Speech given at Western Diversification press conference announcing $1.2 million investment into creative industries of BC
Western Diversification Press Release
PRESS CONFERENCE
January 23, 2015
Armoury Studios, Vancouver, BC
ANNOUNCEMENT OF $1.2 MILLION INVESTMENT BY FEDERAL WESTERN DIVERSIFICATION PROGRAM INTO CREATIVEBC TO SUPPORT EXPORT MARKETING INITIATIVES
Address by Bob D’Eith, Executive Director C.E.O of Music BC Industry Association.
Music BC is the trade organization for the music industry in British Columbia. We have been around for 25 years, supporting a growing, vibrant, and diverse music community. One of the key mandates of Music BC is to introduce BC artists and companies to markets both domestically and internationally.
When CreativeBC came into existence April 2013, Music BC finally had a home and a financial and strategic partner whose mandate mirrored our own. Since CreativeBC started working with us, Music BC has had successful missions all over the world, including Big Sound (Australia), Reeperbahn (Germany), SXSW (Austin, Texas), Folk Alliance (Kansas), and a Los Angeles Music for Film and Television summit. These missions have resulted in international record deals, publishing deals, tours and other fantastic business partnerships.
Now with Western Diversification partnering with CreativeBC with this $1.2 million investment, Music BC and the BC music industry will be able to expand its footprint internationally, creating more opportunity for our artists and their teams. This new funding will allow us to get to the UK (The Great Escape) and Japan (CIMA trade mission) this year in addition to the existing repeat markets.
Another key aspect of this funding is export preparedness. Canada is 3% of the world market. Getting out to the globe is essential, but the competition if fierce. We will now be able to take time before each market to prepare our companies and artists, maximizing their success. In addition, WD funding will allow us to continue to deliver programs designed to the get artists and their teams ready for world markets. We are now going to be able to expand on programs like the Peak Performance Project that has resulted in 29 international tours and many deals around the world. Alumni, We Are the City just signed US deal; Dear Rouge is releasing their new album with Universal Music. Current Swell, Said the Whale, The Gay 90s, The Belle Game, The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer and many other PPP artists are building strong international stories. We need to help build the next generation of artists like Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan, Nickelback, Dan Mangan. Hedley, Diana Krall and others.
Music BC has been working closely with the film, television, video game, book and magazine publishing sectors to create a strategy for the BC Creative Industries. CreativeBC and WD working together will allow many of the individual sector and joint sectoral initiatives to go ahead. We hope to do a lot more projects like the Whistler Film Festival Music Café that celebrate the connectivity of the various creative industries.
We would like to thank Richard Brownsey and Karen Lamare (CreativeBC), Liz Shorton (CMPA), Margaret Reynolds (ABPBC), Sylvia Skene (Magazine Association of BC) and Cathy McLeod (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour and for Western Economic Diversification and MP for Kamloops/Thompson/Carriboo). We further wish to thank CreativeBC, WD, the Province of BC and the Government of Canada for their continued support of Music and the Creative Industries.
We are particularly pleased that Western Diversification has seen to invest $1.2 million into the BC Creative Industries over the next three years. It will make a huge impact on our sector.