CANADIAN REGGAE MUSIC ASSOCIATION

The Canadian Reggae Music Association was created in 2017 and registered as a non-profit organization in 2020. The organization consists of music organizations, festival promoters, reggae producers, artists, and musicians with over 40 years of experience working in the reggae music communities in Canada and Jamaica. The mandate of the CRMA is to organize and produce economic, cultural, educational, and social programs using multi-media as vehicles to strengthen community resiliency by contributing to the collective cultural enrichment of the reggae music industry in Canada. The CRMA’s membership consists of professional artists, music businesses and arts collectives from the Caribbean communities in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, Montreal, Brampton, and Hamilton. The annual Canadian Reggae Music conference is organized by Rastafest Inc in association with the Canadian Reggae Music Association. The first staging of the CRMC took place on August 18th, 2017 at Toronto Plaza Hotel and on August 19th, 2017 at York University; the second staging took place from March 23rd, 2018 to March 24th, 2018 at Metro Hall and the third staging of the conference took place on Friday, August 16th, 2019 at York University. Due to COVID-19 the fourth annual CRMC took place virtually on Saturday, September 26th, 2020. The Canadian Reggae Music conference addressed issues such as: • Reggae producers and promoters in Canada and their influence on the music industry. • Reggae festivals in Canada and their contribution to the music industry in Canada. • Reggae musicians/artists in Canada and their contribution to the cultural media industry in Canada. • The role of the radio stations in the development of the reggae music industry. • Financing your music career as artists and musicians. • The role of the sound system culture in the development of the reggae music industry in Canada. • Global trends in the music industry and its impact on the reggae music industry. • Towards the Design of a 5-year Action Plan for the Canadian Reggae Music Association. The Canadian Reggae Music conference supports Rastafest’s mandate to educate and inform professional musicians and artists about the business of the music; enabling them to earn an income from their music while contributing to the cultural industry in Canada. The data/information from the conference will be used to conduct an in-depth research on the reggae music industry in Canada and produce Reggae Pages, an online Canadian Reggae Music Directory. The results from the CRMC will educate the various stakeholders in the reggae music industry about the business of the music industry. Most importantly, the findings from the CRMC will help dispel the misconceptions and specific knowledge about why reggae music is not making mileage into Canada’s mainstream music and cultural media industries. The results from the CRMC will show that it is important to have the knowledge about the broader music business environment; this is vital to the success of the reggae music sector in Canada. The objectives of the Canadian Reggae Music Conference are as follows: • To stimulate discussions concerning the underdevelopment of the reggae music industry with the objective of establishing a professional organization that will work in partnership with the Canadian mainstream music industry. • To contribute to the continued expansion of a business environment in Canada that is advantageous to the growth of the cultural media industry by bringing together leading reggae festival promoters, record producers, artists, and musicians in Canada. • To assist in the promotion and marketing of Canada’s cultural media industry as a world-class leader by developing a professional reggae music industry that will provide opportunities to Canadian artists and musicians in accessing new markets and establish ones. • To foster and facilitate co-operation among entities within the cultural media industry and between the public and private sectors by developing a professional reggae music industry that will be beneficial to Canada’s cultural media industry. • To develop infrastructures servicing the reggae music industry in Canada to stimulate the growth of new employment, investment, and production opportunities in Canada for the various stakeholders in the reggae music industry.