A few days ago, as part of the Biennale Cinars in Montreal, a meeting aimed at supporting the export of Quebec and Canadian performing arts, a round table was held with the title Classical music, a fading jewel?. The exchanges made it possible to bring out several themes as so many avenues for reflection or challenges for the months and years to come.
“Before the pandemic, there were worrying situations. The pandemic has confronted us with realities. It has amplified everything and the entire music ecosystem, from training to creation, production and distribution, has been affected”, sums up Dominic Trudel, director general of the Conseil québécois de la musique (CQM ), which brings together 300 organizations and 50,000 musicians and cultural workers.
Before the pandemic, there were worrying situations. The pandemic has confronted us with realities. It amplified everything and the entire music ecosystem, from training to creation, production and distribution, was affected.
Mr. Trudel was one of the actors in the debate moderated by Françoise Davoine and bringing together Mathieu Lussier, conductor, bassoonist, professor at the University of Montreal, musical director of Arion and Domaine Forget; Marc Boucher, baritone and director of the Classica festival, and Guillaume Lombart, president of ATMA Classique, Ad Litteram editions and the Livetoune.com platform.
Certain themes exposed to foreign observers during this professional meeting seemed old and recurring, such as that of training, raised by Mr. Trudel. Since the teaching of music has not been compulsory in public schools since 1981, Mr. Trudel considers that “initiation to music has nothing to do with a musical education likely to develop the audiences of tomorrow”. Mr. Trudel, noting that music studies programs were only offered in 13% of public secondary schools in Quebec , also deplores a geographical inequality in the possibility of learning an instrument. “In the regions, it’s more difficult,” he notes. The pandemic has led to a drop in enrolments, but also, in the regions, to shortages of teachers in private schools: “Teachers who could no longer teach went to do something else, and there they are still doing something else. François Davoine recalls, however, that the speeches on this subject were more or less the same in 1990.
Change the rules
By buying ATMA in March 2020, Guillaume Lombart, the boss of Ad Litteram, got to know the classic universe at the worst possible time. And indicators instantly began to turn red. Thus, in the income structure, 25% of the sales of physical products were made by the artists after their shows! Nothing remained. Guillaume Lombart witnessed the fall of the CD live, but he discovered several interesting facts about the trade: for example, that two thirds of the turnover is made internationally, a share which rises to 85% when only considers digital revenues.
And what mainly impresses the new boss of ATMA is that 80% of turnover is generated by the catalog fund, something unthinkable in popular music: “Discs are still selling 10 or 15 years later. It’s an advantage. Because these recurring revenues make it possible to reinvest. But it’s a disadvantage because at the level of public subsidies, the aid is based on the novelties of the year before, and as we are in competition with all styles, we are penalized. »
Here is a new constraint that the classic would have done well without. “Canadian Heritage, above all, decided in 2020 to change the rules for redistributing aid to the entire industry,” explains Mr. Lombart. Companies are given a weighting based on income, investments for the year and future investments, but now it doesn’t matter the musical style. An album with an orchestra costs between $50,000 and $100,000 compared to a hip-hop album which costs $10,000 to $15,000. In hip-hop, aid can be allocated to advertising, while we put it into production. As a result, their income increases and they receive more help afterwards. In practice, in 2020, our basic aid has dropped by 49%. This is the amount of two recordings”, sums up Guillaume Lombart.
To open up Quebec internationally, but also to open up the activity of music centers to the entire territory, Marc Boucher worked on the development of the Le Concert bleu video content distribution platform.
Horizon Blue
“I try to see the opportunities of the pandemic, says Marc Boucher. More than 400 million dollars have been injected into the cultural network. We are ready to put this money back in the pocket of the musicians; it is a moral responsibility. »
“Our generation of exceptional talent does not have enough opportunities. Lyrically, the findings are harsh: the United States is very complicated, and Europe is closing in. Concerned about work opportunities in the opera sector, Marc Boucher created the Nouvel Opéra Métropolitain. Its productions, next spring, will be filmed and broadcast on Le Concert bleu. Marc Boucher considers this project of 2.4 million “cheap when you see that SOCAN has swallowed 53 million in the saga Dataclef”, and sees in it “a huge opportunity and a challenge when thinking of the public in Rouyn-Noranda, the Magdalen Islands or Kuujjuaq”. The Blue Concert model is that 70-80% of revenues (not profits) are returned to the artists.
His platform now operational, Marc Boucher begins the pilot phase and calls on content depositories, including Mathieu Lussier, who, as artistic director of Arion, is a great supporter. “We have our footage that we’re most proud of to put into the pilot,” he says. But a fairly specific problem slips in: we no longer have the rights to the recordings. We paid them for six months to a year. This problem is general: “As production costs are immense, many organizations have gone for two-week, one-month or six-month distribution contracts,” explains Mathieu Lussier.
So, can Arion afford to buy the rights to the three or four productions the ensemble is most proud of, or does he need a helping hand to do so? Will Arion talk to his musicians and say, “Do you accept that this content is out there with no guaranteed income, but with a promise of getting 80% of the revenue back?” “It’s part of the discussions between us and with the Musicians’ Guild,” says Mathieu Lussier. Marc Boucher takes advantage of this, reformulating his hope “to bring these unions into the 21e century”, and Guillaume Lombard summarizes: “It’s as if you asked a film producer to repay his actors every 15 days. It’s insane. »
Musicians’ interest in revenue was endorsed in Europe by members of the London Symphony Orchestra when the LSO Live record label was created in 2000, with much success. As for the visual rights in Europe, they are negotiated once and for all by a fixed premium at the signing of the concert contract.
hopes
Mathieu Lussier’s experience leads him to note that the training of the elite of young musicians is doing rather well. “At the Académie du Domaine Forget, there are hundreds of young musicians of an increasingly high level who come from all over and want to devote themselves to this profession. At the University of Montreal, despite a small drop, we still have 575 students this year who want to make music. »
But if there is an interest in devoting oneself to this form of art, the trip to the room is no longer made. The chef and pedagogue is not defeatist. To combat what he calls “petrification”, a phenomenon consisting in consuming all music at home, he wishes to boost socio-affective relations towards such a producer, such an artist or such a festival. Example of a reflex to elicit: “I like Yannick Nézet-Séguin, no matter what’s on the program, and I go there because I like the energy. “ Mr. Lussier thinks that the continuation is registered there: “If the young people do not know the music any more, but like the music; if the public no longer knows the details, but seeks the energy on stage, knowing that we can also look into the formula of the concert, I don’t see why we should be desperate. »