CIMA's Canadian Music Week 2014 In Review
Wow, what a week! From May 6-10, CMW put on a dizzying array of excellent panels, conferences, keynote speeches, showcases, comedy shows, films and a whole host of exciting artists and bands from across the world! Now that we've had some time to breathe, we wanted to share some of what we were up to last week.
- CIMA attended all 3 of the award shows - the Canadian Radio Music Awards, the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards as well as the Sirius XM Indies. A sincere congratulations to all of our members' artists who picked up some hardware! We also wanted to send a special congratulations out to former President and longstanding Director Al Mair on his induction into the Industry Hall of Fame, and to Bruce Cockburn (True North/Finkelstein Management) on his Humanitarian Award!
- While not strictly a part of CMW, we attended the MMF Honour Roll Reception where the MMF celebrated the late Brian Chater (former CIRPA/CIMA President) by honouring him with the 2014 Pioneer Award, which was then re-named the Brian Chater Pioneer Award. Congratulations to CIMA member Gilles Paquin for his receipt of the 8th Annual Honour Roll Award.
- A kudos goes out to our partner, the International Marketplace, for another successful presence at CMW! It was definitely one of the best IMPs ever - with delegates coming from GAS (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Taiwan and the first-ever delegation from the US (our sister organization, A2IM). The overview of the Canadian market (by FACTOR, etc) was excellent, and it was most definitely was a great 4 days of developing new contacts, making and strengthening new relationships and targeted match-making meetings! Special thanks to CMW and all our sponsors/partners for making the IMP happen: the Ontario Media Development Corporation, the Canadian Association for the Advancement of the Arts, and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Development and Trade Canada.
- CIMA's President, Stuart Johnston, was a participant on 2 of the expert panels that were highly informative and interesting. He was the moderator for a panel called "Feds Fees for Foreign Musicians Hits A Wrong Chord" and participated in a panel moderated by Alan Cross on Saturday called "Breaking Down Barriers: How to Expand Streaming and On-Demand Services in Canada". We're happy to have had the chance to represent the views and interests of the Canadian independent music sector on these expert panels.
- Last but not least, a giant congratulations to all of the fantastic Canadian independent bands represented by our members - there are just way too many to mention individually!
All in all, a giant congratulations to everyone at Canadian Music Week for a job well-done!