The province is carrying on two years of harmony with the B.C. music industry to the tune of $7.5 million.
The B.C. government announced Thursday (March 22) it’s launching a new music fund known as Amplify BC to offer industry support for one additional year.
The previous BC Liberal government rolled out a two-year, $15-million music fund in February 2016 following recommendations from a Music Canada report.
That funding dries up as of March 31st of this year.
“It’s definitely building on the momentum of the last two years,” said Creative BC CEO Prem Gill, whose government agency is handling both music funds.
Creative BC has managed more than 500 grants the past two years to support B.C.-based live events, artist sound recordings and training programs for music industry professionals.
“There’s been obviously a lot of learning from the grants and the programs that we’ve administered,” Gill said.
“We had multiple programs. Now we’ll roll them into four specific streams.”
According to the province, those streams are divided between:
· Skills development and “research and a new focus on young up-and-coming talent”
· Career development focused on emerging and established artists
· Support for live music events and “creating engagement opportunities for audiences, artists and youth to enhance music tourism throughout B.C.”
· “Music company development” that will focus on “sustainability”
Music Canada’s 2016 report raised concerns that Ontario’s music fund, which was offering $15 million annually, had been luring B.C. artists and engineers to Central Canada.
The industry association called on the B.C. government to implement 26 recommendations to stimulate the province’s music industry, including updating liquor laws and event licences to make it easier to support live shows.
Gill said the previous B.C. music fund “allowed a lot of those really established B.C. artists to stay here and do their recordings in facilities like The Warehouse … that maybe they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to.”
She added Creative BC would provide the government with all the material needed to evaluate whether the $7.5-million Amplify BC fund would support the industry beyond one year.
