Canada Saves The World? (Or At Least The Music Biz)
Thursday March 3, 2005 12:30PM
Fairmont Royal York

It takes a nation of 30 million to kick-start the future. Canadians have famously embraced new technologies, from debit shopping to downloading. So it's natural that Music Week 2005's most radical idea is a Made in Canada model solution to the worldwide problem of free downloads. With 20+ billion free downloads delivered last year (vs. a mere 120 million paid iTunes transactions), clearly almost all the music consumed in the world today is delivered for nothing. But Revolutionary instruments like Google and BitTorrent comprise the key to painlessly monetizing these billions of freebies at a cost of almost nothing per transaction - resulting in revenue that could dwarf today's royalty flow and recapture the vast sums of money (far exceeding the current -and constantly declining- royalty flows of the music business) now being left on the table. With its confluence of market size, technology infrastructure, legal climate and public policy, Canada has the unique opportunity to lead the way. This panel will explain how.

Moderator: John Nichols, Washington Editor, The Nation, Madison

Panelists: Sandy Pearlman, Visiting Scholar, McGill University, Montreal; Producer Blue Oyster Cult and the Clash; A founder of EMusic
Walter F. McDonough, Chief Counsel, Future of Music Coalition, Boston
Professor Daniel Levitin, Bell Chair in the Psychology of Information Science, Leader of the McGill-University of Montreal Recomendation Engine Project, McGill University, Montreal
Michael McGuire, Research Director, Gartner G2, Media Group, San Jose
Charlie Angus, Federal MP Timmins-James Bay, West Timmins; Lead Singer/Songwriter, The Grievous Angels
Richard Pfohl, General Council, CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association), Toronto

Record/Retail (Executive)