Advocacy Round Up: Tariff 8 and the Fair Digital Deals Declaration

A quick overview of the status of CIMA’s advocacy projects!

July 30, 2014. Here’s your news round-up on the status of CIMA’s various advocacy projects and partnerships. We’re constantly working hard to represent the interests of the Canadian independent music community, so we wanted to make it easy for you to keep track of the work we’ve been doing on your behalf!

Lately, our advocacy efforts have involved joining together with stakeholders both across the country in Canada (on issues like Tariff 8) as well as with our international colleagues at the Worldwide Independent Network. Here’s an update of any current news we have related to these 2 major advocacy efforts below:

The Fair Digital Deals Declaration

  • The list of music companies supporting the Fair Digital Deals Declaration has grown to over 900 signatories from 28 countries across the globe. You can see the full and ever-growing list here. The story has been making waves in the media as well – with Billboard, The Guardian and Spin among the major music media outlets to write about this international movement. Here in Canada, Exclaim picked up the story.
  • This WIN-led initiative is gaining steam with various other stakeholders in the music industry. Today, the International Music Managers Forum released a statement in order to ensure that the international music managers, artists are creators also have an organized voice in this debate. You can read their full statement here.

Tariff 8 & I Stand For Music Campaign

  • The I Stand For Music social media campaign is still going strong – and we’re excited to be able to welcome the Canadian Country Music Association, Music Managers Forum Canada and indie record label Arts & Crafts onboard in the last week. As of now, we’re at 78 organizations representing the Canadian music industry who want to publicly voice their opposition to the Copyright Board’s decision on Tariff 8. At last look: the Facebook page is over 2,900 likes and you can keep track of the #IStand4Music hashtag on Twitter by clicking here.
  • Andy McLean, Executive Director of the East Coast Music Association, was recently on Morning News Halifax (along with Daniel Ledwell) to discuss the impact of the Tariff 8 decision and what it means for the music community.
  • We should have some very exciting news about the next steps in this campaign in a few days, so keep your eyes open!

If you have any questions about our advocacy efforts (or wish to join in!), please feel free to get in touch with our Research and Communications Coordinator, Lisa Fiorilli, at lisa@cimamusic.ca.