Today FACTOR and Musicaction announced the Promoter Program, a pilot program to invest further in the Canadian live sector.

This new program designed for Live Music Promoters will support the concert promotion activities that bring audiences to Canadian Artist shows and is a recognition of the essential nature of concert promoters in the development of Canadian artists’ careers.

“This much-needed, long-overdue program will help to fill a major gap by responding directly to a need the CLMA has been highlighting for years,” said Erin Benjamin, President & CEO of the Canadian Live Music Association. “Investing in the breadth of Canada’s live music ecosystem is essential—for Canadian artists and the live music workers and businesses who support touring infrastructure in this country, from coast to coast to coast. We celebrate the launch of this historic program as a great step in the right direction for artists and for Canada’s incredible live music community. This is the power of our united voice .”

The aim of the Promoter Program is to share the risk of investment and is intended to aid growth of Canadian live music companies who present concerts by diverse Canadian artists.

The investments will enable these Canadian companies to take on the additional risk of presenting concerts on stages across Canada and promoting them effectively to help build audiences for Canadian artists.

“Our objective at FACTOR is to continue to foster an environment where a diversity of Canadian music artists can connect with audiences everywhere while simultaneously enhancing the competitiveness of our growing Canadian music economy,” said Meg Symsyk, President & CEO of FACTOR. “We are thrilled to expand our investment programs to include Canadian music companies promoting live events from such amazing Canadian talent from coast to coast to coast.”

The Promoter Program will give added consideration to applications from Canadian music companies that present concerts by new Canadian artists, Indigenous artists, and Canadian artists from priority groups: 2SLGBTQIA+ community, women, racialized persons, persons with a disability, and new members of Official Language Minority Communities. The deadline for the program is October 31st, 2024. The guidelines and application can be found here: web link

Interested applicants should head to factor.ca for more information, and/or email [email protected]

Who Can Apply

To be eligible for this program, companies specializing in live music must:
a) Be Canadian-owned and Canadian-controlled.
b) Have been in operation and presented concerts successfully by Canadian artists for at least a full year at
the time of submitting the application.
c) Support the career development of Canadian artists through concert promotion activities. This includes
Canadian-owned concert venues that promote their own shows – at least 50% of their annual programming
must be eligible musical performances (see list of ineligible shows in next section) of which at least 50%
must be by Canadian artists.
d) Have earned a minimum of $50,000 in eligible revenues from the presentation and promotion of concerts by
Canadian artists in their last fiscal year (see section on eligible and ineligible revenues)
e) Demonstrate its financial viability and history of effective use of public funds, if applicable.
f) Be prepared to invest in the presentation and promotion of concerts by Canadian artists (not including
investments in business development, administration, and capital) during the program year (April 1, 2024 –
March 31, 2025).
g) Ensure payments are made to the artists and that fees and salaries are paid to technicians and other live
workers.
h) Fill out and sign an attestation in the application form.

Ineligible companies:
a) Foreign-owned music companies operating in Canada and their related associations.
b) Artist-entrepreneurs.
c) Artist managers and booking agents.
d) Music festivals.
e) Service companies (lighting, sound, staging, catering, transportation, security, ticketing).
f) Traditional broadcasters (radio and TV) and music streaming services.
g) Live music companies whose primary programming is not aimed towards the promotion of original music by
Canadian artists (e.g. cover bands, DJs, musicals, retrospective/tribute shows, dinner theatre, charity and
corporate shows).
h) Venues with programming based exclusively on room rental.
i) Venues without a permanent space and/or infrastructure for musical performances such as a stage, sound
and lighting system, etc.
j) Venues whose capacity is greater than 1,500.
k) Venues owned and/or operated by a city/municipality (expenses incurred by promoter recipients related to
concerts at these venues booked by them are considered eligible).
l) Tour Producers already funded through Global Envelope Program at Musicaction.
m) Organizations that received funding from the Canada Arts Presentation Fund (CAPF) in 2024-2025. Posted: Oct 10, 2024