The Billboard Canada FYI Bulletin: CRTC CEO Vicky Eatrides Headlines Radiodays at Canadian Music Week

Radiodays North America has announced that CRTC Chair Vicky Eatrides will keynote the second annual conference, an adjunct to Canadian Music Week that is to be held at Toronto’s Harbour Castle, June 2-4.

Her presence is a big-ticket keynote item on the agenda and only the second time a serving chair has spoken at CMW. In the ‘90s, the late Keith Spicer gave an address at the annual.

Appointed as the CRTC’s Chairperson and CEO on January 5, 2023, Eatrides’ five-year term has put her in the hot seat as the regulatory body is charged with tackling pivotal broadcast issues in Canada, including the Online Streaming Act, the Online News Act, and the Commercial Radio Policy Review released in 2022. These are complex issues that the regulator needs to move on updating, but ones that are fraught with conflicting views from various vested interests in the process. To dig into the complexities, read CRTC Dreaming and Other Modern-Day Regular Fantasies as published on Billboard Canada FYI earlier this month.

– Canada's music education charity MusiCounts has partnered with Anthem Ent. to support its annual Teacher of the Year Award. Since 2005, the annual has recognized the accomplishments of 18 music teachers across the country. The five nominees for the award are to be named at the Juno nominee announcement media scrum on Feb. 6. The finalist will be named during Juno week in Halifax, earning a Juno trophy, a $10K cash prize, and a grant for their school through the MusiCounts school music funding program.

– The Canadian Music Centre, founded in 1959 by a group of Canadian composers wanting to have a repository for Canadian concert music, has named Holly Nimmons as its new president. She started with the CMC in 2018 and took on the interim CEO role in June 2023. Notably, she is the daughter of noted Canadian bandleader Phil Nimmons.

– Vancouver-based Destiny Media hosts a live webinar Jan. 16 to discuss its fiscal 2024 fiscal Q1, ended Nov. 30. In amongst the findings will be an update on its beta-test for MTR (Music Tracking Radar), a service that detects music plays on about 800 radio stations in Canada. It’s aimed at indie labels and acts wanting tracking data at an affordable price.

– Toronto-based digital media delivery platform Yangaroo is now offering indie artists an accounting of income derived from satellite radio airplay detections, as provided through an alliance with Quebec-based ShineX.

What is ShineX? Track your SiriusXM royalties and song performance.www.youtube.com

– Billboard Canada-tipped Ottawa roots singer/songwriter and keyboardist Jeff Rogers showcases his new album Dream Job with a performance at Toronto’s Hugh’s Room Live on Saturday, February 10. On the Cooper Bros’ Dick Cooper produced set, he’s accompanied by an all-star cast of Muscle Shoals alumni. The incomparable Jenie Thai is co-billed. Soundcloud has the album teaser.

– The American Recording Academy has named K’naan’s co-write hit song "Refugee" as the ‘Best Song for Social Change,’ an award that will be handed out Feb. 3 as part of Grammy Week. He stands in good company. Same night, receiving Lifetime Achievement Awards are the likes of Laurie Anderson, the Clark Sisters, Gladys Knight, N.W.A., Donna Summer, and Tammy Wynette. Peter Asher and DJ Kool.

– David Salazar at Fast Company analyzed Luminate’s year-end music report and highlighted some chilling numbers.

Every day last year, an average of 103,500 tracks were uploaded to streaming services — surpassing 2022’s average of 93,400.

When Luminate looked at 184 million ISRCs, it found that 43% of them, or 79.5M, had 10 or fewer streams over the course of 2023— including 45.6M that had zero streams.

On a brighter note, Salazar writes that in the past year, artists sold 11.8M physical media items directly to their fans — 38% more than the year before. Those sales — made through an artist’s or label’s website rather than a retail outlet or music site — include 134K cassettes (down slightly from 2022), 3.9M CDS (up by half a million units over 2022), and 6.8M vinyl records (up 40%, year over year).

– American singer Aoife O’Donovan releases All My Friends on March 24. Its inspiration comes from homeland suffragettes over the past century. Available through Bandcamp on March 24, those curious can stream the title song here.

– American alt-bluegrass ensemble The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has announced its farewell tour, marking the denouement of a career that spans 58 years since forming in Long Beach, California in 1966. NGDB is perhaps best known for a trilogy that started in 1972 with Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Marketed to pop audiences, the groundbreaking 3-LP set included a who’s who of bluegrass and country greats such as Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Merle Travis, Jimmy Martin and Vassar Clements. The lone Canadian show is at Dauphin Countryfest on June 30. Others appearing at the 3-day hootenanny include Alabama, Clint Black, Mark Chestnutt, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Michelle Wright, Jason McCoy, Beverly Mahood and the Washboard Union.