The CRTC absolutely needs to adapt and relegislate/reinforce CanCon for the digital era. Ensuring Canadian artists get represented in Canada on some of the biggest streaming platforms is super important.
If CanCon gave more visibility to ALL Canadian artists, sure. The way it is on the radio, it seems that you don’t have to be a good Canadian band, you just have to be a Canadian artist.
This hasn’t been the case since the 1990s or so, when CanCon started to actually get good.
I will agree it sucked through the 70s and 80s, though. There was a looooong incubation period between the time CanCon took effect and the time it bore fruit in, eg, Canadian bands stopped sucking en-masse.
Alan Cross has a good podcast on CanCon and the long tail it required. I don’t think modern governments can or will do anything like that again, where the payoff is decades after the costs and implementation.
I’ll have to check that Alan Cross podcast out. I used to love his History of New Music shows on the radio. I never really got into the podcast thing, but I could see myself getting into one if it was hosted by him
The CRTC absolutely needs to adapt and relegislate/reinforce CanCon for the digital era. Ensuring Canadian artists get represented in Canada on some of the biggest streaming platforms is super important.
If CanCon gave more visibility to ALL Canadian artists, sure. The way it is on the radio, it seems that you don’t have to be a good Canadian band, you just have to be a Canadian artist.
This hasn’t been the case since the 1990s or so, when CanCon started to actually get good.
I will agree it sucked through the 70s and 80s, though. There was a looooong incubation period between the time CanCon took effect and the time it bore fruit in, eg, Canadian bands stopped sucking en-masse.
Alan Cross has a good podcast on CanCon and the long tail it required. I don’t think modern governments can or will do anything like that again, where the payoff is decades after the costs and implementation.
I’ll have to check that Alan Cross podcast out. I used to love his History of New Music shows on the radio. I never really got into the podcast thing, but I could see myself getting into one if it was hosted by him
The only issue with the podcast is that he cant get rights for the entire song, so it’s not quite the same as radio.
It’s still as wonderful as the show was in all the other ways.