Assistance for businesswomen in music industry is near
By Naomi Ambrose, Staff Writer
Women in Music BC hosted an event designed to link up all female-identifying people in BC’s music industry. The event was held on September 27 at the Narrow Lounge in Vancouver.
Several female artists and entrepreneurs in BC’s music industry came to mingle with each other and to learn about a new program that is expected to be launched in the province in spring of 2019.
According to Creative BC’s website, the upcoming program is similar to the Women in Music Canada Ontario Chapter’s Entrepreneur Accelerator program. The program aims to provide entrepreneurial women in the music industry with practical and theoretical assistance to help them to grow their business.
Jess Vaira, a Vancouver singer-songwriter, open mic host and show producer who attended the event organized by Creative BC and Women in Music BC, said in an interview with the Other Press, “I think [it was a] lovely event.”
According to the Business Development Bank of Canada’s website, accelerator programs assist emerging businesses by providing them with access to essential resources that will help these businesses to thrive and become self-sufficient. The building of that strong foundation could eventually help these businesses sustain themselves economically and financially.
Accelerator programs can be strenuous yet enriching and rewarding.
“The accelerator experience is a process of intense, rapid, and immersive education aimed at accelerating the life cycle of young innovative companies, compressing years’ worth of learning-by-doing into just a few months,” said Ian Hathaway in a Harvard Business Review article.
Although accelerator programs are usually geared towards new startups, established startups also participate in the programs.
The accelerator program could also help to increase the economic sustainability of women employed in the Canadian music industry. This economic sustainability is worth considering—especially if one considers the findings of a survey carried out by Women in Music Canada. According to information retrieved from a 2015 report on Women in Music Canada’s website, “The annual salaries of women in the music industry in 2014 were 27 [percent] lower on average than the most recently available average annual salary for the sound recording segment in Canada.” For music companies in 2014, the report stated, women made about 10 percent less than that industry’s average.
To help with the launch of the BC accelerator program, attendees answered survey questions. The questions were also meant to assess the needs of music businesswomen. Sarah Fenton from Creative BC said in an interview with the Other Press that the event “is the first and the first step of discussion.” Fenton indicated that there is a possibility that additional research will be done in the music industry to gather more information.
Fenton also advised that people who are interested in finding out further updates and discussions can follow the Women in Music BC Facebook group.
