When you’re a solo artist or a relatively unknown group, the prospect of being programmed in a festival is a not-to-be-missed opportunity. You need to attract the attention of the people in charge of the music programming for these festivals, which isn’t always easy, because these influential people are being heavily solicited, and very often. Isabelle Ouimet, Executive Producer of M for MTL and the Santa Teresa Festival, explains the best way to go about approaching them.
SOCAN’s COVID-19 Music Updates
Story by Howard Druckman | April 9, 2021
- Tegan And Sara Foundation launch innovative survey of LGBTQ+ people and COVID-19 vaccine roll-out
- Sask Music hoping to capture pre-pandemic industry snapshot through survey
- B.C. to provide $16 million in funding for arts and culture organizations for COVID-19 recovery
- Une seconde tournée de ciné-parcs dans la mire de 2Frères
- The Canadian Folk Music Awards (CFMAs) is planning six virtual shows, spotlighting 33 nominee performances, for its 2021 Awards Week
- POP Montréal dans la ruelle is a series of free, pop-up streamed concerts beginning April 9, 2021, in a concert with Martha Wainwright and Tony Ezzy
- Concert venues get shut out as Ontario COVID-19 rules prohibit live streams
Brett Kissel opens up about how the pandemic inspired his new album What Is Life? - Owning a music venue through the pandemic
- Hit The Floor de retour avec une compétition en ligne
- BC’s Shambhala Music Festival has postponed its 2021 festival to 2022
- Dauphin’s Countryfest cancelled again due to pandemic
- How one Toronto company is using music merch to help struggling bars
For a complete list of resources, click on the image below.
Video Interview: Staying Home with grandson
Story by Howard Druckman | April 7, 2021
In the midst of ongoing social distancing to combat the spread of COVID-19, SOCAN continues to conduct video interviews with our members online – in our video series, “Staying Home with…” Today, it’s grandson.
grandson (aka Jordan Benjamin) won the 2019 SOCAN Songwriting Prize for co-writing (and performing) “Blood//Water.” The song, whose hard rock and social comment is typical of grandson’s approach, was also certified Gold in the U.K., and Platinum in the U.S. and Canada. His single “Apologize” reached the Top Five on the Billboard Canadian Rock Chart , while “Dirty” was Top 10, and also reached No. 11 on the Billboard U.S. Alternative Chart. He’s toured with Smashing Pumpkins; worked with his early heroes Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine; and performed on Late Night with Seth Myers.
When we spoke with him in early 2021, he’d just released his current album, Death of an Optimist, and had a lot to say about making music to connect listeners to each other in the middle of ongoing pandemic self-isolation.