Jarrett Martineau thinks Vancouver’s music scene can hit the same high notes ringing out in other cities known for cultivating harmony between talent, business and bureaucracy.
Martineau, a PhD holder in Indigenous governance and co-founder of Indigenous music platform and record label Revolutions Per Minute, was tapped in January as the city’s first cultural planner for music.
He’s guiding the Vancouver Music Strategy, a two-year-plus initiative to promote economic growth and streamline the disparate pieces operating within the local music industry and city hall.
For example, promoters wishing to hold a one-day music event are often stymied when having to co-ordinate through all the different stakeholder agencies instead of a single office.
Martineau has been tasked with acting as a connecting point between different city departments that intersect with local music activities as well as a liaison for the music community at large.
He’s also due to deliver a final music strategy report to city council by year’s end.
“More than a lot of other areas in life, music has this way of permeating so much of what we experience,” Martineau said. “For me, it’s been this kind of beautiful gateway into this whole rich world of creativity, and so I just want to find ways we can remove the barriers and try to get to the place of celebrating that as much as possible.”
His hiring follows a July 2018 decision from the previous city council to approve $400,000 for the Vancouver Music Strategy. The funds go to recommended grants for music projects and the delivery of a final strategy report later this year.
Meanwhile, city council approved in January a one-time $300,000 grant to be administered by Creative BC and Music BC Industry Association to support artists and initiatives.
Martineau said he’s working with stakeholders to finalize what that programming will look like.
The city funding comes on top of the provincewide Amplify BC grants from the government, totalling $7.5 million to support live events and other music business initiatives.
“It comes down to the policies and infrastructure within the city, which is a big part of that [Vancouver] Music Strategy,” said Music BC executive director Alex Grigg.
“A lot of that does address those policies to make it easier for people to get permits, open up new venues, liquor licences, sound bylaws.”
Music BC financed a July 2018 report prepared by Sound Diplomacy. It estimated that Vancouver’s music scene generated $690 million and 7,945 direct jobs.
The report also found that the average annual income of Vancouver musicians stood at $18,178, below the national average income for musicians of $22,770 and the city’s average income of $49,702.
In a July 2018 interim report on the music strategy – not to be confused with Martineau’s final report expected at the end of the year – city staff recommended a review of cultural grants “with a music lens,” the creation of a dedicated music office at city hall and the development of a poverty reduction plan for musicians, among other recommendations.
“There’s been great buy-in from industry,” Grigg said.
“People aren’t working in silos anymore. There’s a great desire to build Vancouver as the great hotbed that it is.”
Meanwhile, the city’s live music scene has had a tough go of it in recent years, with the Media Club closing in 2017 and the Cobalt ceasing bookings last year.
Nate Sabine, director of business development for hospitality management company Blueprint Events, said property owners are also facing higher assessments and passing those costs on to leased venues.
“We got hit pretty hard the last couple of years,” said Sabine, whose company manages locations that include Fortune Sound Club and Venue and organizes the annual FVDED in the Park festival.
“This is a tough business, even at the best of times. I wish it was rivers and rivers of money, but it’s expensive to throw a show, and the margins are really slim.”
But Sabine said Martineau’s addition to city hall has been a “big one” for the industry.
“There’s been more collaboration, more outreach from the city to all of the stakeholders. I think it’s moving in the right direction. Having said that, affordability is still a bitch,” he said.
“But the interest is there and the passion is there, and none of us are going anywhere.”
