You know, I always do this! I start out on a mission to clarify a specific topic and in doing so I find myself writing about something else! Such is life no? First let me start of by telling you this info pertains to our Canadian readership.

I get CDs sent frequently for my review and I find it extremely frustrating to see, or rather, not see the MAPL "logo" when clearly it is a Canadian product. I guess there are still a few of you who don't have a clue why it works to your advantage to outline your products' Canadian Content by utilizing this symbol. Perhaps you are aware of it, but unsure how useful it is. Let me share with you some information, direct from the horses' mouth - the CRTC website.

These elements were selected, as part of the Canadian content regulations, following an extensive public hearing process ( which is due for review). The MAPL system is designed to stimulate all components of the Canadian music industry and to be as simple as possible for the industry to implement and regulate. In order to qualify as CanCon you need 2 of the 4 letter symbols.

Let's break down the M A P L for you so you can see why you need it and how it applies to your product".
   M stands for MUSIC. The musical composition of the song must have been    composed by a Canadian in order to allot your song an "M".
   A stands for ARTIST, thus the Artist who is performing the music or singing the
    lyrics must be Canadian
   P stands for PRODUCTION. Was your production completely recorded in    Canada?
   L stands for LYRICS. The lyrics must be written by a Canadian.

It is a good idea to outline each song's MAPL assignation if they differ or you can simply state, as an example, "All songs MAL except for tracks 1 and 6 which are M". For some Artists including the MAPL is critical to their careers' success.

Consider this: there are many radio formats yet only a handful welcome new talent and these include: Country, Hot AC, Adult Contemporary, Rock and Urban. Jazz and Classical are very small markets as well. There are Talk Radio, News Radio, Classic Hits, and Golden Oldies which, by their format, do not include new music. So, as an artist or songwriter you have only a few options for airplay.

Based on a study done by Hennessey and Bray Communications in March 05 which surveyed 447 radio stations for 8 weeks, the statistics show what an uphill battle it is to be included as a new ad on a stations' play list. Below are the stats for new adds by format averaged over a year.

Country adds per station were 102.74 a year and of this, Can Con adds totalled 50.19 and Indies 16.25 per YEAR. If you are no good at math that means CanCon is less than 1 new add per week.

Adult Contemporary - 67.83 per year, of that Can Con totalled less than 32 and Indies less than 5!

Mainstream Top 40/CHR has the highest numbers with: 169 for the year, less than 64 were CanCon but almost 20 Indies.

Hot AC comes in a close second with almost 123 new adds a year, less than 45 CanCon and less than 5 Indies.

"The majority of CanCon spots are taken up by a narrow list of high profile artists Sum 41, Shania, Simple Plan, Avril Lavigne" states David Bray, Sr Vice President of Hennessy and Bray Communications. "Critically acclaimed artists (e.g. Bruce Cockburn, Susan Aglukark, Kathleen Edwards) that did not fit format constraints go virtually without play".

The CRTC will be holding a public hearing on May 15 2006 to "consider matters addressed as part of a review of its Commercial Radio Policy". There are organizations within the industry who would like to see this system modified. It has been debated and agreed that simply increasing the % of CanCon would do little to assist emerging artists as this might simply provide more opportunities for established artists. In the summer of 05 Gregg Terrence of Indie Pool released www.letsfixcancon.ca which, at the time, seemed to encourage a better credit system of air play, creating initiatives for Radio Stations to play more "emerging" artists and others believed creating a quota system, or mandatory airplay, would be more effective. The bottom line is we need more support from radio for our emerging artists. In combination with similar initiatives by CIRRA a formal submission (*1) was sent to the CRTC which sites their option for quotas and although the focus is not simply to increase CanCon overall, they want to create a base % of airplay given to emerging artists played within the CanCon guidelines. Friends of Canadian Broadcasting also submitted their concerns which included their support for more emerging artists on radio(*2). CIRRA wants one third of CanCon daytime play to be emerging artists and 50% of evening play CanCon. F C B requests a bit less.

CanCon was initiated in the 70s to develop a "star" system in Canada which was virtually non existent at that time. All Canadian talent then was "emerging" or "developing". Now the pendulum has swung and the laws largely support the stars and not the developing artists.

So there you have it. Now you know what CanCon is, and why it is important to include your MAPL designations on your product. There are people and organizations out there trying to help you get your much needed radio exposure and if you don't scream " I am Canadian", you might not get heard!

Please see our sources for more information.
*1 CIRAA submission
www.ciraa.ca/clientsites/ciraa/CIRAAReviewSubmission.pdf
CRTC Public Hearing
www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Hearings/2006/n2006-1.htm
Lets Fix Can Con
www.letsfixcancon.ca/
*2 Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
www.friends.ca/Resource/briefs/policy03150601.asp
CanCon
www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/G11.htm
MAPL
www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/R1.htm
Hennessey Bray Communication study posted in Ciraa
www.letsfixcancon.ca/clientsites/letsfixcancon/airplay_study.pdf
CIRAA
www.ciraa.ca

~ Jana Reid