The Canadian Live Music Association (CLMA) expresses its sincere thanks to the Government of Canada and Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault for today’s announcement regarding the rollout of $50M in new COVID-19-related funding to support the live music sector. FACTOR and Musicaction will be launching this new support for the live music sector in the coming days.

Without continued and enhanced access to government relief programs, the major investment-to-date government has made to help save jobs could be entirely lost. The CLMA, along with the Hardest Hit Coalition, urgently calls upon the Canadian government to continue to provide relief for those - like Canada’s live music industry - who need it most.

The Canadian Live Music Association (CLMA) expresses its sincere thanks to the Government of Canada, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault for today’s federal budget announcement, which acknowledges our hardest hit sector by announcing $70M to the Canada Music Fund, with $50M earmarked specifically for live music and live music venues.

March 24th, 2021 (OTTAWA) – A March 2021 survey released today on Parliament Hill reveals that 60% of Canada’s hardest hit businesses will not survive if the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) as well as the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) are not extended beyond the June 5th deadline to the end of the year. The survey with over 1,700 respondents from across Canada was conducted by the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses.

Live music was the largest single driver of the music industry. In the fall of 2019, global revenues were projected to reach $29 billion US dollars by 2023 1 . Today, the story is a very different one. In Canada, this vibrant industry contributed upwards of $3b to Canada’s GDP and supported 72,000 jobs – the lifeblood for many of our artists… for whom touring and live performance was their primary source of revenue. Live music workers, companies and organizations will be among the last to recover, with still no end in sight.