There was a time when all that was played in Canada were performers from the
US and UK. Then the government enacted a law that required 20% Canadian
content. Canadian artists then got air time and the rest is history. Now we
have many major stars that get air time in other countries, Justin Bieber,
Michael Buble, Rush and Neil Young. Now we have too many to list. Before
that time Canadian artists had to leave the country to make a living. We had
Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Ann Murray and the Band (except Levon Helm) make
it big. The only ones who stayed home were Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard
Cohen. Now many Canadian artists make it big in Canada and can choose where
they reside and play. The big money is still in US success because the
market is ten times as large. We can't change that.
So draconian laws did help artists, but I wonder if it is necessary anymore.
You can see from the lists below that we have a healthy music scene.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bands_from_Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_musicians
We have lots of other wacky laws. We pay a tax on all media to compensate
the recording industry for piracy. This of course makes people want to
pirate more because they have already paid for the privilege. Courts have
sided with pirates against the recording industry when cases have gone to
the courts saying they can't have it both ways. The government then wanted
to remove the tax and the recording industry balked. Now they want to do an
end run and push through ACTA*. In the meantime we get labelled as a haven
for piracy because the recordng industry pushed for a law to compensate
piracy and the courts uphold the agreement in cases of piracy. You can't
win.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
That is the long and short of it. We do not get Pandora or Spotify because
of strange laws resulting from our unique situation (being next door
neighbour to the biggest entertainment industry in the world). There are
other strange things that we do to tick off the US industry. Canadian cable
networks strip out US advertisements on US networks and replace them with
Canadian content. Maybe the cold has gotten to our brains. :)
Roy
Using Kubuntu 10.10, 64-bit
Location: Canada
The Canadian government protects Canadian content? Darned socialists! jk,
I'm democratic socialist myself. lol
> OK, this isn't an insight by any stretch but I noticed that you mentioned
> SomaFM. I love "Drone Zone"! Matter of fact, I just turned it on as
> responding to your post reminded me. lol
> Mark
>
>
>
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