Canadian Music Week Summary

As advertised, Canadian Music Week 2012 had a little something for everyone. From far flung venues throughout the city to the ballrooms of the Royal York Hotel, the music played, opinions were defended and everyone pretty much tried to determine what the next big sound was going to be. Throughout the halls, eager young ears sought out advice, strategy and frankly, finance. Broad strokes were verbally painted by icons such as Slash and Ariana Huffington, while more specific (and probably better) advice was relayed by industry experts such as Alan Cross (@alancross) and Eric Alper (@thatericalper). The weekend featured dozens of performers, including a concert by The Sheep Dogs featuring Paul Rodgers, Dan Mangan, and a hall of fame induction show by Treble Charger.

One highlight that electrified the ballroom on Saturday night and sent the packed room into a frenzy was an incredibly energetic performance by the Halifax based Richard Aucoin, who extended a giant parachute into the crowd while singing his pop teen anthem “We’re all Dying to Live”. At one point during this ten minute song, several of the middle aged journalists that were assigned to the event were seen unabashedly dancing side stage themselves to the music of the much younger performer.

From a film perspective, Canadian Music Week is an excellent place to find music for film and television productions. Many of the top music supervisors in the word attend the week for that very reason. The massive slate of music presented covers a huge range of diversity and style, much like the city of Toronto and the nation of Canada itself.. From an indie film production viewpoint, we all know that budgets are tight and the challenge is always to find the best possible music to fill in your slate of cues and spots. Canadian Music Week 2012 provided an excellent source of affordable music that would fit into almost any budget and could fit any style or genre of production.