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Music + Sound Recording

Yu Su at Public Disco by Gabriel Martins

Monarch Studios

DEBBY FRIDAY

B.C. is the third-largest centre for music production in Canada, with a large diverse talent pool of artists, business-minded professionals, 200+ sound recording studios and 80+ record labels. B.C.’s vast industry ecosystem is proving its value delivery not only to culture, identity and community. See a list of music and sound recording companies and related businesses in Creative BC’s Knowledge Hub.

Recording in these studios are thousands of B.C.’s emerging and established artists, and supporting these activities are hundreds of industry professionals, service providers, promoters, venues, festivals, producers, agents and managers, all of whom drive B.C.’s music economy. Discoverability of B.C.’s talent and creative product is at the top of an agenda for this industry’s future success. Read the Amplify BC 2019/20 – 2020/21 Impact Report: Adapting and Moving Forward to learn about the impacts of the province’s investment through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

#BCCreates music I ♥

Recent Impacts

It’s important to note that this industry activity generates a portion of the additional incremental total GDP attributed to the Multi-Creative Industry Services segment of the creative industries overall.

Total GDP in B.C.

Total Jobs*

Direct Output in B.C.

People incl. freelancers**

A Note on Total Jobs and People

*Measures hours worked, in terms of number of positions, not the number of people working or sharing these positions. Due to the freelance nature of the creative industries, this methodology is a proxy only and typically underestimates the number of workers in the sector.

**Prior to the pandemic, Creative BC’s count of estimated freelancers was at 108,000 people, aggregated from a variety of industry sources, including the B.C. motion picture industry’s Below-the-Line Labour Market Study, 2018, and Staying in Tune: A Study of the Music Industry Labour Market in British Columbia, 2019. By using CIERA™ year-over-year job growth insights as multipliers, the count of freelance workers has been estimated for this report. As available, new information generated through industry’s own real-time research will be used by Creative BC to improve this annual estimate.

***Presently, the video game segment is the only industry clearly measured by North American Industry Classification Codes (NAICS). Therefore interactive and digital media (IDM) figures represented by CIERA™ are limited to this segment of the industry, excluding other storytelling-based interactive and digital media such as virtual reality and augmented reality.

The Music + Sound Recording Industry Mapped Across the Sector Value Chain

Some of the “culture industries” as defined by Statistics Canada contribute to more than one creative industry, therefore these NAICS cannot easily be attributed to a single creative industry, nor can their business activities be proportionally allocated. In these cases, their economic contributions have been aggregated into CIERA‘s Multi-Creative Industry figures. Outlined bullets below are Multi-Creative Industry Services that do contribute to some extent to this value chain. See Multi-Creative Industry impacts.

See full annual CIERA™ tables and multiple years of data here.

Research + Reports

Recent industry insights and impacts of B.C.’s creative industries.

CIERA™ | Creative Industries Economic Results Assessment

Bringing public datasets into our story

View Creative BC funding programs

Associations + Organizations

Music BC

Music BC Logo

Music BC provides the BC music industry with information, education, funding, advocacy, showcasing, and networking opportunities.

First Peoples' Cultural Council (FPCC)

First Peoples' Cultural Council Details Community Consultations in Kelowna  and Prince Rupert — BC Alliance for Arts + Culture

FPCC assists B.C. First Nations in their efforts to revitalize their languages, arts and cultures with a commitment to providing communities with a high level of support and quality resources.

Funding

FACTOR

FACTOR - MusicYukon

FACTOR supports the production of sound recordings by Canadian musicians and helps Canadian music companies make recordings available to a wider public.

Unison Benevolent Fund

Financial Assistance | Unison Fund

Unison is a non-profit organization that provides counselling, emergency relief, and benefit programs for those in the Canadian music community who face personal or professional challenges due to hardship, illness, unemployment or economic difficulties.

Canada Council for the Arts

Canada Council for the Arts

The Canada Council for the Arts is Canada’s National Arts Funder. We fund Canadian artists and arts organizations.

SOCAN Foundation

SOCAN Foundation

SOCAN Foundation fosters, sustains, and promotes the creation of Canadian music.

Recent News

#ListenBC |  #BCMusic