CANADIAN MUSIC INDUSTRY

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The economic and legal challenges in the Canadian music industry have contributed to its decline. The economic challenges facing the Canadian music industry are similar to any other product. This thesis will explore these economic challenges that include loss of popularity of the music that leads to a decline in sales. In terms of the legal challenges, this thesis will highlight some of the policy issues facing the Canadian music industry. Various scholars have looked into the mater, and they have provided adequate literature about the topic. An analysis of this literature will reveal various things happening with the industry, and that can be associated with the past and current trends of the Canadian music industry.  In some cases, reference has been made to the global music industry, and some of the issues affecting the Canadian music industry have been seen to affect the entire globe. In that case, it can only apply that the music industry will be viewed as any other industry and its movements and practices, and a bit of its history analyzed in this thesis. Music, like any other commodity in the market, if affected by both internal and external factors, and the government policies are some of the external environments that have shaped the current and past trends in the music industry. More so, the customers, in this case, the audience, have varied, and dynamic tastes and the developments taking place in the music industry are thus largely affected by the audiences. As some authors have put it, the decline in popular music is the result of declining popularity among the audience.
According to Straw (2000), music can be seen to occupy a place in our cultures that is both curious and ambiguous. Music plays a major role in ceremonies and tradition, and this tends to make music among the most forceful forces underlying the unity of the national cultures. As such, the governments have taken it in their interest to try to build foundations for the music industry.  In doing so, the governments, including the Canadian government, have put in place policies aimed at securing and regulating the industry due to its economic and social, as well as political impacts. According to Straw (2000), the governments have risked to affect adversely the industry with the risk of shunning innovation and diversity. What does this imply? The government regulation, though aiming at doing good to the industry and its players, may indeed be paving the way for the fall and extinction of the mucus industry. The example offered by Straw is that of the Quebec-based francophone where the author says that it faces the risk of stylist stagnation, not just because of the policies bit also because of the creation of highly integrated industries. The government policy did not foresee this, and the regulations did nothing to stop this from happening.
The Canadian economy is one very similar to that of the US and other capitalist nations. In that instance, it would be assumed that the industry would be left to operate freely just as other industries would. However, the Canadian government has put in place policies that attempt to enforce property rights. Barker and Maloney (2015), in their assessment of the impact of internet file sharing on the purchase of music CDs in Canada, have something to say on this. They highlight the belief of Schumpeter that capitalism has the prime essence of economic change that is driven by innovative activities, thereby implying that the protection of property rights did have some effect on innovation. Other people that believe the same as Schumpeter have said that the implementation of the IP systems has influenced the behavior of the entrepreneur- that is, in encouraging innovators and applying innovation, as well as introducing the innovation into the economy. This largely lies within the scope of policy whereby the government's policy trying to regulate the issues of property rights though patents and copyrights have indeed elbowed the entrepreneurs and innovators out of the music industry. That is to say that the policies have shunned innovation and creativity.
Other policies that the Canadian government has tried to put in place for regulating the music industry relates to noise regulation, and night time economic activity, as well as the drinking ages in the urban areas. So, how does this relate to the decline in the music industry? Straw (2000) discussed this impact and affected the patterns of sociality. Music used to bring together people of distinct groups, for example, ethnic groups at particular points and particular times. The regulation of noise and night time economic activity has changed the pattern of this effect whereby the joints of live performances have had to change.
Economically, the internationalization of the music industry is supposed to be an opportunity for the Canadian artists to venture outside the country. Gorofalo (1991) describes a situation where a Canadian would venture into the US economy that is usually ten times bigger than that of Canada. In essence, a bigger market would attract a successful artist to venture into it. As such, many of the Canadian artists have been groomed for the US market. They tend to have connections in the host country. However, these connections do not always work to the benefits of the artists, and this is because of the government policies. For example, there is a rule that stipulates that videos that are produced or directed by a Canadian director, or those that are videotaped in Canada, or foreign-made videos that do not make it as hits, cannot be played as Canadian content in Canada. In that case, these regulations cannot be said to have been meant to spur growth in the Canadian music industry.
Music is one commercial form of popular culture, and this means that it largely depends on mass marketing and publicity on a multimedia basis. This is to imply that the popularity and the corresponding sales of a work will depend on how much the artist and/or the producer markets the artist's work. For other products, the employ a wide range or marketing practices that include banners, billboards, books, t-shirt label, and the print media, as well as the radio and television. Large scale advertising is also popular with products. The same applies to the music industry where the artists tend to advertise or market their products through a continuum media facilities. The tapes and videos will be seen featuring in popular radio and television programs, as well as the print media. In most cases, it is both the artists and their works that get marketed. More so, the artists tend to have loyal fans who will always purchase their work (Shucker, 1994).
Shucker (1994) thus implies that the success of the music industry players depends on the success of the marketing practices. In most cases, the popularity of a product diminishes as new ones are introduced into the market, and as the old ones become obsolete. The same will happen to music because the only thing that will make music remain popular is the continued improvement, creativity, and innovation. In that sense, therefore, there has to be left adequate room for the industry entrepreneurs to innovate and create new things. This would imply, therefore, that the government regulation will have to loosen its terms and protective practices. Otherwise, the music industry will have no future at all. In some cultures, there is re-production of ancient music pieces where artists embellish the old fashions and make something new. Taking it that the same would be the case in Canada, the protection of the property rights will not allow this meaning limited innovation.
Market boundaries are increasingly disappearing, and this also has its impact on the Canadian music industry. The music industry of Canada has become integrated just like the case with other industries. The integration of industries means two things, growth of the local industry or decline in the local industry. In the Canadian case, the integration has resulted in considerable stress at the various levels of the industry (Taras & Bakardjieva, 2007). For example, the year 2001 is often described as ‘annus horribilis' as it was the year Canada's last publicly available industry trade magazine called The Record was closed alongside other establishments like the magazine's most-established music retailer. Other effects of this closure were the failure to establish fully a major music company in the Canadian history called the Song Corporation. The sales figures also dropped that year. What does this imply? It implies that the integration of markets is adversely affecting the local music industry, and left like that, the future of the Canadian music industry is bleak.
Shucker (1994) uses the shifts in the rock music to explain how market cycles affect the music industry. As mentioned earlier, the products emerge and become popular for sometimes before they diminish, and only continuous development makes them stay longer in the market. This is to suggest that the original music ideas and styles that are generated less or more spontaneously will be taken up by the recording industry that will then popularize them and cling to them as the standard form. However, as new and creative trends emerge, they will break through the new orthodoxy and the old music will be dumped for the new ones. This economic rationale offered by Schuker lauds the propositions of other authors. The Canadian music follows the same, and it is established that the demand for new music is growing faster than the music industry can sustain meaning that the locals are going for foreign products. This is an outright fall of the music industry in the future.
In conclusion, it has been established that the market factors and legal factors are mostly to blame for the current trends in the Canadian music industry. The essay presented has verified the thesis by illustrating how the government regulation, especially the protection of property rights, and the economic factors like globalization and market cycles have affected the music industry of Canada. As such, the industry has been depicted as one that is failing as a result of these factors.
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