East Coast Music Awards set new path
Bob Mersereau | CBC News | Posted: April 22, 2016 9:28 AM | Last Updated: April 22, 2016
Awards show moving online, plus new strategies for developing music industry in Atlantic provinces
A series of new partnerships and initiatives for the East Coast Music Association have executive director Andy McLean thrilled about the future of the organization.
After the East Coast Music Awards wrapped up in Sydney, N.S., on April 17, the association announced it had signed several new formal agreements with regional and national music organizations, with the goal to work together to strengthen the business side of the Atlantic Canadian music industry.
"It's a very exciting time for the ECMAs now, it really is," said McLean, sitting down in a Sydney hotel lobby for a breather, and a wide-ranging conversation about the state of the organization.
The new partnerships see the ECMA team up with all five local music associations in the region [the four provinces, plus Cape Breton], as well as with Music Canada and Music Canada Live.
Music Canada is the national trade organization for promoting recorded music, run by most of the country's music companies, while Music Canada Live does the same job for the concert world.
Study of music's economic impact
The first thing this new partnership is doing is a business study of the music industry on the East Coast.
"We want to know what's going on in Atlantic Canada, so these partnerships are great," said McLean.
"It gives us the information that we need. It's great talking about it, but when you can show it with facts and figures and numbers, then people start to take notice."
That's not pie-in-the-sky thinking. A similar study prepared by Music Canada for British Columbia led directly to that provincial government investing $15 million in the industry there.
McLean would love to see a similar investment for this coast.
"It's not a handout, it's not a patronage for the arts, it's actually a strong [return on investment] business argument," he said.
"Invest in music, music is a huge economic driver. It's about the new economy, it's about jobs, bringing people back to Atlantic Canada. People love to come here, it's just staying here and finding work.
"Music can be a leader in that, you just have to change your perspective about what music is. It's the music, and the business, it's the business side that really needs to be developed more and more. The music's here, it's already here, people are doing it, it's in their DNA."
In other words, the raw material is available, somebody needs to build a bigger factory.
Awards show to be streamed
McLean also addressed the ongoing problem of trying to make the awards gala available to everyone on the East Coast and further afield.
Since CBC television ended its broadcast of the event in 2007, the association has struggled with a way to get the show out for fans.
The most recent broadcast deal was with the Eastlink cable company, which only had limited reach in the area, with many communities unable to see the show.
But noticeable changes were in place this year for the awards show, and various other showcases during the five-day event.
While the gala wasn't available online, lots of other music was, and still is, on the ECMA website.
"It's very much a part of our new model, and in fact we launched ECMA-TV this year for the first time," confirmed McLean.
"So we have 13 channels of content running from four venues, and that's going out to about 25 affiliates around the world, it's just a basic YouTube feed that we've embedded.
"It's all shot in HD and multi-camera, and great sound. And each band that's on those streaming [shows], they get a copy of their performance as well, to use as a marketing digital tool. That is the start of the ECMA rebranding as a content provider and its own broadcaster," he said.
McLean hopes that next year the awards show will be online too, as part of ECMA-TV.
"The gala, unfortunately wasn't able to stream, still part of our agreement with Eastlink. That agreement is in fact expired now," he confirmed. "And we really want to bring the ECMA's to the world, for free, on the internet next year. We're moving towards that."
The 2017 awards are being held in Saint John, and if all the plans come together, that city will see the ECMA's once again be on a national stage, for the first time in a decade.