Every now and then something emerges in the EDM world that magically crosses over with my political science degree. Each time it happens, I get schoolgirl giddy because it’s a rare bridge spanning the incredibly wide gap of ‘things I actually do,” and “things I learned about in school”. We’ll I’ve got my skirt on right now, because Canada just dropped a discriminatory fee on all foreign artists and their associates including, agents and techs.
The fee isn’t small either, around $425 a person. Which really sucks if you are a small business owner, especially say… a promoter. Want to hire Dirtyphonics? That’ll be an extra $1,275 and that’s just for the artists, better hope they don’t bring management. This obviously makes it much more difficult to hire anyone who’s not a Canadian. This is what we lovingly call in political sciencey terms, protectionism. Also, this isn’t a surprising move in anyway. Canada has pursued a policy of cultural protectionism for the last five or so decades, which is aimed at protecting Canadian media. This is because Canadian culture apparently has a limited appeal when you have access to almost every other option on Earth. So what do you to save Canadian culture? You make it incredibly expensive to not be a Canadian. Sure some non-Canadians with their round tires and connected jaw wont be able to play because promoters can’t pay the fee, you still make money on the ones who do! It even applies to non-EDM acts who have more members and that means more money! 
The fans don’t win, the promoter doesn’t win, Canadians don’t even win. Unfortunately Canada is bound to become a less friendly place for international musicians and for their fans!
Source: Montreal Gazette
Even though I’m Canadian I am against this. most of the edm scene is performers from outside of Canada, and with these fee’s not as many acts will come to Canada ruining the business for many smaller venues, and will cause a decrease in attendance.
Even though I’m Canadian I am against this. most of the edm scene is performers from outside of Canada, and with these fee’s not as many acts will come to Canada ruining the business for many smaller venues, and will cause a decrease in attendance.
This is really fucking lame. I guess we’ll just have to have a shit ton of Deadmau5 events…
Fucking Stephen Harper of shit
fuck u stephen harper.
this is fucking stupid…