Canadian Music Fest, a resounding Success

Canadian Music Fest marked its place as the caliber of musicians and bands involved multiplied,

surpassing all previous years. The Fest expanded with a total of 713 bands filling 58 venues to capacity throughout Toronto, prompting notice that the festival was officially "sold out". Some musical highlights included: Our Lady Peace - Hedley - Constantines - Joel Plaskett - Great Lake Swimmers - Cage the Elephant - IllScarlett - Fucked Up - Dillinger Escape Plan - The Trews - K-OS - Moneen - Daughtry - DJ Champion and his G Strings - Steel Panther - Born Ruffians - Faber Drive - Bedouin Soundclash - Jason Collett - The Rural Alberta Advantage - Marianas Trench - Default - Platinum Blonde - Speech Debelle - Plants and Animals - Jeff Martin - Comeback Kid - Beast - Arkells - Handsome Furs - Dan Mangan - Timber Timbre - Vivian Girls - Electric Six - Woodhands - Maddy Rodriguez and more!

source: CMW news update

Canadian Music Week sets records in Toronto

Canadian Music Week News Update from news@cmw

Unseasonably warm as it was outdoors, the interior heat was cranked to the red zone at Canadian Music Week and Canadian Music Fest this year.

Music industry and enthusiasts from around the globe came, saw and celebrated in record numbers. This year's festival rocked with more attendees, performers, venues, countries represented and media accredited than ever before.

Some highlights include:

Industry Delegates: 1,883

Attending Musicians: 3,565

Canadian Music Fest

Number of bands performing: 713

Number of participating venues: 58

# of Days: 5

Countries Represented: 23

Media Accredited: 654

The well-attended Digital Strategies Conference focused on effectively marketing products and services in the Digital Age and featured keynotes from Bob Garfield, Scott Fox, and Louise Clements. Our new OIART Mentor's Cafe Series, featuring over 50 industry movers and shakers over the course of three days, proved to be extremely popular with face-to-face encounters with the pros amidst our bustling exhibition district. Conference seminars in all streams - Executive Music, Radio Active, Digital Music & Media, and TuneUp - were jam packed with attendees looking to learn from a top-notch line-up of speakers. Burgeoning songwriters and musicians flocked to the Songwriters' Summit to get up close and personal with some of the world's leading songwriters, composers and publishers.

Continuing its international outreach, CMW 2010 presented the Spotlight on India, which provided an insider's look at the world's second fastest-growing economy and hosted an Indian Music Showcase over two nights. The International Marketplace played home to several visiting countries, including Australia, Botswana, China, Russia, Croatia, Italy, Germany, Hong Kong, Scotland, Finland, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, England, India, France, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, and the USA, and hosted one-on-one dedicated matchmaking meetings with India and Australia. Canadian Music Week donated $5000 to Young Artists for Haiti at The Indies, and gave away an Epiphone guitar, courtesy of Gibson, autographed by Indie Awards performers, nominees and presenters in attendance, to lucky winner Mike Dobson who was in the audience sporting a "Young Artists for Haiti" T-shirt.

Jaime

Canadian Music Week in Toronto - awesome!

Canadian Music Week is fast becoming one of my favourite events of the year. Ironically, I first discovered Canadian Music Week because my daughter became seriously interested in breaking into the music business. I attended last year's Canadian Music Week conference for the first time as well as the Canadian Music Fest, the largest new indie music festival in the country. The conference proper is for the music industry, but the MusicFest is open to the public, and it's a tremendous deal. Buy a wristband for $30 and you get access to a large number of showcases. Some showcases accept a limited number of wristband holders and some headliner shows require a ticket, but by and large, you can enjoy a lot of musical acts for a low price during MusicFest. (photo: Copenhagen's "A Friend in London" and Maddy Rodriguez)

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Because of other commitments and deadlines, I was not able to cover as much of CMW and MusicFest as I would have liked (and I am already planning to clear my agenda during next year's event in order to cover more ground). However, I was able to attend several sessions of the conference and some showcases. One of the bands I really like is a band from Copenhagen, of all places, by the name of "A Friend in London." These young guys are loaded with talent and their front man, Tim Schou, has a fantastic voice. Their music is reminiscent of U2 and ColdPlay, but with their own stamp. I think they may go far.

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Canadian Music Week in Toronto - Over 700 artists, how to choose?

I thought choosing films to watch at the Toronto International Film Festival was difficult with so many films at the festival. That seems easy compared to how to choose which showcases to go to at Canadian Music Fest (part of Canadian Music Week). It's a matter of time, in a way. With over 700 artists showcasing at CMF, how do you narrow down your choices? First, I go over the program and try to determine the kind of music that a particular showcase presents, e.g. metal? hip-hop? pop? country? Once I determine the kind of music I want to experience, then I will go to MySpace and listen to probably just one song (if the song grabs me in the first 30 seconds). If I come across a jewel, I will circle that showcase/artist and add it to my schedule. Then there are the hundreds of postcards lying around near the registration area at the Royal York. I may grab one or two of those if the image on the postcard catches my eye. I will then check out the artist on MySpace and follow the steps described above.

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Jaime

Music to invade Toronto this week. Canadian Music Week and Canadian Music Fest 2010

From March 10 to March 14, Toronto will host once again to Canadian Music Week and Canadian Music Fest 2010. Canadian Music week brings together hundreds of bands, independent and not so independent, together with several of the most important leaders in the Canadian and International Music industry. Canadian Music Week includes a conference, a music festival (this year with over 700 bands and artists), an awards section (including the Canadian Radio Music Awards and the Indie Awards) and a film festival.

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I will be blogging about the music scene from CMW in English (here) and in Spanish at my BlogdeCanada.com. And I always will be tweeting at twitter.com/jaimehorwitz

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Canadian Music Week

Canadian Music Fest