SPILL FEATURE: BUILDING AN AUTHENTIC AND LEGIT MUSIC INDUSTRY – A CONVERSATION WITH ANDREW CASH

BUILDING AN AUTHENTIC AND LEGIT MUSIC INDUSTRY

A CONVERSATION WITH ANDREW CASH

Andrew Cash is a man who has worn many hats over the years. From his early days in the 1980s Toronto post-punk band L’Étranger, to being a solo recording artist, to extensive work with his brother Peter in The Cash Brothers, and many other creative stops along the way, Andrew Cash is a music veteran. Setting his music career aside for a time, Cash followed his activism and political strengths as a social democrat to Ottawa, where he represented the federal riding of Davenport as a Member of Parliament from 2011 to 2015.

Andrew Cash continues to walk his well-trodden paths of music and social justice these days in aid of the Canadian music industry. In March of 2021, he became President and CEO of the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA), an organization which lobbies the federal government on behalf of the music industry.

Looking back on how early experiences in the music business may have pointed him in the direction of his work with CIMA, Cash asserts that touring across North America as a working musician made him aware of the need for a well-funded support system for musicians. He goes on to say that, “What I learned was that music is an ecosystem. You learn that pretty well everyone in this business is in it because they love music. Whether it’s musicians, agents, club owners, labels, etc. I think it’s important that that doesn’t get lost. I think that having someone who has been on the road for 25 years, made a bunch of records, and has just had that full experience of what it’s like to be a part of the 99% of musicians who just sort of grunt it out ­­– I think that’s important. I think that perspective is something that we always have to have front and centre.”

Cash goes on to highlight CIMA’s importance, culturally and economically, as it relates to its members. “Too often in our business, we hold up the exceptions as the rule or as the way things should be, and they’re never that way. Whether you’re a musician, or an artist, or a label – they’re never that way. It’s always about the day-to-day grinding it out, really. I think I bring that experience to this job. Also, CIMA is unique because the bulk of our membership are labels, from very big Canadian-owned labels, to ones that are owned by artist-entrepreneurs. We have artists, managers, publishers, and a lot of industry-adjacent entrepreneurs who are affiliate members as well. So, the ecosystem lives in our membership. I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who tries to eke out a living in this business. I welcome the opportunity, frankly, to be out there telling the story that we are all engaged in.”

Considering Andrew Cash’s background as a parliamentarian, and his current position as CIMA President, the idea is raised of there being a possible disconnect between those two worlds. The contrast seems sharp, between being a Member of Parliament who represents a cross-section of society and takes governments to task on matters of policy and budget, to being one who leads an organization focused on a sole industry. Cash is quick to dismiss this notion though, stating, “I went to parliament as a musician. One of the main reasons why I decided to do that in the first place, was to be able to show parliamentarians what it takes to make a living in the arts and culture sector in Canada, actually – to help them to understand, particularly, the complications of the music business. I went there to push for more attention for our sector, which also includes more investments in the sector. In many ways, I’m fighting the same fight, just from a different angle. It is a more focused fight. It is very specific to music, whereas before (as an M.P.), it would have been a lot of other things as well. Definitely, the approach is different. I’m not in the opposition in parliament. You’re trying to work with government, and you’re trying to push them, and pressure them, for sure. Those things are very similar to what I did as an M.P.”

BECOME A CIMA MEMBER

A primary focus for CIMA has come to a head lately, pertaining to the matter of government funding for music in Canada. On November 14 of this year, Andrew Cash and Eve Paré (Executive Director of ADISQ, representing the francophone music industry in Quebec), jointly addressed the government’s House Finance Committee. Giving some background to this situation, Cash explains that, “What is happening right now is that the Liberal government, in the 2021 election platform, promised to increase the funding to the Canada Music Fund, which comes out of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The Canada Music Fund is a federal fund, whose money gets split roughly between FACTOR (the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records), and Musicaction. The federal government had promised to increase that budget, essentially to recognize and reflect on the fact that the demands on FACTOR are just getting bigger and bigger. There are more and more companies accessing the fund.”

“The government said, ‘Okay, we’re going to increase this to $50 million, from the current permanent funding of $25 million’. They have, really, one more opportunity to make good on that promise which is in the budget in April (2024). The Finance Committee hold what are called ‘pre-budget consultations’, and this was an opportunity for myself and my colleague at ADISQ in Québec, Eve Paré. She and I appeared before the committee to alert them to the fact that this increase is necessary.”

Cash goes on to point out that, in addition to the government, there is another player, and another layer to this music-industry onion. “If you look at the fact that the other source of funding for FACTOR is radio broadcasters’ Canadian content development contributions, which they have to make as a condition of licence, that is dwindling rapidly! If you look at the projections as to how much that will be dwindling, it has been getting smaller and smaller over the past several years. It’s going to hit a cliff in 2024-25, that could see FACTOR’s budget cut in half. It could go that far! If that were to happen, it could be really calamitous for our sector.”

“Those on the committee are going to make some recommendations, and once the budget is presented, they will also be looking that budget over. We wanted them to have their sights on the Canadian-owned, Canadian-run music sector, on musicians, on small businesses that operate in this space, and how important this has been to building an authentic and legit music industry that is owned here in Canada. We wanted to impress upon them how important that has been, and what’s at stake if the government does not make good on this promise.”

Some political pundits suggest that the current Liberal government could be defeated in the near future, a fact that could potentially add pressure to CIMA’s funding fight. When questioned on the political timeliness of the group’s recent appeal to the House Finance Committee, Cash responds, “That’s a part of it, for sure. Obviously, elections are unpredictable, and we don’t know what’s going to happen next. Likely, this will be their last budget before a federal election. Again, we don’t make any predictions, but we do want to get this done as quickly as we can, because governments’ priorities change. This was their promise, and it’s really important for us to get this. I don’t know if the independent music sector in Canada has ever appeared before a finance committee, so it’s a really good opportunity for us to make that claim. We’ve been trying to get an invite to that committee for the last six months or so, so we were glad to finally have it happen.”

For those of us who are on the outside, a conversation with Andrew Cash about the work of CIMA is a fascinating glimpse into the world of arts funding. As consumers of music, it might be easy to simply presume that the music industry is this sustainable entity that just chugs along through the years. Actually, it takes the work of many to make the Canadian music industry ‘happen’. As Cash pointed out late in our conversation, many of the Canadian artists featured and reviewed in Spill Magazine have received some degree of government-funded financial support. For that, for Andrew Cash’s leadership, and for CIMA, we are thankful.

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Photo Credit: Arden Wray

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