Announced this week, the Canadian Music Centre has launched a new online hub for contemporary music composers and ensembles.
Picanto.ca aims to “nurture, support and showcase Canadian creative talent at home and abroad”. The focus is on Canadian contemporary music with music-video offerings, documentaries, educational videos and livestreaming events happening across Canada.
“How can we find and promote the amazing work being done by Canadian music creators and performers in the vast sea of digital content that has become our daily lives? Picanto.ca is one answer to this question,” states a press release.
At the time of this reporting, there are 213 videos aggregated on the site, with hosting provided by YouTube.
This summer, Picanto.ca announced an open call for Canadian music-video investments in the amount of $5,000 each for a total of seven new commissions. The chosen winners will be released late in 2021.
How it all started
- Picanto.ca was initiated by Canadian composer and electric guitarist Tim Brady and co-produced by the Canadian Music Centre with support from the Canadian New Music Network and Le Vivier. Development of the site was funded by a grant from the Canada Council’s Digital Strategy Fund.
How it works
- Music and sound artists submit their projects and viewers can play them as a livestream or as archived video-on-demand. It is always free to register, there is both free and paid content.
What kind of music?
- Jazz, new indigenous music, chamber and orchestral European art music, experimental and improvised music, Japanese gagaku, Indonesian gamelan, India raga, sound art, musique actuelle, electroacoustics, opera, and more.
How much is it?
- Registration is free. Cost to access content is mixed: some videos are free, while others are pay-per-view.
How does Picanto.ca make money?
- Beyond initial funding support, the site will be supported by payments and subscriptions, donations, and grants from various funding bodies.
Do artists get paid?
- A percentage of revenue earned from all pay-per-view fees are paid out to the artists.
The public are invited to tune in Thursday, October 14 (7:30 p.m. ET) for an online discovery party. The event will be Co-hosted by Céline Peterson and Marie-Annick Béliveau. RSVP [HERE].
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