This article contains promotional content .(May 2017) |
Canadian Music Week | |
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Location(s) | Toronto, Ontario |
Country | Canada |
Founded | 1981 |
The Departure Festival, formerly known as Canadian Music Week, is an industry conference and music festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [1]
The event announced its new name in November 2024, noting that it will expand its focus to include comedy, technology, film and fashion events. [1]
The event is an annual four-day music and media conference that began in 1981. It is one of Canada's largest and most influential conferences, drawing top industry professionals from around the world. The event is designed to stimulate the exchange of market intelligence, increase dialogue, and provide networking opportunities.
The conference includes a variety of activities, such as conferences, award shows, and one of Canada's biggest "New Music" festivals. The festival features performances by emerging and established artists at venues ranging from bars and halls, to clothing stores and cafés.
It draws in significant numbers of A&R representatives. Emerging new bands use the festival as an opportunity to be spotted by these representatives.
In January 2017, Jim Beam along with Canadian Music Week Canada launched the "Jim Beam Make History Talent Search", a talent search program designed to discover the next big Canadian music star.
Canadian Music Week has become an important platform for the Canadian music industry consistently bringing together more than 3,000 music industry professionals for the week's events. It is the single, longest running multi-day Canadian music and media event that helps to increase the visibility of emerging artists and encourage collaboration among industry professionals. [2]
In June 2024 festival founder Neill Dixon announced his retirement and the sale of Canadian Music Week to a partnership led by Randy Lennox, former CEO of Universal Music Canada. The partnership is between Lennox's Canadian production house LOFT Entertainment and US-based sports & real estate company Oak View Group. [3]
Notable speakers and performers who have been a part of the event include:
CMW honors important independent and alternative artists with its annual "Canadian Indies Hall of Fame" program. Artists who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame include Parachute Club, The Pursuit of Happiness, Martha and the Muffins, D.O.A. and Rough Trade.[ citation needed ]
Canadian Music Week hosts the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame. [5]
In 2008, singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame. [6]
In 2016, Andy Kim, Rob Steele, André Ménard and Alain Simard were made inductees. [7] [5]
Since 2009 [ citation needed ] Canadian Music Week has referred to the festival component of the event as Canadian Music Fest, which it calls "Canada's largest new music festival". [9]
In 2016, CMW hosted its first annual Startup Launchpad event, a pitch competition for startups in the music industry. [10] Seven startups were selected to pitch their business to potential investors and a judging panel including Michael Wekerle and Ted Cohen. The first finalists of this event were Mugatunes, an intercollegiate music sharing site, Audiokite Research, a market research company for musicians, [11] Mission Control, a music management platform, [12] Aybo, Trebba, and Notetracks, a music collaboration app. [13]
In 2016, the CMW launched an award show, called the Canadian Radio Music Awards. The show, similar to the Juno Awards, recognized and celebrated Canadian music artists. The award show has not been held since 2018. [14]
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the artists, producers, engineers, and other notable figures and personnel who have influenced its development.
Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a walk of fame that acknowledges the achievements and accomplishments of Canadians who have excelled in their respective fields. It is a series of maple leaf-like stars embedded in 13 designated blocks' worth of sidewalks in Toronto in front of Roy Thomson Hall, The Princess of Wales Theatre, and The Royal Alexandra Theatre on King Street as well as Simcoe Street.
Triumph were a Canadian hard rock band formed in 1975 that was popular during the late 1970s and the 1980s, building on its reputation and success as a live band. Between its 16 albums and DVDs, the band has received 18 gold and nine platinum awards in Canada and the United States. They were nominated for multiple Juno Awards, including the "Group of the Year Award" in 1979, 1985, 1986, and 1987. They were inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in 2007, into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2008, and into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2019.
Thomas William Cochrane is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician best known as the frontman for the rock band Red Rider and for his work as a solo singer-songwriter. Cochrane has won eight Juno Awards. He is a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, an officer of the Order of Canada, and has an honorary doctorate from Brandon University. In September 2009, he was inducted onto the Canadian Walk of Fame.
The Festival international de Jazz de Montréal is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival. Every year it features roughly 3,000 artists from 30-odd countries, more than 650 concerts, and welcomes over 2 million visitors as well as 300 accredited journalists. The festival takes place at 20 different stages, which include free outdoor stages and indoor concert halls.
Mark Jeffery Anthony Hudson is an American musician, record producer and songwriter based in both Los Angeles and New York City. After first rising to prominence as a performer, songwriter and TV personality in the 1970s as a member of the Hudson Brothers trio, Hudson achieved independent success as record producer and songwriter, working with a broad variety of artists including Cher, Ringo Starr, Aerosmith, Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Hanson, Harry Nilsson, and the Baha Men.
Kevin Lyman is an American event manager who is the founder and operator of the Kevin Lyman Group, formerly known as 4Fini, Inc., a live event production company. His most notable live production is the live music festival series Vans Warped Tour, which attracted about 750,000 people annually and was the longest-running North American festival concert tour.
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with the interactive track lasting for five days, music for seven days, and film for nine days. There was no in-person event in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin; in both years there was a smaller online event instead.
Gil Moore is a Canadian musician. Born in Toronto, Moore was the drummer and co-vocalist of the power trio Triumph. Before Moore was in Triumph he was in a band called Sherman & Peabody which also featured Buzz Shearman of Moxy and Greg Godovitz of Goddo.
The Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) was founded in 1976 as the Academy of Country Music Entertainment to organize, promote and develop a Canadian country music industry. The groundwork for the association began on June 3, 1973, when a group of twelve entertainers, promoters and radio personalities met at The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Ontario, and formed a board of directors to help promote Canadian content. The group included Jury Krytiuk, president of Boot Records, Bod Dalton, a promotor, Sean Eyre, DJ Lindsay, radio personality Harold Moon who worked for BMI Records, Jack Starr of The Horseshoe Tavern, Barry Haugen of RCA Records, Vic Folliott of Brantford Radio, Mary Butterill of the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada, Ben Kerr who was a musician and promoter, and Brent Williams, a notable country and bluegrass entertainer. This group was aided by future Country Music Awards organizer and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Joe Talbot who flew up from Nashville especially for this meeting. The association changed its name to the Canadian Country Music Association in 1987.
The New Music Seminar (NMS) is a music conference and festival held annually each June in New York City. The New Music Seminar originally ran from 1980 to 1995 and was relaunched in 2009.
The Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame, or the OBMHoF, is a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 to celebrate, document and honour the legacy of the many top vocalists and musicians whose musical careers began in the metropolitan area of Omaha, Nebraska. It has a particular focus on African American music from North Omaha, and is committed to honoring Omaha's blues tradition from the 1920s to the present day. The OBMHoF holds induction ceremonies every two years that highlight, but are not limited to, classical, rhythm & blues, big band, jazz and gospel music.
Caleb Chapman is an American GRAMMY-nominated bandleader, music educator, author, entrepreneur, producer, motivational speaker, and musician from Derry, New Hampshire, who currently resides in Utah. A graduate of Brigham Young University, he is the founder and CEO of Caleb Chapman's Soundhouse, a music performance training program headquartered in Pleasant Grove, Utah and the director of Caleb Chapman's Crescent Super Band. Chapman has been recognized for his significant contributions to music education and has received numerous honors for his work as an educator, performer, and business leader.
Luke McMaster is a Canadian singer, songwriter, recording artist and producer.
The North Carolina Music Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization and museum in Kannapolis, North Carolina that was created to honor musicians, composers and artists with ties to North Carolina that have made significant impact in the music industry. The museum serves as a clearinghouse for North Carolina musicians from all time periods, and preserves a number of memorabilia artifacts for public display.
Metalworks Institute is a post-secondary institution based in Mississauga, Ontario. Metalworks Institute offers certificates, diplomas, and advanced diplomas, on-campus and online, educating students for direct entry into careers in the entertainment industry or for articulation into undergraduate degrees. The institute was founded by Gil Moore of the Canadian rock band Triumph, and is the educational extension of Metalworks Studios, Canada's largest music recording studio, and Metalworks Production Group. Metalworks Institute delivers programs in four core streams: Live Music, Recorded Music, Entertainment Business and Music Performance, at the flagship Mississauga campus and at the Fredericton campus.
The Americana Music Festival & Conference is a music festival and music industry conference that takes place every year. The first was held in 2000. It has since grown into a five-day multi-venue production. It is run by the Americana Music Association which is a professional not-for-profit trade organization whose mission is to promote awareness, provide a forum, and advocate for the creative and economic vitality of the Americana music genre.
Alain Simard is a Canadian founder, producer, and manager of music festivals.
Richard Flohil is a Canadian music promoter, publicist, former Mariposa Folk Festival artistic director and journalist based in Toronto. Flohil now runs a public relations company, Richard Flohil and Associates.