In every way, we treat preferentially our local artists. It’s why we’re sovereign. It’s why a Canadian record company exists—to nurture and develop. I’m Canadian. All of the executives in our company are Canadian. Our whole company staff-wise is. So there’s a certain sense of pride and accomplishment and nurturing that goes with finding an artist in any country. But certainly, if you live in a country as finite as Canada with 31 million people, it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to develop when you have only a 31-million-person audience, the size of California. It can be a very finite experience.
So there are two things we do. We give disproportionate love, but you can appreciate, financially, we understand the finite nature of the marketplace of Canada. I think we spend disproportionately as well financially to help and nurture and bring Canadian artists. Not that we don’t prioritize international artists, because we also very much do, but we have the advantage of international artists to having incoming media and marketing from our big brother to the south. So we know who the heck Black-Eyed Peas is when they come. There’s already an aura around that band as opposed to no one’s ever heard of, which as you know takes more time, energy, and money especially at the inception, the beginning of an artist’s career.
So it’s very much the word I mentioned earlier—the artist process and our preferential treatment of same is very much the parent in me. It’s very much the parent in our company, and it’s very much the true joy that we receive in coming to work every day. If you don’t have that, then this is not the place to be. That’s what this is about.
When you talk about Canadian artists, I mentioned earlier that the artists internationally that we perform on are the ones that pay the most attention to us. So there’s a certain Canadian behavior that wants our own to win—whether it’s hockey, whether it’s Olympics, whether it’s music—there’s absolutely patriotism here. We know, given our population base, that we’re the underdog. So there’s absolutely—we sing from the rooftops—that our artists that are Canadian are, in fact, Canadian. We wear flags on our lapels, so to speak, when we travel internationally, which is part of the answer.
One of the things that we do at Universal Music Canada strategically to help our Canadian artists is by being honest with them in recognizing there’s only 31 million people to be your audience. We work very diligently and very hard to partner with Universal companies around the world to make sure that there is love in the room in other territories for Canadian artists. Really, we are ambassadors to our own music in Canada is the way I look at it.
For example, I’ll take Molly Johnson, who is an adult artist, sort of a Norah Jones vibe. We went to France in February and showcased her for Universal Music France, and we are signing Molly Johnson jointly with Universal Music France and Universal Music Canada. Why? There are 68 million people in France. Now her audience is 100 million. It’s 68 and 31. Now we have a wonderful artist. We have both financial and emotional participation from Universal Music France. We’ll get 100 million people to talk to. Beats 30.
A band from Montréal called Mobile. We fell in love with this band. We’ve just put it in the top 10 in Canada and we called Martin Kerzubom and Jimmy Ivy in from Interscope. They came to Toronto, saw this band, loved it, loved the band, and then we did a joint signing between Universal Music Canada and Interscope LA. So now, when we’re in Interscope Los Angeles talking about this artist Mobile, this band Mobile, there’s not only a recognition. It’s not just Randy from Canada talking about the artist. There’s also a sense of emotional and financial ownership for that artist.
So Interscope, being a very powerful company within Universal Music Group worldwide, is a powerful broker for us to broker the band Mobile, not only in the United States but also in the rest of the world.
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