‘They Need To Play’: Music Agency Owner NB Worries About Future Of Live Music – New Brunswick | The Canadian News

The owner of a Moncton-based music agency and record label says the new year could be the worst yet for live music in New Brunswick.

Carol Doucet, owner of Le Grenier music, said she anticipates that 2022 will be even more difficult for the music industry than the previous two years of the pandemic.

In an interview on Saturday, he said that the combination of the worsening pandemic, the lack of government subsidies that helped artists get through 2020 and 2021, as well as venues booking fewer shows in the new year means that many artists are leaving. the industry.

“Artists, they need to play, they need to tour in order to make a living from their music. We’ve lost a lot of musicians, ”he said, adding that they have only been booking 15-20 percent of their normal rate.

It said that since its artists were unable to tour in the past two years, they have nearly doubled the production of new music, leaving artists with streaming, sales and radio works as their main source of income.

“Broadcasting is not very important from a financial point of view for artists … so it is very important that radio stations play local music and it is not always easy to convince them to do so,” he said.

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The unpredictable nature of the pandemic means that a lot of work is wasted, especially for its artists working internationally, Doucet said.

“We have musicians that go to Louisiana, Belgium, France, Switzerland in March and April, but we are not sure if this will happen,” he said.

“With all the cancellations, it is difficult to get new projects out, because they have to re-book the programs that have been canceled. “

She said that she and the artists she works with have tried to find alternative sources of income, such as online music camps and music lessons, but that there is a lot they can do.

Entertainment venues reduce capacity

The province’s new provisional measures went into effect on Saturday to curb the spread of the Omicron variant.

This means that entertainment venues such as theaters and music venues must now operate at 50% capacity.

Gregg Corrigan, co-owner of Happy Craft Brewing in downtown Moncton, regularly books live musicians.

He said many artists have approached him directly “in part because there are fewer venues than there were.”

He is able to secure the necessary distancing by having the artists perform in the brewery section of the building, away from the seating area, and said he is determined to offer live music whenever he can.

“If we are allowed (when the restrictions are tightened), we will still present one-man shows,” Corrigan said. “It sure won’t be a source of income for us, but that’s okay.”