The FYI News Bulletin

By David Farrell

Toronto club and concert venues are piling on covid related debt and finding no real love from politicians. David Friend’s Canadian Press story this weekend about the perilous state of two major Canadian clubs, and the minimal chunk of cash from a $20M Heritage emergency fund for arts and culture orgs that venue operators are likely to see, is a ‘must-read’. Among the requirements for a small slice of a very small pie is a stipulation that at least 50% of the programming in the past year featured musical performances by Canadian acts. The quota is likely to penalize a great many operations that have offered a roost and revenue for homegrown acts but never subscribed to bookings based on cultural percentages. Hopefully, the restriction will be relaxed or mainstay clubs and concert halls including the Horseshoe, Phoenix and others across the country will be penalized and the upshot will be far fewer spaces for any acts from anywhere to play.

– Brett Kissel’s trailblazing eight drive-in concerts in the parking lot of the River Cree Casino outside Edmonton last month raised $70K, with a 90/10 split on the net donated to Food Banks Alberta and a similar program run by the Enoch Cree Nation. Ducats went for $50 with a max of 185 cars per. Stingray Country Radio broadcast handled audio and broadcast one of the shows across its national network of hat stations. Ryan Garner at the Edmonton Journal has the story that can be read online.

– Songwriters and music publishers need to opt-in on a recent CMRRA licence agreement with Facebook, Instagram and Oculus VR that enabled the launch of their music services in Canada. For more details: inquiries@cmrra.ca 

– There’s a sad, sad story about the demise of Max Hole, a former Chair and CEO of UMGI who served 16 years with WEA before that. Five years ago, he contracted encephalitis and its impact has been devastating for him. The Daily Mail has the story.