Since last fall, the Digital Content Initiative (DCI) has made many more connections and has been building the program. By July 2015 we finished work on the finalized, detailed program that we will be presenting to our various funders late this fall, 2015. Funders do not fund just “an idea,” they want to see very specific details. So, this groundwork was essential in order to provide a very concrete, fundable proposal with program criteria, funding structures, draft budgets, and more. This work is done.
We had detailed programming meetings with partners in both Montreal and Toronto, fine-tuning the PowerPoint presentation and getting general feed back on our project. The Canada Council invited Tim Brady to the Classical:NEXT conference, May 2015 in Rotterdam, to give a presentation on the project. Several of the conference delegates were very interested in the project, and we are maintaining these international connections.
In July 2015, Tim Brady was also invited to present the project at the Banff Opera Colloquium (organized by Opera.ca). The opera community is very keen on this idea, though their primary technical problem is a very rigid Actor’s Equity Union and this will make it very difficult for Opera to work with us. But they will try! In general, the Canadian Federation of Musicians supports this project, and has a very reasonable understanding of the economic of the specialised music sector.
In July 2016, representatives of the DCI met with both Canadian Heritage and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) about the project.
The Canadian Heritage meeting was quite positive (a better tone than the meeting 2.5 years ago which set this process going!). They seem to have a better grasp of the situation, and the erosion at CBC /RSC is now ultra-clear to everyone. But – we are in an election period – there are NO new government programs whatsoever being discussed until after October 19th. Our strategy will change considerably, depending on who is in power after the 19th, but we will continue, regardless.
The CRTC meeting in July was very successful. We needed the CRTC to approve our program for the Canadian Content Development Tax Credits: this is the only way to get private money, if broadcasters can get tax credits by participating in the DCI. Broadcasters are obliged to spend a certain amount on Canadian content development – by law. The CRTC loved the program, and we have the official letter of tax accreditation for the project.
In the interim, we continue to do more research, to establish a sense of the economic impact of specialized music in Canada (larger than you think!) and to make comparisons with music dissemination and support amongst other G7 countries (as you can imagine, Canada is very near the bottom). This research will be important for our upcoming meetings.
This month (October), we begin setting appointments with private funders to present the proposal and, soon after the election, we return to our discussion with Canadian Heritage. This is still a very big, very ambitious project, but CNMN is seen as playing the critical, leadership role in this all-important community project.
I have no idea where this will go, but so far the journey has been very interesting and useful in terms of building a common cause. October 19th….we’ll see!
Tim Brady – October 2015
Please contact Tim Brady for more information
tim@timbrady.ca
Read past bulletin entries from this committee:
Digital Content Initiative (DCI) Report – May 2015 – 20th edition
Digital Content Initiative (DCI) Study: The Benefits of Musical Creation – 20th edition
Digital Content Initiative (DCI) Report – Dec 2014 – 19th edition
Specialised Music Digital Content Creation Project – 18th edition
Direct link: Digital Content Initiative (DCI) Report – October 2015
Return to full Bulletin – October 2015