Good Theatre & Bad Music Sales

The Toronto Star gave Soulpepper's new production of The Odd Couple a four star review and lauded Albert Schultz and Diego Matamoros' teamwork. Having tickets myself, I'm very happy to hear this but not at all surprised. I've caught several Soulpepper productions since they relocated to the Distillery District and haven't been disappointed yet. In fact, I've found that some costly festival mounted plays don't hold up very well in comparison.

Speaking of $, the Songwriters Association of Canada has proposed placing a $5 per month fee on Canadian subscribers' Internet bills. This fee would make downloading music without additional charges legal.

Music sales in Canada were $1.3 billion in 1999 but only $704 million in 2006. Compared to 2006 CD sales are down 20% worldwide and a whopping 35% in Canada.

When we're looking at a situation where only 2% of song downloads are purchased obviously something needs to be done to help out the music industry. Of course, there are Canadian Internet users who either don't download music or are already downloading legally—and they could balk at the idea. I also wonder if the film and software industries will eventually want to add charges of their own. It's been estimated that over 90% of peer to peer traffic worldwide infringes the copyrights of movie, music and software businesses.

You can have a look at SAC's proposal here or get more info by calling 1-866-456-7664. SAC will be discussing this idea at a public forum at Ryerson University's Oakham House tonight at 7. The proposal would require federal approval and would largely negate the need for music selling sites like iTunes.

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