IS THAT SONG A HIT? ASK THE CRTC Grant Robertson – Globe and Mail Radio stations have been padding their profits for years by milking tried-and-true hits and doing whatever they can to avoid taking chances on up-and-coming Canadian artists, a new federal report on the industry alleges.
In a process that is expected to have a financial impact on radio broadcasters if new rules are instituted, regulators are now stepping in. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission plans to define for the first time what is – and specifically is not – a hit song.
Such changes would have big implications for the radio industry, record labels, artists and advertisers alike depending on how restrictive the rules become.
Since play lists are designed to attract mass audiences, stations have increasingly gravitated to hit-driven formats, often at the expense of new music, which poses more of a risk with advertisers. Meanwhile, FM radio has enjoyed a renaissance in profitability, recently surpassing $1-billion in revenue for the first time.
Concerned that too many radio stations are bending to their advantage the loosely written rules that say stations must encourage airplay of emerging artists, the regulator has decided to come up with a specific definition.
A CRTC official said Wednesday that the regulator has long required stations to devote 35 per cent of airtime to Canadian music, but has not asked for a specific amount for new, emerging musicians. This is a problem for recording artists, industry groups say.
“We've done research that shows, even with Canadian acts, that the average act played on radio is 15 to 20 years old,” said Duncan McKie, president of the Canadian Independent Record Production Association.
“They play the hell out of the established, recognizable acts. And then they'll turn around and say, well, the reason we don't play your acts is that they're not recognizable,” Mr. McKie said.
Broadcasters argue there are financial risks in deviating too much from the mainstream, should audiences go elsewhere. In the past, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has asked the CRTC to consider incentives for radio stations to take chances with their play lists. Emerging artists for example, would count for more points towards Canadian content requirements. The CAB, which speaks on behalf of broadcasters, would not comment on the report yesterday.
Nine possible definitions of an “emerging artist,” or what could also be defined as a “non-hit,” were presented to the radio industry yesterday in documents accompanying the report, with the CRTC focusing on three main scenarios that could apply to the industry for years to come.
The definition the CRTC appears to favour describes an emerging artist as a musician who has never had a song on the charts, or whose first top-40 song occurred in the past year. However, other potential scenarios offered up to the industry would broaden that period out to as much as four years, or narrow it to as little as six months. The regulator may also consider expanding its definition of the charts, to the top 60 or top 100 songs.
How such matters are defined would have significant implications for Canadian artists who have had breakout hits in recent years, but took a while to attract mass appeal. Depending on which definition the CRTC chooses, Grammy-nominated musicians such as Feist and Arcade Fire could either be classified as Top-40 artists or as new and emerging musicians.
Mr. McKie notes that Feist was trying to get airplay long before Canadian radio stations added her to play lists. He argues that it mostly wasn't until she was featured in an Apple Inc. iPod commercial that she was added to heavy rotation.
The CRTC has become concerned in recent years that radio stations have been flouting promises to play new Canadian artists, opting instead for established Canadians acts like Bryan Adams and The Tragically Hip.
“Some [in the music industry] allege that commercial radio stations have adopted programming strategies that minimize the play-listing of such music in favour of broadcasting the work of well established artists,” says the CRTC report. “In their view, these practices hinder the development of a dynamic Canadian music industry.”
In the report, the CRTC examined how much airtime was devoted to new Canadian artists.
During the week of April 15 to 21, 2007, the regulator found that English stations were devoting less than 10 per cent of their airtime to emerging Canadian talent when the definition of a non-hit artist was defined by the broadest terms – someone who had only made it on to the charts for the first time in the previous four years.
When the most narrow definition – charting in the previous six months – was applied, English stations were making less than 2 per cent of their schedules available to newer artists.
Mr. McKie welcomed the plan to define hits and non-hits.
“Whatever they do, it's got to be better … because what we have today are [stations] that are playing less than 4- or 5-per-cent new acts. And in a week, that's 80 plays maybe out of 2,000,” Mr. McKie said. |