The Music City in Toronto
Hsin-Hsien Lee
Abstract
This research study is an attempt to
explore whether Toronto can become a
Music city in the future. There are three
places focused on in order to answer this
question. For instance, the music
development center, the recording studio,
and the music venue within the GTA.
Based on the spatial analysis, the
background research, and the coding
analysis. The finding of this research
shows Toronto is likely to become a music
city in the future. More importantly,
Toronto has the potential to create a
friendly music environment towards the
local musicians in the city.
Introduction
Music has the potential to bring
people together and have the platform to
spread messages across nations.
Consumers of all races, sexual
orientations, cultural backgrounds, and
religions can learn about each other as the
world is globalizing at a faster pace as a
result of our growing technology, social
media, and music. In a rapidly growing
city like Toronto, we are recognizing the
benefits it poses to create a music city in
the future. A music city is defined by
Frances Moore Chief Executive Officer
and IFPI President and Graham
Henderson CEO of Music Canada is “a
place with a vibrant music economy”.
However, a controversial question comes
into our mind. Will Toronto treat the
music as merely the tool for economic
growth or doing for the sake of music
development?
Background
According to Titan Music Group
(2012), the structure of how the music
culture was developed within Austin,
Texas could explain the reasoning for its
template for Toronto to achieve the
ideology of being a music as both places
share similar characteristics. In order to
become a music city, it is important to
have music support such as to guide how
to build a music career. Here, we
hypothesize that we should be able to find
music support in all the music
development center, the recording studio,
and the music venue.
According to Robert G. Hollands
(2008), he thinks the definition of the
Smart city is a vague term, which can
include too many things from different
city’s perspective. The author also argues
smart city are usually supported by the
business people, which the whole purpose
is to have economic growth in the city.
Here, we hypothesize that the
development of music city will only be
favorable for those musicians in terms of
they can produce economic growth for the
Toronto city.
Methods
We have total 54 samples from the
three places we are focused on. We have
21 music development centers, 16
recording studios, and 17 live venues. We
get all the information from their web
pages and their location on the google
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map. First, the coding for the music
development center. (1) Songwriting. (2)
Profit or non-profit. (3) Professional
support (including the government
support, the well-known individual in the
industry, the funding to musicians). (4)
Networking (the brand, the companies,
and the industry professions). Second, the
coding for the recording studio. (1)
Mixing and engineering. (2) Live
instruments available. (3) Price per hour
accessible online. (4) Professional
Equipment. Third, the coding for the
music live venue. (1) Promotion. (2)
Exposure (International Platform). (3)
Accessible for local artists. (4) Equipment
being available (Mic, speaker, Digital).
Findings
Firstly, the music development
centres. (1) We find all the music
development center provides with
songwriting support. (2) 57% of the music
development centres are profit, and 43%
of them are non-profit. (3) 47% of the
development centres including all the
variables under the professional support.
53% of them only have the well-known
individual in the industry. (4) 47% of the
development centres including all the
variables under the networking. 53% of
them only provide networking for industry
professions.
Secondly, the recording studio. (1)
87.5% of the recording studio providing
mixing and mastering services. (2) 50% of
the recording studio providing live
instruments. (3) 68% of the recording
studio providing the price for their hourly
space rent (80-100 $). (4) all the recording
studio providing the professional
equipment, which they all have the
potential to create the hit song.
Thirdly, the music live venue. (1)
70% of the music live venues give and
support the promotion. (2) only 23% of
the music live venues provide exposure on
an international level. (3) 95% of the
music live venues has accessibility
towards local artists, which give gives
them the advantage to get their music on a
bigger platform. (4) 47% of the music live
venues do provide the music equipment in
their location.
Conclusion and Recommendation
What we come to conclude is Toronto
have high chance to become a friendly
music city in the future. We see signs of
music career development support such as
promotion, networking, non-profit music
development centre and government funds
to the artist. People who are interesting in
learning music and build their career have
free access to those non-profit music
development centre. Hence, this finding
supports our first hypothesis.
Even 57 % of the music development
centres are profit, but we still have 43% of
music development centres that is non-
profits. This counter our second
hypothesis, which the Toronto music city
might not merely treat music as a tool for
economic growth. In other words, it still
left some room for promoting music not
for the sake of economic growth, but for
the sake of music itself.
Lastly, for further research on this
topic. Our research only focuses on the
big picture of the music city. It will be
better to conducting interviews asking
about how local artists themselves feel
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about the theme of the music city. Also, certain population? (Race, Gender,
the question about does the non-profit Ethnicity, marketable music talents)
music development centre only favor of
Bibliography

Titan Music Group. (2012). Accelerating Toronto’s Music Industry Growth:

Leveraging Best Practices from Austin, Texas. Music Canada. pp.1-166.

Robert G. Hollands. (2008). Will the real smart city please stand up? City, 12:3, 303-
320, doi: 10.1080/13604810802479126

Michelle, DA Silva. & Michael, Rancic. & Kate, Robertson. & Carla, Gillis. &
Kevin, Ritchie. (2016). Dreaming of Music City. Now Magazine. Received from:
https://nowtoronto.com/music/dreaming-of-music-city-toronto-music-advisory-council/.