By Jeff Haas
If you’re a musicianor someone who wants to work in the music industry and you don’t ;lan on taking Friday off school, then you’re a fool.
Yes, Canadian Music Week is here again and the powers that be have declared Friday to be Music Education Day. For $10, students (with i.d.) can go down to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and attend the music seminars and workshops that all the industry people have paid big bucks for.
But why should you skip classes here to go to classes there?
Because the personnel directors of CFNY, HMV Canada, Metalworks, Sony Music Canada, City TV/Much Music and MCA Concerts Canada will be discussing what they look for in new recruits. A seminar entitled Can You Work Weekends: What Personnel Directors Are Looking For takes place from 3:00-4:30 and promises to be enlightening.
Sarah Crawford, City TV/MuchMusic’s representative at this seminar, thinks it will be a great opportunity for students to find out about the music industry and its hiring practices. “If someone wants to get a job in this field, then this is the place for them to be,” she says. “It will be a chance to hear firsthand about the qualities we look for and the type of people we want. It’s sort of like giving people an inside track to getting a job in the industry.”
And if that’s not enough reason to go, think about the networking possibilities. Major labels, minor labels, publicists, media, musicians, agents and other darlings of the industry will all be dying to speak to you (or at least they’ll brush you off in person instead of through a secretary).
Other seminars will centre around touring, publicity, marketing, and money-management for musicians. And, of course, there will be the standard seminar about the information superhighway and how it’s going to revolutionize the music industry.
As well, one of the clinics (a forum where an accomplished musician tells peons about their technique), will be held by Jamie Stewart, ex-bassist of the Cult, at 6:30.
But wait, there’s more.
Admission also includes the Music and Multimedia Show ’95, wherein lies “The Multi-Media Playground,” an opportunity to try new products. Plug it in, crank it up, and show off in front of a bunch of studio musicians, and pick up lots of advice.
And for those of you who truly love Canadian music, there will be concerts by Lee Aaron, Tea Patty, Jughead, Jann Arden and a bunch o’dj’s who will be havin’ a five-hour spin-off.
Sound like an experience? Doors open at 1:00.
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