Canadian Musician - January/February 2018 | Page 9

FIRST
TAKE
A New Year,
A New #CMRadio
By
Andrew King,
Editor-in-Chief
241.
When we uploaded our final episode of
Canadian Musician Radio for 2017 – our
annual “What’s Hot for 2018” edition – that
was the total number of episodes we’d
produced since launching the show back in
May 2013.
If you’d asked me to guess how many
episodes were in the archive at that point, I
don’t think I would’ve been far off, and yet
hearing the number still took me by surp rise.
After all, that figure represents a lot of time
and work – organizing and conducting
interviews, compiling interesting news stories,
editing hundreds of hours of digital audio,
and bringing it all together each and every
week for a steadily-growing listenership. A big
thanks to my co-host, co-producer, and co-
most things Canadian Musician Radio, Mike
Raine, for all of his help along the way.
Of course, it’s been a lot of fun. I remember
being pretty excited when we first put the
distorted “Welcome to Canadian Musician
Radio” clip atop our theme, the truly awesome
“Strawberry Man” by Paper Lions (who also
happened to be guests on our first-ever show).
And then there are the interviews. Granted,
W W W. C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N . CO M
Mike and I have had the chance to speak with
and write about a who’s who of Canadian
artists and industry luminaries in the pages
of Canadian Musician over the years, but the
more direct and sometimes-vulnerable nature
of a back-and-forth conversation is a different
animal. Sharing those candid conversations –
Rush on the emotions surrounding their final
tour, Paul Shaffer on finding his muse after
his time with David Letterman had ceased,
Iskwé on Canada’s troubled relationship with
its indigenous communities – has been a
true pleasure, and speaking for myself, a
professional highlight. Other great ones come
to mind – Serena Ryder, Shad, Lights, Randy
Bachman, Terri Clark, and even honourary
Canadians like Slash and Midnight Oil...
So yeah, I think we have a lot to be proud
of with the show thus far and encourage you
to check out some of our past episodes in
the archives as there truly is something for
everyone with even a minor interest in music
and the business behind it; however, we’d be
remiss not to realize there’s always room for
improvement, and what better time to usher
in some new ideas than the beginning of a
new calendar year.
Some of those improvements are relatively
straightforward – a new home page at
CanadianMusicianRadio.com and a boost in
our overall production value, for example.
Others, though, will affect the very core of
the show and what it is.
Rest assured, we’ll still be bringing you
interviews with your favourite Canadian artists,
and some you may not have heard about yet.
That’s a big part of what we do and want to
keep doing; however, there are countless
podcasts where you can hear interviews with
musicians talking about their music.
We want to dig deeper into the inner-
workings of the Canadian and global music
industries, bringing the spirit of what we’ve
done for nearly 40 years in the pages of
Canadian Musician magazine to this still-
burgeoning and exciting medium. We’re
talking new ideas that will affect the creation
and consumption of music: candid and
frank discussions with industry leaders,
roundtables dissecting current challenges
and opportunities facing the business, and
a lot more.
Look no further than our 242 nd episode,
“Digging into Canadian Sales & Streaming
Data from 2017,” for what this new direction
will look like. Here, Mike had a chance to
speak with Paul Shaver, the head of Nielsen
Music Canada, and dissect some of the
facts and figures pertaining to the sale and
consumption of music throughout the past
year. It’s full of interesting finds and, more
importantly, looks at how you can capitalize
on some of these figures and trends for your
own career in 2018.
And we’ve got plenty more like it on deck,
so subscribe to Canadian Musician Radio
through your choice podcast provider and,
as with any of our initiatives across all of our
platforms, don’t hesitate to offer input and
feedback to help us better cater our content
to you and your career.
After all, that’s what we’re here for.
New episodes of Canadian Musician
Radio go live every Wednesday at
CanadianMusicianRadio.com. You can
also access the show through the Apple
Podcasts app, Stitcher, or wherever you
source your podcasts.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN • 9