Canadian Music Week


Canadian Music Week is an industry conference and music festival held over ten days in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

History

Canadian Music Week began in 1981, and has grown to become one of Canada's largest and most influential media and music conferences. It draws top industry professionals to participate in a four-day program of activities.
Designed to stimulate the exchange of market intelligence, increase dialogue and provide networking opportunities, Canadian Music Week continues to present the ideal platform for more than 3,000 national and international delegates.
2015 was CMW's 33rd year, and is the single longest running multi-day Canadian music and media event. It manages to consistently bring together more than 3,000 music industry professionals for the week's events - combining conferences, award shows, & one of Canada's biggest "New Music" festivals.
Throughout the duration of the event, performers put on shows at venues ranging from popular bars and halls, to trendy clothing stores and cafes. Many emerging new bands use the festival as an opportunity to 'get spotted' by the A&R reps that are around in greater than average numbers during the festival. In January 2017, Jim Beam along with Canadian Music WeekCanada launched Jim Beam Make History Talent Search.

Notable participants

Notable Speakers and performers that have been a part of the event include:

Canadian Indies Hall of Fame

CMW also honours important independent and alternative artists with its annual "Canadian Indies Hall of Fame" program. Artists who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame include Parachute Club, The Pursuit of Happiness, Martha and the Muffins, D.O.A., and Rough Trade.

Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame

Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame at Canadian Music Week 2008.

Featured Cultural Spotlight Performances

Since 2009, Canadian Music Week has referred to the festival component of the event as Canadian Music Fest, which they refer to as "Canada's largest new music festival".

Startup Launchpad

In 2016, CMW hosted their first annual Startup Launchpad event, a pitch competition for startups in the music industry.
Seven startups have been selected to pitch their business to potential investors and a judging panel including Michael Wekerle and Ted Cohen. The first finalists of this event were Mugatunes, an intercollegiate music sharing site, Audiokite Research, a market research company for musicians, Mission Control, a music management platform, Aybo, Trebba and this year's winner Notetracks, a music collaboration app.

Canadian Radio Music Awards

In 2016, the CMW launched an award show, called the Canadian Radio Music Awards. The show, similar to the Juno Awards, recognized and celebrated Canadian music artists. The award show hasn't been held since 2018.