01/24/2017
Jordan and I recently walked a lot of you though the process of applying for the Creative BC Sound Recording Program. I had high hopes that the $3 million dollar budget would fund a lot of new and interesting projects. After the incorporation requirements were dropped, I was optimistic about the program because it was a simple application that, unlike The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent On Recordings (FACTOR) system, didn't rank artists according to confusing or irrelevant metrics.
However, I was ultimately disappointed to find that the Sound Recording Program was open to unincorporated artists for less than 2 months before it ran out of money. Most of the artists we work with had no idea the program even existed before we told them and / or were unsure about how it worked and if they were eligible to apply.
When we told bands about it, most were already sceptical about it, suffering from a pre-existing condition I call FACTOR-Itis. Now that they are late to the party, this condition has worsened dramatically and solidified the notion that these funding programs work only for a select, well-connected few.
The sceptic and the punk in me has always felt a bit conflicted about these funding programs. Like a lot of you I feel like these programs will never be for us so why bother. But the Mama-bear in me that is so proudly and intimately involved in the music that comes out of our scene has her back up. The small budget bands are worth investing in. They are the backbone of the music industry.
Following is the statement I read at the BC Music Fund info session roundtable held in Nanaimo last Friday. Right now it's more of a critique than a jumping off point for anything to happen since this program will probably never happen again and other funding programs are unlikely to change anytime soon. But for what it's worth, these are my 2 cents:
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In my 16 years as a studio owner, promoter and manager, I've worked primarily with independent bands.
These emerging artists are mostly unsigned or signed to small independent labels and they generally don't make a living off of their music, however they do shape the backbone of the local music community on both a practical and cultural level. They play local music venues, they're played on campus radio stations and as part of the underground music community, they influence the direction and the perception of their respective music scenes.
A challenge this community faces is the ability to come to the funding table and get the same sized seat that a more established artist might.
Young and emerging artists have lower initial budgets to work with. First come first serve isn't equal when incorporated companies and FACTOR or label funded artists are accessing the same pot of funding that new bands are.
An artist with the benefit of a larger overall budget, whether through personal investment, FACTOR or label support, can request a larger portion of the available funding. Meaning for example, that an artist with a 150k recording budget can request up to $75k in funding through the BC Music Fund.
For most musicians, signed or unsigned, this is an extraordinary amount of money to spend on an album.
It is my opinion that this funding should not be available in conjunction with FACTOR funded projects. An artist should receive funding at either the national or the provincial level, not at both.
Yesterday it was announced that the Sound Recording Program is no longer accepting applications due to the tremendous response, yet regional info sessions on the other 6 programs continue on. So musicians and music companies seeking more information on the Sound Recording Program are too late.
I would suggest that regional info sessions could have happened in advance of opening up any of the programs which would allow everyone an equal opportunity to learn more about the program details.
I would also suggest that earmarked budgets for various funding request levels would have meant that more lower budget projects could have been funded. If 1 million out of the 3 million dollar overall budget was earmarked for funding requests on projects up to $5k, the program could have funded at least 400 projects and still have another 2 million dollars to spend on higher budget projects.
The Sound Recording Fund was opened up to non-incorporated companies a month and a half ago. As of Tuesday, an independent band I work with was applicant #352 and on Thursday, the program closed. In the Pilot program, half a million dollars was spent between 35 project and just 25 companies over a 4 month period. These applicants had the benefit of more time to go over the details of the project as well as access to higher budgets, meaning they were able to request higher funding amounts. For example, Universal Music requested and received, over 50k.
If the point of the project is to stimulate the growth of the music industry, it seems the most logical way to do that would be to allow new artists a chance to enter into it. Funding a larger amount of smaller projects or guaranteeing a percentage of the fund to smaller projects would have meant that more local music projects would have been made which in turn would have meant more business for recording studios, producers, session musicians, mastering engineers and ultimately, labels, radio stations, live music venues, and record stores where people consume local music and where the cycle begins again.
