, and then they hit this point where they want to move to the next level, and Ontario has some really attractive offers right now.”
The Ontario government introduced the OMF in 2013 following consultations with Music Canada about how to stimulate that province’s music industry.
Ontario’s three-year program offers $15 million annually in funding to recording artists, music companies and festivals based in Ontario for up to 75% of eligible costs.
Meanwhile, B.C. recording studios are facing increased competition from Ontario, where up to 50% of recording costs can be recovered through the OMF.
“What we did in Ontario – that was an unexpected consequence,” Henderson said. “We were expecting that there would be more international recording artists coming to Ontario, but the uptake in Canada was intense.”
And unlike the film and TV industry, the plummeting Canadian dollar hasn’t attracted more international engineers and artists to record in Vancouver, according to Henderson.
Premier Christy Clark said the government would monitor the economic impact of the fund to determine whether to extend it beyond its one-year, $15 million rollout.
“We want to deploy this money well and wisely, see how it works and then in the coming years, continue it, grow it, change the way we deploy it based on what we see,” she said.
Creative BC, the government agency responsible for promoting the province’s creative sector, will manage the money. Meanwhile, funding will go to music education, live performances and venues across the province and a music tourism initiative.
“It really does move the economic needle,” Henderson said. “It’s not just a handout.”
The Ontario government reported in June 2015 the OMF helped create or retain 2,000 jobs and generate $24 million in additional revenue for music-related businesses during its first year.
Music Canada’s February report, meanwhile, estimated a $15 million annual refundable tax credit would translate into a $73 million boost to the province’s GDP.
About $30 million of that would come from a boost in tourism, $15 million for the live performance sector, $8.3 million for recording studios, $7.5 million for B.C.-based music businesses and $11.4 million for music businesses not based in B.C.
B.C. singer Michael Buble, who was on hand at the government’s announcement, said he expects the fund will keep local musicians wanting to pursue a music career here from leaving.
“For a long time, people have had to go to Ontario if they want to be able to afford to make a record.” he said.
“Who wants to go to Ontario to make a record?”
Scott Johnson, president of Music BC’s board of directors, said a music fund like this is essential if the region wants to compete with Ontario.
“Cities like Nashville, L.A., Austin and more recently Toronto [since the adoption of the Ontario Music Fund] have reaped the benefits economically and culturally, and we are lagging behind and losing our diverse talent to these regions,” he said in an email. “Without a fund to incentivize both local in international industry to develop talent locally, we will see the industry continue to decline and diminish in B.C.”
