ADVANCE, Canada's Black music business collective, has released a new report on the state of the music industry for Black music professionals in Canada, titled "Industry Analysis & The Value of Black Music In Canada."

The report includes notable findings and statistics, including that 98 per cent of Black music professionals have never applied for funding and 43 per cent of Black music professionals reported experiencing racism. The full report is available to view on the organization's website.

Keziah Myers is the Executive Director of ADVANCE. Ian Kamau is a culture critic and multidisciplinary artist. Today on Commotion, they join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to discuss the report and unpack some of its findings.

Elamin: You've been working for 20 years, and you're observing that nothing has changed. Keziah brought up the excellent point that perception is not reality. I think a lot of people look at the Canadian arts scene now and see more Black artists winning prizes, more Black artists in really prominent positions, and it sort of feels like that is the right kind of change; we're heading in that direction. And then we get a report like this. How does that square with the idea that you're seeing more Black artists in more prominent positions? Because I think that is also a real thing, it's just not necessarily bearing out in these numbers.

Ian: I guess the first thing I would say is that red carpets are not profits. The average music industry career for an artist is about four years, and a lot of the time we're looking at America; we're not looking at Canada. And just because you see very prominent Canadian artists — people like Drake, the Weeknd or Daniel Caesar — doesn't mean their infrastructure is actually in Canada. And so what we're talking about is Black artists in Canada and the Canadian music industry in Canada, not Black artists from Canada who have infrastructure [in] other places.

Elamin: It's an under-talked-about point, the idea that you see all of these Black artists who get pushed very well, I think, in this country, but they did not necessarily build that infrastructure to get that support, to get that promotion, in this country. I think that is an entirely different thing.

Kenziah, this report is meant to give us a sense of the issues that Black artists and professionals are facing in the industry. But it's also worth noting some of the data you use in this report is from U.S.-based research about Black music in the United States. What did including this research that is based in the U.S. give this report, that you wouldn't have gotten if you were specifically looking at Canadian data?

Keziah: Well, first of all, context. It adds additional context to the conversation. If we look at record labels, a lot of music businesses that have offices in Canada, their head office is actually in the U.S. So these conversations started decades ago, as it did also in Canada, but the large entities were actually in the U.S. And so the thinking, the mindset, the strategies were taken from what was happening in the U.S., and brought to Canada without an understanding of context in Canada. And so I think that is definitely one piece.

There is a CBC and BBC docuseries that just came out called Paid in Full. It also speaks to the infrastructure that was built in the U.S. Data has been collected. Research has been done. Unfortunately, in Canada, that research has yet to be done. We did use a number of Canadian sources, but when we're looking at academic sources, that research just wasn't there. So in order for us to paint a realistic picture, that does include a shared experience that Black professionals are having here that is akin to the experience they're going to have in the U.S., it was really important to pull some of those really key data points. So now we have this piece of information that is actually about to be used in the U.K. and Australia as their secondary sources.

Elamin: What I take away from that, Keziah, is that it's both: the idea of it's really great that this report exists, it's also quite shocking that this is the only report of its kind, and the idea that this is the opening of the door for more reports because they're obviously needed.

Kamau, you represent a road traveled by a lot of Black musicians in this country. You make and release a lot of your music independently. You've navigated the public funding … and the music you make has taken you to the U.S., to the U.K. and all over Europe, as well as in Canada. When you think about the way that this report is structured and what it tells us about being a Black artist in Canada, what do you hope other Black professionals in the music industry take away from this?

Ian: My focus is always the artist. I think the thing that I would take away from it is just that the majority of artists that we actually see, they are often the lottery winners. I think it's important for artists to understand the business that they're in, and the environment and the audience that they're looking for. I think artists need to focus on business and entrepreneurship, innovation even — all things that Canada is not exceptionally good at — and understand intellectual property, and where their actual profit centers are, when they're choosing to move forward in what is essentially an entrepreneurial endeavor in being an artist.