Results tagged “theindustry”

In the music industry's latest attempt to lazily claw itself out of the grave, the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) is proposing a $5.00 per month licence fee on Canadian Internet accounts that would legalize music downloads. They're calling it the Right to Equitable Remuneration for Music File Sharing, a "reasonable and unobtrusive system of compensation" that will allow consumers to fill their bellies full of all the music they can handle from any peer-to-peer network while creating added revenue for artists, publishers, and labels alike.

Have you ever wondered what you could learn from a computer pioneer? You'll have your chance to find out when Michael Dell rolls into town for a free speaking engagement at Convocation Hall later this month. Okay, so Dell isn't exactly a pioneer: he's famous not for inventing anything, but merely for improving the process of assembling a bunch of parts into a serviceable computer, shipping it somewhere, and making a boatload of money while causing relatively few fires and explosions along the way.

Few companies inspire the kind of product lust that Apple does, and it's no secret that Mac users can be somewhat evangelical about the company from Cupertino. To many Apple fans in Canada, it's sheer torture that TV shows and movies aren't yet available in the Canadian iTunes Music Store, or that the iPhone is taking so damn long to cross the border. In the United States, the iPhone has been the must-have tech...

The image everyone has of the quintessential comic book expert is a guy sitting around in his basement with 50-year-old copies of Superman, ranting wildly about the Golden Age. Leading comics theorist Scott McCloud defies that stereotype entirely. He is best known for writing comic books about comic books: epic treatises which are remarkably optimistic about the future of the industry. This evening he will be in Toronto giving a lecture, Understanding, Reinventing, and Making Comics, at OISE Theatre.

There is some lively behind-the-scenes discussions happening at this year's Hot Docs festival. Yesterday, the industry got together to talking about the environmental impact of cinema. According to the Greencode Project, "A recent UCLA study of the environmental footprint left by Hollywood finds that California's media industry creates more greenhouse gases than the apparel, hotel, or aerospace industries in the region." Yesterday, Greencode Project organizers met with filmmakers to unveil their proposal to draft a process "similar to the code against the inhumane treatment of animals in films." For a film to receive the Greencode stamp of approval, it would have to show that it followed environmentally friendly, on set principles such as using production car co-ops or sourcing craft services coffee from fair-trade suppliers. The environment will also be the focus at his year's Doc Summit on Friday at the Rogers Industry Centre.

Tokyo's Zoobombs played their final show last night at the Silver Dollar after playing five shows in Toronto in the last week. Organized by the infamous Dan Burke, the shows were an effort to attract industry interest in the Japanese band without any help from the industry at all. In a direct offensive against last week's CMW festival, Burke's aim seemed to be to have a successful slew of shows with the same band "without any label-financing or government-funding."

Admirers and connoisseurs of adult films mark this down on your calendar: Ron Jeremy, the “hardest working man in showbiz” brings his, er, talents, to Toronto tomorrow evening.

announced yesterday that "voluntary and involuntary restructurings" would result in the loss of 85 jobs in its newspaper division, which is mostly the Toronto Star. This is in contrast to changes earlier in 2006 that focused on lacklustre sales of the corporation's Harlequin romance novels.

CopyCamp is an "unconference" (hateful term) coming to Toronto September 28, 29, 30, at Ryerson Student Campus Centre. It's very much a planned do-it-yourself-you-participants affair, so there's no agenda (yet) and the wiki doesn't go up until a couple of weeks prior. From their site:

CopyCamp is a place to meet people making art and making waves, an opportunity to discover how the Internet can work for artists and fans, and a chance to debate the value(s) of copyright with some of the key players. It is an event in which participants drive the programming, and debates are genuine round-tables. There are no observers: everyone has something to offer and is expected to contribute.

Continue reading "CopyCamp"

Torontoist contributor Shari K. pointed us to Kijiji, a bulletin board service launched earlier this year that lets you post messages, jobs, for sale ads, apartment listings and more. This piqued our curiousity. Kijiji (whose name is a typographic nightmare!) seems like a Craigslist clone albeit with a touch of cuteness. The name means village in Swahili, they post photos of the site moderators (like this one) and it seems like a fun, little non-profit trying to do something helpful.

, will be release on Baudelaire, soon-to-be Toronto's newest record label.

Japan will get a dose of Cancontent this weekend, when Broken Social Scene, The Dears, Stars, Death from Above 1979 and Metric drop in on Osaka and Toykyo for a mini-tour called "Canada Wet." Why is the tour called Canada Wet? We cannot tell you. Perhaps Emily Haines plans to throw out a case of bottled water, in keeping with her behaviour at the Mod Club show, when a crowd-pacifying maneuver was required. Wet or dry, the concert is a hard-slogged venture, come to fruition thanks to Nori Tsuzuki, a Japanese music promoter who has been trying to get such a show on since participating in a CMW panel in 2004. From Jam Canoe:

"We were confident that the market was ready for the name of 'Canada' and have decided to use the name everywhere to prove our vision. We feel that the people in the industry was not ready to use the name 'Canada,' but not the audience. With all the incredible buzz going on with Canada Wet, we think we have successfully changed the image of Canada and Canadian music in our market."

Lately, Toronto audiences have been no strangers to the diverse talents in Japanese alternative music. The appearance of Damo Suzuki a couple of years back at Wavelength was a nice surprise, and the "melodic instrumental noise unit " known as Mono put on a fantastic display of intensity this past summer at Harbourfront during a set at the Beats, Breaks and Culture Festival. And of course, there's Ron Burd, director of the music department at CIUT 89.5FM, whose close connection to the Japanese underground scene has kept the radio shelves stocked with such artists as Chiaki Kato, Kei and the Chitan Go Kings.

was the turning point that brought on the hyper capitalist, sexism as a norm, drug-n-thug culture of rap today. Now, after the re-emergence of the creative emcee, Dre is looking to take back the balance of popularity from the Andre 3000's, Mos Def's, Roots's and Freeway's. The Game, who is the latest addition to Dre's group of muppets called the G-Unit, is every bit the regressive 1992 rap that maligned the genre for years. His nostalgia for George Bush Sr.-era thuggism may represent a change of pace that appeals to critics, but we can't seriously be considering returning to the "Bitches Ain't Shit" sloganism and ultra violence of past...can we? Here's this week's completely unrelated mixtape.

Amid renewed concerns of the efficiency of the LCBO, the provincial government has appointed some sort of panel in attempts to modernize the liquor board. While Torontoist didn't actually sit down with panel organizer Greg Sorbara, that didn't stop us from conducting a hard-hitting interview with the Finance Minister. Here's the exclusive:

Instead of turning to the last generation of fashionistas for the next trend, we now look back in our own lives: Hair barrettes - considered a symbol of youth and exuberance - are making a comeback.