Brand Canada
Culture is one of Canada’s most successful exports and one of the best expressions of Canada’s brand.
Canada’s image is influenced worldwide by our singers, songwriters, actors, authors and filmmakers.
“In a knowledge-based economy such as Canada’s, innovation has been identified as the key driver of economic growth, productivity and competitiveness....The protection of Canadians’ IP Rights (IPR) is therefore vital to support innovation, creativity, and, consequently, to ensure Canada’s long-term economic prosperity.”
Project Strider,
RCMP, August 2010
“While Brand Germany is about quality manufacturing; Brand Canada is about cultural icons. Loreena McKennit, Randy Bachman, Arcade Fire, as well as Margaret Atwood, Atom Egoyan, Jim Carrey and Rachel McAdams: when people in other parts of the world think of Canada, they think about creators like these. This is Canada’s brand. And this brand is built on the copyright of these individuals. It is worth protecting and nurturing.”
Graham Henderson,
President, Music Canada, November 23, 2010, London Chamber of Commerce
Job creation
Canada’s creative industries (music, film, video games, and book publishing), account for, on average, 3.8% of Canada’s GDP and 4% of Canada’s employment, according to a 2007 Statistics Canada report. Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia accounted for about ¾ of the output and jobs, between 1996 and 2003.
The Hon. James Moore, Minister of Heritage, described the importance of the cultural sector to Canada’s economy and employment as follows, at an October 1, 2010 Canada Media Fund event:
"Arts and culture, the creative economy represents $46 billion in Canada's economy. It is directly responsible for over 640,000 jobs across this country. And I can tell you that any government - municipal, provincial, territorial or federal - that says that it has a plan for strong economic growth but doesn't have a plan for strong support of the arts is a government that doesn't have a plan for economic recovery."
Investment
Music companies internationally invest about 16% of their total revenues in artists and repertoire discovery. The music industry’s R&D, as a percentage of revenues, is higher than many other investment-intensive industries including pharmaceuticals, vehicle manufacturing and software and computer services.
Music companies invest 13% of their revenues in marketing artists, on average.
“When you go with major label representation, people do sit up and take notice, and take you more seriously. We’re brand new and the label brings credibility.”
Carly McKillip, One More Girl, IFPI Investing in Music Report, March 2010