Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about his job and the differences between Universal US and Canada.

Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about how to get the attention of a label as an independent artist.

Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about his background in the music industry.

The Canadian Music Industry is made up somewhere in the 16-18% range of our own local repertoire—why we exist and why we’re not just a branch distribution office of Universal United States. In our case, we are higher than that number, because we’ve made a concerted effort as Universal Music Canada to embrace two things. One is artist directly in disproportionately high signings in Canada, which I’ll talk about in a moment. The second is we have, as Universal, embraced early and consistently the independent sector to do what we call distribution deals or enhanced distribution deals, which offer services from Universal Canada such as promotion, marketing, press, etc. to help our “little brothers,” if you will, the independent sector, along.

We’ve gone so far as to actually invest in four very significant independent labels in Canada, where Universal Canada has a minority but a strong ownership position in those companies. It’s been wonderful given the size of our country that we can actually be an owner of an indie as a multinational major, and the community tends to respect that, because we’re embracing authentically the independent sector and not trying to dominate it. We’re trying to nurture it as a philosophy and as a strategy, rather than sort of “universalize” it, if you will.

So we are, in fact, leaving lots of oxygen in the room with respect to nurturing our independents, some in an ownership position, some just in the straight distribution position. But having said that, it’s one of the reasons our market share is nearing 40% here in Canada. Last week, for example, we were at 40%, and year-to-date we’re approximately 37.5%. Our embracing of the independent sector is certainly a contributor to that, but we don’t live and die by the sword. The reason we do the independent involvement as Universal Canada is very clear. We love music, and we don’t have the disposition personally to think that we can find it all first, that we can find it all the most effectively. We don’t suffer from that delusion of thinking that we’re the first up. We recognize that the independent sector has, personally, some of my favorite bands.

To be able to help them along, it’s not about pride of ownership, because there is ownership in helping independents and independent bands. A great label we have called Last Gang, a local label, has a band called Metric that I’ve fallen in love with. As far as I’m concerned, when I get up in the morning, Metric Mans will be on Universal, because we conduct ourselves as a company. Because we’re enjoined to that band and that label, we do conduct ourselves like they’re with us.

And it’s evident. We’re two gold records, on our way to platinum, and there’s great success. Of course the independent label, the band themselves, are the main contributors to that success. It’s very parenting, it’s very rewarding, for us to be able to be a parent to that process, whether it’s a direct-signed artist, a direct-licensed artist, or an artist through the independent sector. It’s a big part of Universal Music Canada’s thought process and a big part of our culture and a big part of our pride.

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Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about the government funding programs available to artists in Canada. Some of the grant organizations in Canada have helped fund projects for big name bands like Nickelback and Broken Social Scene.

Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about how Universal Canada works their licensing deals.

Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about the success of local artists in Canada.

Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, gives his views on whether basing themselves in a major urban area gives artists an advantage when it comes to getting the attention of record labels.

Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about the differences between major labels and independent labels.

Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about the importance of using radio and music videos as marketing tools in the music industry today.

Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about how MySpace and other forms of media are changing the music industry.

Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about the differences in the sound of Canadian music.

Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada, talks about what it takes to make it in the music industry today.