Canadian Music Week (or CMW) is an industry conference and music festival held over ten days in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada.

History

Canadian Music Week began in 1981 and has grown to become one of Canada's largest and most influential media and music conferences. It draws top industry professionals to participate in a four-day program of activities. Designed to stimulate the exchange of market intelligence, increase dialogue and provide networking opportunities, Canadian Music Week continues to present the ideal platform for more than 3,000 national and international delegates. CMW is the single longest running multi-day Canadian music and media event. It manages to consistently bring together more than 3,000

music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

professionals for the week's events – combining conferences, award shows and one of Canada's biggest "New Music" festivals. Throughout the duration of the event, performers put on shows at venues ranging from popular bars and halls, to trendy clothing stores and cafes. Many emerging new bands use the festival as an opportunity to be spotted by the A&R representatives who are around in greater than average numbers during the festival. In January 2017, Jim Beam along with Canadian Music Week Canada launched Jim Beam Make History Talent Search.

Notable participants

Notable speakers and performers who have been a part of the event include: *

Slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

, celebrity interview artist *

Gene Simmons Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; he, חיים ויץ, ; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician. Also known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded with Paul ...

, celebrity interview artist *

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans mor ...

, celebrity interview record producer * Dennis DeYoung, celebrity interview artist/songwriter *

Chuck D Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (born August 1, 1960), known professionally as Chuck D, is an American rapper, best known as the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav. Chuck D helped creat ...

keynote speaker A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework f ...

artist/record producer *

Stereos Stereos are a Canadian pop band from Edmonton, Alberta, formed in 2008. Their musical style fuses aspects of electronic music, rock, and pop. Their breakout came from appearing on the MuchMusic original series, ''disBAND''. In October 2009, th ...

, pop-rock band *

Alan Parsons Alan Parsons (born 20 December 1948) is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician and record producer. Parsons was involved with the production of several notable albums, including the Beatles' ''Abbey Road'' (1969) and ''Let It Be'' ( ...

, keynote speaker British record producer * Hollowphonic, an ambient,

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation w ...

unit *

Seymour Stein Seymour Stein (born April 18, 1942) is an American entrepreneur and music executive. He co-founded Sire Records and was Vice President of Warner Bros. Records. With Sire, Stein signed bands that became central to the new wave era of the 1970s ...

, president of Sire records * Trapt, a

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu met ...

rock outfit *

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe ...

, hip hop group *

Cassius Khan Cassius Khan (born 7 June 1974), is a Canadian Indian classical musician known for playing the Tabla while singing. Early years Khan was born in Lautoka, Fiji in 1974. As a young teenager in Vancouver, Canada, Khan met Mushtari Begum, a Ghaz ...

, Indian classical musician; The Ghazal Tabla Wizard * Wolfmother, rock band *

MENEW MENEW are an alternative indie rock band from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, consisting of three brothers; Shade (lead vocals, guitar), Key (piano, synthesizers) and Nathan Samuel Phillip ( drums, vocals). They have released three albums and one EP ...

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produ ...

band * The Exies, an indie rock band * Glen Ballard, producer *

Don Was Don Edward Fagenson (born September 13, 1952), known professionally as Don Was, is an American musician, record producer and record executive. Primarily a bass player, Was co-founded the funk-rock band Was (Not Was). In later years he produced so ...

, producer *

Sturle Dagsland Sturle Dagsland is a Norwegian artist and musical outfit from Stavanger, consisting of the brothers Sturle Dagsland and Sjur Dagsland. They have toured extensively all across the world at festivals such as Secret Solstice, Sled Island, Fiestas ...

, Norwegian artist * Mark Hudson, producer * Mathew Knowles, keynote speaker – World Music Entertainment C.E.O. *

Sir George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the " Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Bea ...

, producer * Jordan Galland, panel member, director/musician * Gastón Iungman, rock musician and producer; * Bullmoose, indie rock band.

Hall of Fame inductions

Canadian Indies Hall of Fame

CMW honours important independent and alternative artists with its annual "Canadian Indies Hall of Fame" program. Artists who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame include Parachute Club, The Pursuit of Happiness, Martha and the Muffins, D.O.A. and

Rough Trade Rough Trade may refer to: * Rough Trade Records, a record label *Rough Trade (shops) Rough Trade is a group of independent record shops in the United Kingdom and the United States with headquarters in London. The first Rough Trade shop was o ...

Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame

The Canadian singer-songwriter

Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two ...

was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame at Canadian Music Week 2008.

Featured Cultural Spotlight performances

* 2010 Spotlight on India – Rock Showcase featured a number of South-Asian-Canadian acts such as J'sin who performed tracks from his Fatlab's produced first album, ''Born''.

Canadian Music Fest

Since 2009 Canadian Music Week has referred to the festival component of the event as Canadian Music Fest, which it calls "Canada's largest new music festival".

Startup Launchpad

In 2016, CMW hosted its first annual Startup Launchpad event, a pitch competition for startups in the music industry. Seven startups were selected to pitch their business to potential investors and a judging panel including Michael Wekerle and Ted Cohen. The first finalists of this event were Mugatunes, an intercollegiate music sharing site, Audiokite Research, a market research company for musicians, Mission Control, a music management platform, Aybo, Trebba and Notetracks, a music collaboration app.

Canadian Radio Music Awards

In 2016, the CMW launched an award show, called the Canadian Radio Music Awards. The show, similar to the

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall o ...

s, recognized and celebrated Canadian music artists. The award show has not been held since 2018.

References

External links

Canadian Music Week
official website {{Authority control Music conferences Rock festivals in Canada Music festivals in Toronto Music festivals established in 1981 Pop music festivals in Canada