I’ve spent a bit of 2025 out on the street doing sold-out talking engagements, overlaying (to date) Victoria and Nanaimo, B.C., to Ottawa. Fredericton, N.B., Halifax, Toronto and Whitby, Ont., are arising earlier than the top 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 the case of 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 date.
The value of live performance tickets is simply too excessive
It is a matter that comes up virtually each single time. Why is it so exhausting to get a ticket lately? Why do they price a lot? And the way excessive will costs go? Canadians love their reside music and so they’re extraordinarily pissed off by the hoops they’ve to leap by means of and the ticket-buying bots they must battle. Many consider that Ticketmaster units the worth of a ticket (it doesn’t; that’s the only real area of the artist) and hate the idea of dynamic pricing (one other choice made solely by the artist). I’m additionally stunned at how many individuals consider that Ticketmaster owns StubHub (it doesn’t, though Ticketmaster does have interaction in reselling tickets by itself platform).
How lengthy will Canadian audiences be prepared to pay increased and better costs for live performance tickets? If the folks I talked to are any indication, they’re already trying out, deciding to spend their after-tax leisure {dollars} on necessities somewhat than enjoyable. If this sentiment spreads from my salons to the nation at massive, we might even see quite a lot of non-sellouts this summer time, together with drastic last-minute drops in live performance ticket costs simply to fill the constructing.
Canadians nonetheless hearken to radio
They usually find it irresistible. Stats say that round 85 per cent of Canadians hearken to the radio each week and contemplate it to be an vital a part of their leisure and knowledge habits. However these audiences have additionally instructed me they’re apprehensive about the way forward for the medium, particularly in the case of 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 excellent at offering that info, one thing for which music followers stay grateful.
Get day by day Nationwide information
Get the day’s prime information, political, financial, and present affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox as soon as a day.
Canadians love Canadian music
Nearly 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 in the US. As for CanCon — the thought of Canadian radio enjoying a minimal quantity of Canadian music every day — it isn’t actually a difficulty. Not like the ’70s and ’80s, when CanCon was synonymous with dangerous music (properly, 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 the earth (and the nation within the prime 10 with the smallest inhabitants), there are all the time cheers.
On the subject of CanCon and streaming, there’s actual concern that Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and the remainder of them aren’t pulling their weight in the case of selling Canadian music. If the folks behind Invoice C-11 wish to know if their efforts have help, they need to come out to certainly one of these salons. They are going to 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.
Synthetic intelligence is an actual concern amongst music followers
Each evening, somebody brings up the problem of how AI is affecting music. The group 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 great tool for songwriting and recording. We talk about how we’re on the identical stage with AI right this moment as we had been with sampling in about 1987. The regulation 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.
Individuals love storytelling in the case of 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 blissful. I miss my bull terriers after I’m on the street. A bit canine time earlier than a present is all the time welcome.
© 2025 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
