FEBRUARY & MARCH 2008

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Michel Gendron, head of Vega Musique in Montreal passed away March 1, 2008 of a heart attack. He was 49. Vega Musique (Sylvain Cossette & Andrée Watters) is a co-venture of Gendron, Canadian producer Bob Ezrin abd Universal Music Canada. Gendron previously was VP and co-owner of Les Disques Tox (les B.B., Mitsou, Marie-Chantal Toupin) now headed by his brother Pierre.

COPYRIGHT REFORM STUCK ON HOLD -- After continual missteps by Canada's federal government, the Industry Department's proposed copyright bill, which has been on the House Order Paper since Dec. 7, is now on indefinite hold.A bill has been ready for tabling, but it was reportedly put on indefinite hold at a Priorities and Planning Cabinet Committee meeting just prior to the Feb. 18 sitting break of the House of Commons. No doubt Industry Minister Jim Prentice was nervous about tabling the legislation in advance of a potential spring election. Now the bill is not likely to be introduced by the minority Conservatives so long as a confidence vote in Parliament could force an election. There's little question that a noisy lobby campaign for a "balanced approach" to copyright is one of the reasons for the delay.A group called the Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright, which formed last month, has released a position paper calling for a "balanced approach for a strong Canadian copyright regime." The coalition includes such media heavy-hitters as the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, the Retail Council of Canada, Yahoo! Canada, Google, Rogers Communications Inc., and Telus, among others.Also causing a stir is blogger Michael Geist, Canada research chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, who launched a Facebook protest group for "fair copyright" in Canada. The site now has over 40,000 members.Meanwhile, The Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) is demanding an amendment to the Copyright Act that would establish a new right, called the Right to Equitable Remunerations for Music File Sharing. It would boost Canadians' internet bills by $5 in exchange for the ability to download as many music files as they choose.

CONTEST: THE CRTC WANTS YOU TO DEFINE "AN EMERGING ARTIST" -- The extent to which commercial radio stations in Canada expose the music of emerging Canadian artists has been a hot topic of discussion for over a decade, most extensively during the two most recent reviews of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Commercial Radio Policy. In 2006, as a result of its commercial radio policy review, the federal regulator announced that radio licensees would now be asked to make specific commitments to provide airplay for and to promote emerging Canadian artists. However, the Commission declined to define "an emerging Canadian artist." As well, no timeline was set for the introduction of the category.However, the CRTC had concluded that Canada's commercial radio broadcasters should make commitments to broadcast selections by emerging Canadian artists and to promote such artists in their applications for new licenses, license renewals and transfers of ownership or control of radio stations. The Commission might then decide to impose these as conditions of license following the public process.In their 2007 report on overhauling the regulatory framework for Canadian broadcasting services, Laurence Dunbar and Christian Leblanc, two leading broadcasting lawyers, characterized the Commission's expectation that broadcasters provide more support to emerging Canadian artists as "a commendable and appropriate way to strengthen Canadian musical culture."The Canadian Association of Broadcasters, however, characterized the recommendations by Dunbar and Leblanc in its 337-page report as an assault on the foundation of Canadian broadcasting.However, the CRTC is now calling for comments on the definition of emerging Canadian artists on commercial radio. The deadline for filing written comments is Apr. 25, 2008. The Commission then invites intervenors to file replies to any of the comments submitted in the first stage of the process. Parties will have until May 10, 2008 to do so. To assist intervenors, the Commission has published the research report "Emerging Canadian Artists on Commercial Radio" which details the broadcasting of the music of emerging artists according to nine definitions of the term that are based on current music industry charts. The report is available on the Commission's web site at www.crtc.gc.ca.For the study, the CRTC obtained play lists from 20 French-language and 85 English-language stations containing the music broadcast during the week of April 15-21 2007 from 6 a.m. to midnight. These were supplemented by play list information supplied by Mediabase and BDS Radio Canada. The study found that week only 2.5% of songs played met the CRTC's criteria for the morning peak period, with 3.9% being played during afternoon peaks.Quel surprise, eh? But isn't commercial radio about playing hit songs? Whereas CRTC's broadcasting regulations are primarily intended to boost Canadian culture?As many of us know, the emerging artist tag practically fits any Canadian musician you can name-even those with chart successes. Just ask their bank manager. THE LEBLANC NEWSLETTER, ISSUE #15 (MARCH 3, 2008)

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