Billboard Canada FYI Bulletin: Jackie Shane Honoured in Nashville, Spotify Adds to its Canadian Office
Also in this week's roundup of music industry news: SOCAN Awards recognize Lauren Spencer Smith's viral breakout, The Beaches' big year and more.
Fresh off their Group of the Year win at Billboard Canada Women in Music, The Beaches are featured in a new Forbes interview, recounting the Toronto band's big year that included Billboard charting hits and a gig opening for the Rolling Stones.
– Elizabeth Phipps has joined Spotify as the new Label Partnerships Lead, Canada. Phipps arrives after stints in marketing at Sony Music Canada and as the head of the Toronto office at AWAL. She signed a number of Canadian artists including The Beaches in 2023, which coincided with their breakout year.
Last year, Spotify laid off 17% of its global workforce, including Nathan Wiszniak, Head of Artist & Label Partnerships at Spotify Canada. The hiring of Phipps adds another prominent and experienced executive to Spotify's Canadian office.
– From Tuesday night’s SOCAN Awards, Breakout Songwriter winner and TikTok star Lauren Spencer Smith also took home the Viral Song Award for "Fingers Crossed," which she self-released and blew up on the aforementioned social media platform. Below, is her performance of the song.
– American soul singer Jackie Shane, who made Montreal and Toronto second homes in the ‘60s, recently the subject of an NFB doc entitled Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, earned a special honour in her former hometown of Nashville. It’s believed to be the first time Tennessee has honoured a transgender person.
– Concert tickets and subscriptions to anything are among a lengthy list of items that showed up on a Facebook poll conducted by Narcity and published earlier this week. This parallels similar consumer spending reports published this year and sadly seems to be affecting mid-career acts harder than the A-graders who can still more than not sell out arenas.
– Saskatoon is the host city for the first time to welcome the (21st annual) Breakout West festival, conference and awards show. The four-day conference and three-day festival got underway this Wednesday 24th and organizers say they expect as many as 50 artists from Western Canada, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Germany, Wales and the United States.
– At 78 years of age, Neil Young is still breaking new ground. Last Saturday he debuted a new band, The Chrome Hearts, at Live Aid in Saratoga Springs, NY. The 40-minute, eight-song set had him playing acoustic guitar, the piano and his Les Paul for an expected and appreciated grunge binge.
– Staying at a Motel 6 has long been a home away from home for thrift-conscious musicians trying to save money on tour. Now Motel 6 is offering this in-crowd a range of discounts and launched a songwriting contest. The chain has 1,500 locations across Canada and the United States.
– With CARAS doing an internal rethink on the Junos and in particular the categories, rumours suggest that this year’s Hall of Fame Awards will be bumped to 2025. No announcement (or explanation) so far. What is fact though is the 2025 Juno Awards will now include an additional two categories: the South Asian Music Recording of the Year and Songwriter of the Year (Non-Performer, Presented by SOCAN).
The latter award follows the Billboard Canada Non-Performing Songwriter Award, the first of its kind in Canada, which was presented to Lowell at Billboard Canada's Power Players event in June 2024.
