Professional capacity

Responding to the needs of live music professionals and expanding the availability of training opportunities

Skills development, training, sharing of best practices, business development and succession planning are all vital to the success of the live music industry. The industry consists of a diverse set of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, performing an assortment of tasks that often require disparate skillsets. The training and skill development needs of the sector range from logistics and planning, to project management, networking, contracting and more. However, formal training opportunities are not equitably accessible across the province, informal training opportunities are not comprehensive, and panels and workshops are complicated by geography, inadequate resources and high turnover among emerging industry professionals.

Many, if not most, live music professionals are innately entrepreneurial, doing and learning as they go. Similarly, dedicated volunteers in the sector often become the live music professionals of tomorrow. They are an impressive and unique dimension of the live music sector but designing training offerings for the volunteer segment can be challenging.

Numerous consultation respondents noted an inequitable level of representation of women in jobs across the live music industry. They also emphasized a need to sensitize live music professionals to the fact that music events and venues must be appropriately accommodating, hospitable and secure for female patrons. Additionally, of course, the industry should strive to be inclusive of the diversity of Ontario by accommodating people of all ages, those with disabilities, cultural and racial minorities, as well as the LGBTQ+ community, to ensure they can participate fully in live music events.

The Vision for Ontario’s Live Music Industry aims to increase the understanding of these matters, and the ability to address them, among live music professionals and volunteers across the province. It also aims to identify common professional capacity gaps and priorities and lay the groundwork to address them.

Access to tools and training

Participants in the live music industry report that the industry does not have adequate access to the tools and training they need to do their jobs better, specifically with regard to business skills training. There is also a lack of documented and agreed upon best practices in the sector.

While more sustained and productive industry collaboration is one way to share experience, expertise and common best practices, developing meaningful collaboration across the sector will be a significant challenge. As one consultation respondent said, "This is a highly risky industry, most often afforded through personal investment. It’s important to keep this in mind when bringing people together."