Moncada maintains hope that brick-and-mortar music
retailers will bounce back, but notes that eOne and Last Gang
recently adjusted their forecasts for the rest of 2020 and “from a
physical music perspective, as you can imagine, it’s not pretty.”
So, streaming is down
and physical sales are on life
support. Not to rub salt in the
wound, but there’s more.
“There are also some
problems with radio maybe
not paying their SOCAN fees
and such because the ad mon-
ey is down,” reveals Britton.
“There’s been organizations
saying that people have re-
quested to halt their payment.
So, that affects everybody.
For the artists specifically, it’s
not just going to be their live
eONE MUSIC & LAST
shows that are affected. Their
GANG RECORDS’ CHRIS
SOCAN
cheque is going to be
MONCADA
smaller and there is going to be
way less placements because film and TV is halted [because of
social distancing orders] and who knows when that will come
back. There is going to be a huge gap there before it gets up
and running. And when it does, as usual when it comes to
a production, the music budget is not the top budget item.
We’ve already seen that decline over the years and it’s going to
decline more. So, every aspect of it is down.”
And in the same way TV and movie productions are
delayed, which will only be evident in the market months from
now, the pattern extends to records.
“Right now, our release schedule is good because we’ve
been preparing for April for a year,” says Moncada. “But what will
eventually happen is in December or January, we’re going to
have a bit of a black hole, because all the records that are sup-
posed to be made right now are supposed to come out then.”
“There is only so much you can do
to promote your record from your
living room.”
For every professional musician, this clearly sucks. But for those
who spent the last year making an album, generally a costly
undertaking, and should now be making money on the road –
well, this really sucks.
Harrow Fair should be on tour in support of Sins We Made.
Meanwhile, Kemp the booking agent, Moncada the label
executive, and Britton the manager all had artists who should
be touring right now.
Britton singles out rising singer-songwriter William Prince.
This was supposed to be his moment. “His record just came out
in February through Six Shooter in Canada and Glassnote inter-
nationally. He had rereleased his last record through Glassnote,
but this was to be the big push for them. This was their big ‘let’s
show the world William Prince’ moment and it was going so
well. He had 40 tour dates booked starting in March,” says Brit-
ton. “His entire touring schedule is gone. He has done a couple
livestreams that have gone really well and he has a tip jar and
that’s great. But there is only so much you can do to promote
your record from your living room, right?”
The fan and media appetite for William Prince was real. He
had high-profile radio sessions booked in Britain and Europe
and U.S. shows with Katie Pruitt. “Now, when that gets re-
scheduled, it might happen that his U.S. dates, the person he is
supporting reschedules for the fall and does the tour because
those venues are open, but William is not going to be able to
get across the border, so he might just simply miss out on that
opportunity altogether,” says Britton regrettably.
For Moncada, one of his big frustrations is Last Gang artist
Louis Prince (real name Jake McMullen and no connection to
William Prince).
“I have a really, really good feeling had none of this
happened, we’d have gotten him to a place now where we
would’ve had four or five European agents probably competing
for his business there. He’s got a lot of support in America from
an editorial perspective. He’s got a lot of fans who are super
famous, like Hayley [Williams] from Paramore. The buzz is really
palpable on Jake,” he says. “I am not one to cry over spilled milk
and of course this is unfortunate, but we would definitely be
a lot farther ahead than we are now because we’d done some
really great work developing him.”
Now, the Last Gang team is trying to keep the fan and
media interest alive so those opportunities are still there are
the other side. “It’s an every-week discussion. Like, ‘Okay, can
we get a remix? Is there another piece of visual content we can
put out there?’” he says. “It’s going to be a feeding frenzy on the
other side of this thing. Everyone is going to want to play and
there’s going to be five bands playing on a Monday night at the
Horseshoe. So, it’s up to us to keep artists engaged and make
sure that they feel like they’re supported.”
“You know, everyone is experiencing this in a very different
way and there’s a lot of, like, ‘Go write the great Canadian novel!’
and ‘Now we can go do a livestream!’” says Mulholland.
The truth is, as it’s been for the rest of us, for many artists
stuck at home, it’s been a rough collision of professional and
personal responsibilities and pressure. As Kemp, Britton, and
Moncada were saying about touring and their artists’ career
development being handicapped, the same can be true about
creativity.
“What was revealed in these answers,” Mulholland adds
about the artist impact survey, “was a feeling of almost a crip-
pling pressure to do a livestream performance when people
didn’t really feel like that was representative of their art. Also, not
feeling like they could write or create at all because of anxiety.
Child care is a huge deal and not being able to even have the
time to work on anything because they’re so busy.”
“We’re building a plane while we’re
taking off”
When one region or industry gets hit hard by crisis, whether it’s
a natural disaster or an economic downturn, it’s hard enough
for governments to respond quickly and adequately. When
every business and community across the country is hit by both
a health and economic crisis simultaneously, you’ve got to sym-
pathize. Frankly, anyone who doesn’t sympathize with Canada’s
politicians and bureaucrats at this moment — even if that’s not
CANADIAN MUSICIAN
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