Music Industry – Spring Stall Expected
The year started off with a fire that threatens the production of vinyl records worldwide. And now meet and greets, fan gatherings, record conventions and concerts in Canada and the United States may be cancelled or delayed because of concerns over the COVID-19 virus.
Events that were scheduled for this spring have already been pushed back, including several tours, sports championships and film releases. But some events, like the upcoming Record Store Day events in Canada on April 18th, 2020 and Ottawa Bluesfest appear to be on schedule, as are most of the summer music festivals throughout Canada.
If you were planning on attending an event that was scheduled in the spring and summer of 2020 you should probably keep an eye out for updates on their official site and social media accounts.
Specific precautions may be taken at certain upcoming events and trip cancellation insurance is now recommended if you are travelling to an event, with clarification from your provider in regards to coverage in case an event is cancelled due to the COVID-19 virus.
UPDATE: The Juno Awards have been cancelled.
Fire Threatens Vinyl Supply
A major American lacquer disc provider was lost to fire on January 7th, 2020, threatening the world’s supply of vinyl records.
Apollo Masters was one of two facilities that produced acetate discs in the world, the other being in Japan. But experts from the record pressing industry have told Billboard that the real effects of this loss won’t be known for some time, although a “major hindrance” is predicted due to the Japanese producer’s current backlog.
Vinyl record sales had recently surged worldwide so some members of the industry are worried that this may cause the sales to drop, as the labels struggle to manufacture and release their recordings.
In the United States alone, sales of LPs and EPs had grown by 7.9% to US$419.2 million in 2018 according to the Recording Industry Association of America. And here in Canada, we saw a 3.1% increase in sales in 2019, to 973,891 vinyl albums sold according to Nielsen.
There should probably be no delays for most Record Store Day releases this April 18th. But next year’s selections could be slim, unfortunately.
Neil Peart 1952-2020
Neil Peart September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020 pic.twitter.com/NivX2RhiB8
— Rush (@rushtheband) January 10, 2020
Click here to learn about glioblastoma and to donate to the
Gord Downie Fund For Brain Research.
2019 Canada’s Walk Of Fame Inductees
Congratulations to hard rock trio Triumph, comedian Will Arnett, children’s television personality Mr. Dressup, NHL hockey player Mark Messier and entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den co-host Jim Treliving.
The main event will occur on Saturday, November 23rd and addition information on Canada’s Walk Of Fame can be found on their official site.
Triumph is one of my very favourite Canadian hard rock bands from the 70’s and 80’s and I highly recommend their Greatest Hits CD/DVD, which is available from amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk, amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.
Ticketmaster Settles
Ticketmaster L.L.C., TNow Entertainment Group, Inc. and Ticketmaster Canada LP has agreed to pay $4.5 million dollars to settle the Competition Bureau’s case against them for misleading prices, according to a news release that was issued today by the bureau:
“As part of a consent agreement registered with the Competition Tribunal, the companies will also establish a compliance program to ensure their advertising complies with the law and will implement new procedures to prevent advertising issues in the future.”
The Bureau had concluded that Canadian consumers were paying 20% to 60% more than the advertised price due to fees, which were mandatory. And had decided to sue Ticketmaster and several other associated companies on January 25th, 2018 (PDF).
Goodbye iTunes
Bloomberg has reported that iTunes will be no more shortly, Apple having planned to replace this app with three individual apps for music, television and podcasts soon.
Originally announced on January 9th, 2001 at the 2001 Macworld Expo in San Francisco, this program had been released in March 2001 and brought Apple into the music industry, changing that industry by providing easy access to 200,000 individual tracks via a newly created online store by April 2003.
With iTunes 4.1, Apple extended access to their store to Microsoft Windows operating system users on October 16th, 2003, launching the Canadian iTunes store on December 2nd, 2004 with the release of iTunes 4.7.
When version 6 of the program was released on October 12th, 2005, users of this program were given access to popular television programs, Pixar shorts and music videos, later gaining access to Digital Rights Management free recordings via iTunes Plus and the release of version 7.2 of this program on May 29th, 2007. And Canadians were able to purchase or rent major studio films the following year on June 4, 2008 via iTunes 7.6, which eventually contributed to the demise of several DVD and blu-ray rental chains in Canada.
On May 13th, Apple had announced that the AppleTV app was available to Canadian iPhone, iPad and Apple TV customers that are running iOS 12.3 and tvOS 12.3. And that Mac and select Samsung Smart TV owners (2018/19 models) will be able to install and use that new program in the fall.
I suspect the iTunes music store will simply be rebranded to Apple Music, offering streaming and music downloads. And redirect older links to this service.