SaskMusic Distributes Industry Support Through The Live Crew Support Fund

Artists, venues, and the music industry at large have had to make difficult decisions to postpone and cancel concerts, events, and music industry services over the ongoing duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the live music sector is yet to fully resume normal activity levels. The majority of live event support workers – with highly specialized skillsets, and many with decades of experience in their profession - were left underemployed for approximately two years during the pandemic, with these circumstances causing financial and emotional hardship.

With the lifeline of federal government supports ending well before the full return of live music, SaskMusic opened a Live Crew Support fund to provide a one-time allocation to approved applicants who, prior to the pandemic, were employed / self-employed as support crew for live music events, such as sound and lighting technicians and riggers/roadies, among other roles.

SaskMusic is pleased to have been able to provide $23,500 in support this month to 18 workers, through the raising of community donations, t-shirt sales and other self-generated funds. These funds are a small measure intended to alleviate some financial stress for the impacted individuals, with many noting that they have lost up to 100% of their pre-pandemic employment income from music, with income losses in the tens of thousands of dollars each year.

As one applicant noted, “The loss to my industry has been mind blowing. Usually when there is a slow down you can pivot to something else within the industry…(But) All of it vanished.”

Our skilled behind-the-scenes workers, live music support businesses, and venues are vital to our industry and the return of live music. We encourage everyone to support live music safely as events resume in Saskatchewan this spring.

SaskMusic also wishes to thank Stumbletown Distilling for offering proceeds from their “How Flat Sounds” local artist compilation project to our association for initiatives such as this. Learn more about the vinyl release at: https://www.stumbletown.ca/product-page/how-flat-sounds-vinyl-record

Early in the pandemic, SaskMusic commissioned an economic impact study of the Saskatchewan music industry to get a benchmark on the size of our industry and to be able to track the impacts of the pandemic. Stay tuned for the release of this data, coming shortly.

Free Indie101 Passes - May 16-19, 2022 (online)

Indie101 is an online music conference for artists and music industry professionals covering EVERYTHING you need to know before, during and after releasing new music. From song creation, to publishing, distribution, promotion and monetization.

They are offering a limited amount of free passes to SaskMusic members. To redeem, please follow the instructions below. 

Link for passes
https://buytickets.at/indieweek/606650/r/indie101-sask-music

Access Code:
SKfree22

1. Click link
2. Click "Buy Tickets"
3. When prompted "Do You Have Access Code" paste Access Code
4. Click Apply
5. Pull down 1 beside indie101 $0.00 ticket. 
6. Click next 
7.Complete form 

If the code is not working for you it means all of the free passes have been claimed.

Learn more at https://indie101.com/

New National Study by Canadian Live Music Association

A new national study by Canadian Live Music Association , #ClosingTheGap reveals the disproportionately impacted and underrepresented experiences of Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour live music workers in Canada.

You can access the report at https://www.canadianlivemusic.ca/closing-the-gap

Music Declare Emergency - Canada

Music Declares Emergency (MDE) is an independent group, created by artists, music industry professionals and organisations concerned at the lack of a cohesive, industry-wide response to the climate emergency. 

MDE represents all areas of the music industry irrespective of genre, role, gender, race or sexuality and is led by individuals united by a deep concern for the climate and ecological emergency we currently face. We recognize that the music industry, due to its unique challenges needs its own group to drive this debate.

MDE is an independent group that includes individuals who have been directly inspired by, or involved in a variety of environmental organizations and land defence movements in Canada and other music industry professionals.They work to embed environmental sustainability into their operations, creative work, and business practice.

There is now a Canadian chapter for the organization – which is the first of it’s kind in the country to focus on the climate emergency amongst the music community. They’re volunteer driven at the moment and looking to amplify the message to artists across Canada.

Check out their Canadian one pager HERE

More info

Breakout West Showcase and Awards submissions closing soon!
Deadline April 15, 2022

Although they just wrapped their digital event, Breakout West is ready to get rolling for fall's in-person event in Calgary, September 28-October 3/22. Festival submissions are now open! Western Canadian acts - apply to perform live! 

More info

FACTOR's 2022-2023 Deadlines Announced

Artist Development and Juried Sound Recording Deadlines
The always-popular AD and JSR application deadlines for 2022-2023 are now announced. Artist Development will have three deadlines: July 14, September 8, and February 2. Juried Sound Recording will have deadlines of May 5 and November 17. Applications for the May 5 deadline will open to be created in the client portal on April 1. 

Festival Program Incoming
In keeping with the federal funding announcement of last June, a $7 million budget has been allocated to the Canada Music Fund for 2022-2023 to support music festivals’ return to in-person events. This is sure to be a much-needed benefit to reestablishing the community connection of artists and audiences, with details regarding eligibility and program guidelines to be available as of April 1.

Submit Your Music to CBC via the Local Music Project

CBC wants to help local talent elevate their voices and get their music into more ears locally and beyond. The goal of the Local Music Project is to help introduce our audience, new and old, to Saskatchewan-made music - everywhere and any way we can.

Read More

M for Montreal Seeking Artist Applications
Deadline: June 6

After an hybrid 16th edition in 2021, M for Montreal is back in force! From November 16 to 19, more than 200 industry professionals are awaited in Montreal to participate in an event once again combining online activities and various in person happenings. 

Artists and professionals wishing to apply for the Official Selection of this 17th edition can answer to the call for artists, presented by the Caisse de la Culture Desjardins, from today until midnight on June 6. 

More info

Featured Singles/Videos: https://saskmusic.wufoo.com/forms/p1b5aft60baybgl/

Submit Albums/News: https://saskmusic.wufoo.com/forms/p1j5txnh11l7bht/

Have you recently released or will soon be releasing an official single, music video, or album, in any genre? Have some exciting music news to share?We want to know what you've got going on! Even if we follow your socials, we (and other media) don't see, or catch everything you post about. Please let us know your release date and/or other activities. Just follow the links above!

SaskMusic Library Loans

We are pleased to open our library of equipment and music books to members. If you're looking to work on some projects or dive into some reading, you can take out high quality USB microphones, webcams, or leading music industry books from our Regina office. (Saskatoon options coming soon.)

To see the list of items available just login to your profile at www.SaskMusic.org/login and head to the Backstage under Member Resources.

Call for SaskMusic Jurors!

Would you like to participate in future SaskMusic juries? Let us know and we'll keep you on our contact list for the next year.

Selection for any given jury (which might include showcase events/opportunities; awards; or other) will be dependent on the number of people interested, a pool drawn from local and national industry members, our desire to achieve a diverse jury, and the experience you indicate.

Sign up at: https://saskmusic.wufoo.com/forms/saskmusic-juror-signup-2021/

Please check out the monthly songwriter groups Facebook pages for more information about upcoming meetings and whether they will be online or in-person.

Saskatoon group info: https://www.facebook.com/saskatoonsongwriters/

Regina group info: https://www.facebook.com/groups/258208420940008/