A mainstay in the Canadian business and entertainment sectors, The Commission Entertainment Corporation’s Founder and CEO Janathan Dharma continues to keep ‘mission’ front and centre with their newest venture, The Commission Studios.

An already full-service entertainment company, The Commission Studios translate the Corp’s innovative concept into brick-and-mortar territory; they offer an expansive selection as a dynamic marketing agency and global distribution channel — not to mention state-of-the-art space for on-site photoshoots, video production, and hosting podcasts.

The results are a vertically integrated solution providing one-stop value creation for emerging and seasoned artists, alike, Dharma shares, as well as a burgeoning mentorship program — something more important now than ever before.

Check out the Intro Video on THE COMMISSION HERE:

The CMAOntario Festival & Awards Weekend hosted three drive-in tailgate concerts at Ancaster Fairgrounds September 3-5, 2021 including the New Faces Showcase & Concert, the Legacy Revival, and the 9th Annual CMAOntario Awards, presented by Slaight Music, with support from Ontario Creates.

This is the third awards weekend I have attended and I have to say one of the best from all aspects. The growing pains are over and the CMAOntario organization is more than ready for primetime. The diversity and quality of the talent emerging in Ontario is a sign of how great and deep the talent pool is in this province. The weekend was hosted by two of the finest performers Ontario has to offer; established veterans Jason McCoy and Beverly Mahood, Canada's answer to Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. The performances were first class with the uber- talented Western Swing Authority serving as the house band with special guest guitar whiz, Wendel Ferguson. 

Bruce Cockburn is getting back on the road with the announcement of live concert tour dates starting in December, 2021.

Cockburn’s last live concert show was November 23, 2019, in Monterey California at the Golden State Theatre.

Here’s what Bruce has to say about getting back on the road: “As 2020 rolled up on the horizon, it was shaping up to be an exciting year — the fiftieth anniversary of the release of my first album. A considerable number of shows had been booked. The expectation was that much of the year would be spent on tour in celebration of that first step into what has been a pretty interesting professional life.

“My expectations, like everyone else’s, took a big hit from the pandemic and all that has gone with it. That “Big 50th” was not to be!”

“Now, as we poke our heads up to see where this past year-and-a-bit has brought us to, I’m getting excited again about getting out and sharing my songs with all who will do me the honor of listening — in actual rooms! With people who are physically present! The 50th Anniversary Tour: 2nd Attempt…May we all stay safe and functional so it can happen!”

The Midland Cultural Centre (MCC), the premier entertainment facility and cultural hub in the heart of Georgian Bay, is pleased to announce the appointment of Daniel Broome as our new Executive Director, effective August 15th, 2021. Returning to his hometown of Midland, Dan brings an extensive music, arts, and entertainment industries background to the MCC.

In his role as Vice President of Operations & Administration for True North Records he supervised the rollout of national and international live music tours, the production of numerous music videos and the release of over 425 albums to the marketplace including multiple JUNO Award-winning and nominated recordings. After the company was sold in 2007, he joined the Toronto Musicians’ Association as their Senior Business Representative handling labour relations and contract negotiations for the musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, The National Ballet of Canada, Stratford Festival, and Mirvish Productions among others.

Dusty Hill, the cofounding bassist of ZZ Top, died in his sleep on Wednesday, May 28, 2021 in Houston,Texas at the age of 72 according to social media announcements.

Born May 19, 1949, Joseph Michael "Dusty" Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was an American musician who was the co-founder, bassist and secondary vocalist of the American group, ZZ Top. He also played keyboards with the band. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of ZZ Top, in 2004.

It’s official; marking its fourth annual year celebrating music in Durham Region, the Oshawa Music Awards have announced this year’s nominees!

Spanning seven award categories — including Durham Song of the Year, Emerging Artist or Band of the Year, Album of the Year, and more — public voting for nominees has officially begun via theomas(dot)ca. It will close on August 20th at 11:59 p.m. EST, and the awards are across three days: September 9, September 16, and September 23.

This year’s recipients of OMA’s Music Industry Leader and Lifetime Achievement/Hall of Fame honours were also revealed; Artemis Chartier will receive the 2021 honour of Music Industry Leader of the Year, and Ivan Berry — alongside the late Al Cole and the late Andy Gondek — will receive Lifetime Achievement and Hall of Fame nods.

“The OMAs are excited to officially reveal the names of our nominees,” says co-director, Julius Allan Rondilla. “The Durham Region is front row to so many incredibly talented candidates; our arts scene is home to some of the nation’s best!”

2021 Official Nominees & Recipients

LyricFind, the pioneer in licenced lyrics, is launching a new service that allows labels and rightsholders to quickly and easily turn their tracks into dynamic and engaging lyric videos. Born from the vision of Bill Wilson, SVP Operations & Innovation, eOne Music has come on as a launch partner. Artists from its iconic Death Row Records label, including The Game, Snoop Dogg, Pop Evil, Dr. Dre, and Bryant Myers, are part of the initial batch of videos created by the platform. At the time of publication, LyricFind’s lyric videos have amassed millions of views for The Game’s The Documentary 2.0 and Bryant Myers’ Bendecido albums alone.

Artists from the legendary Death Row catalogue are featured in the rollout of LyricFind’s new programmatic lyric video creation service.

Stony Plain Records proudly announces the signing of 2020 International Blues Challenge Winner HOROJO Trio, and will release the band’s debut album in early 2022.

Representing the Ottawa Blues Society in the 2020 competition, HOROJO Trio is a soul rockin’ rhythm & blues act that features drummer Jamie Holmes, singer/keyboardist Jeff Rogers, and guitarist/singer JW-Jones, who was named the year's Best Guitarist at the IBC. The band name is derived from the first two letters of each of the member’s last names. Pronunciation: HO-RO-JO. 1) HO - Think Santa Claus; 2) RO – “Row Your Boat;” 3) JO – “Joe.”

In a 60,000-word tell-all, it’s all the stories that can finally be told… Canada’s greatest rock critic Jeffrey Morgan releases his new lavishly illustrated book, Rock Critic Confidential.

The salacious tell-all lands in the form of a hardcover coffee table book via UK publisher, New Haven.

READ! how Morgan was STRONG-ARMED by Lester Bangs into spending TWENTY YEARS as the Canadian Editor of CREEM: America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine!

GASP! at Morgan’s LIFE-ALTERING DESTINY to become the authorized biographer of both ALICE COOPER and IGGY POP & THE STOOGES!

CHEER! as Morgan relentlessly INTERROGATES reprobate rock stars like GLENN GOULD! BOB DYLAN! LOU REED! TED NUGENT! RICK WAKEMAN! JETHRO TULL! NASH THE SLASH! GARY NUMAN! KISS! STAN LEE! and many others FOR HOURS ON END until they finally BREAKDOWN and literally CONFESS TO COMMITTING MULTIPLE MURDERS and UTTER DEATH THREATS and perform other heinous UNSPEAKABLE PRACTICES and UNNATURAL ACTS!

The 17th Annual Andy Kim Christmas will make its live return to the famed Massey Hall on Wednesday, December 8, 2021. Tickets will go on sale Thursday, June 24, 2021.

The Andy Kim Christmas has been gathering friends and fans together to celebrate the spirit and generosity of the musical community with all proceeds going to charity. Last year, the concert brought people together from coast to coast on television, raising over $200,000 to bring its cumulative money raised to over $1.8 million. The program is the brainchild of music legend, and one of the evening's performers, Andy Kim.

“I have longed to do the Christmas show at Toronto’s historic Massey Hall and with the support of Live Nation Canada, I am excited to be one of the first to perform after their restoration and bring The Andy Kim Christmas back in front of a live audience after many, many long months and hopefully raise an incredible amount of money for CAMH Gifts Of Light,” said Andy Kim.

Heather Bambrick, Jane Bunnett, Reg Schwager, Neil Swainson and more are standing by, ready to go live for JazzinToronto’s newly announced upcoming festival this July 20th - 23rd!

JazzinToronto Live: A Community Celebration is a free festival set to live-stream from some of the city’s most beloved venues. The four-day digital event will present an exciting roster teeming with the diverse talent the City of Toronto has to offer — including Laura Hubert, Rebecca Hennessy, Alexis Baro, Nathan Hiltz, Donovan Locke, Jesse Ryan and Caity Gyorgy.

“JazzinToronto started in 2018 as a daily listings service on Instagram,” Founder and Co-Director Lina Welch shares. “Our mission is to connect Toronto jazz audiences, musicians, venues, and presenters — which has only become even more important during this challenging time.”

Check out the Teaser here on YouTube:

With 10 days away, The Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival are getting ready to host one of Canada’s biggest music award shows. The Awards span 18 categories, celebrating solo artists, duos and groups from across Canada by showcasing the diverse and growing music and culture of artistic expression and accomplishment within the Indigenous community.

“Presenting and promoting Indigenous music has been a cornerstone of our Festival for over 22 years, so we felt it was a natural connection to establish these international Awards to spark this celebration of Indigenous music in recognition of National Indigenous History Month and National Indigenous Peoples Day,” said Trina Mather Simard, Artistic Producer and Executive Director of Ottawa’s Summer Solstice Festival which runs June 1st to June 21.

This Year’s Billboard Music Awards were presented Sunday, May 23, 2021 and Canada’s treasure The Weeknd led with wins in 10 categories, including top artist, top male artist and top Hot 100 artist.

Here is the final list of nominees and winners.

Top Artist
Drake
Juice WRLD
Pop Smoke
Taylor Swift
Winner: The Weeknd

Top New Artist
Gabby Barrett
Doja Cat
Jack Harlow
Winner:  Pop Smoke
Rod Wave

Top Male Artist
Drake
Juice WRLD
Lil Baby
Pop Smoke
Winner: The Weeknd

Top Female Artist
Billie Eilish
Ariana Grande
Dua Lipa
Megan Thee Stallion
Winner: Taylor Swift

Top Duo/Group
AC/DC
AJR
Winner: BTS
Dan + Shay
Maroon 5

Top Billboard 200 Artist
Drake
Juice WRLD
Pop Smoke
Post Malone
Winner: Taylor Swift

Formed in 1980, an intrepid young band from Burlington Ontario would soon make "Spoons" a different kind of household word...

Together with Derrick Ross and Rob Preuss, Gord Deppe and Sandy Horne would help define the sound of pop and New Wave in the 80's, with hits including "Nova Heart", "Romantic Traffic", "Old Emotions" and "Tell No Lies".

Their album "Arias & Symphonies" would go on to be named one of the 20 Most Influential Albums of The 80's by "the Chart" Magazine, and their song "Nova Heart" was recently included in Bob Mersereau's book "the Top 100 Canadian Singles of All Time"...Not bad for a bunch of kids from Burlington, Ontario...

The Unison Fund – Canada’s music industry charity, providing counselling and emergency relief services to the Canadian music community – announced the launch of Band Together In Unison, a Million Dollar charitable campaign in support of The Unison Fund’s continued efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic’s financial and psychological devastation of the Canadian music industry. Several major artists and industry organizations including Amazon Music, Nickelback, Eleanor McCain, The Tragically Hip and more have rallied to support the music community here at home with generous financial donations that will go towards the campaign’s goal of raising $1,000,000.

“It’s inspiring to see our music community come together to support and lift up our peers during this difficult time,” said Amanda Power, Executive Director, The Unison Fund. “While the donations raised will significantly help, much more is needed. We encourage those who have the means to support this charitable effort so that all music people affected by this crisis can receive the financial assistance they need.”

I have been asked many times where I got the idea for the Musical Milestones.

The idea came from the same place as many great concepts: I stole it. Or let’s say I adapted it.

It really began about 30 years ago with a regular bit I did when I was the Afternoon Drive deejay at AM 1430, a radio station in Toronto. I did a comedy bit saluting humorous anniversaries with a character I called The Old Historian. You can hear his last appearance by clicking this link: scottwalker.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CJCL-The-Old-Historian.mp3

Canada’s indisputable Godfather of hip hop Maestro Fresh Wes has unveiled his newest release — an inspirational children’s book, Stick To Your Vision: Young Maestro Goes to School.

Telling the tale of a young Maestro as he finds new adventures, both in school and as he’s introduced to the world of hip hop, readers follow along as he competes in the school’s writing contest against ‘Julia the Great’ and ‘Hakeem the Dream.’ Nervous — but ready — Wes draws inspiration from his family, teachers, friend and mentor DJ Greg, plus all that he has learned from hip hop, to find the power of his pen.

Written by Toronto, ON/Saint John, NB’s Wes Williams and award-winning teacher, mentor, educational consultant, and student advocate Rhodora Meliton-Vanderpool, the book includes a foreword from fellow legendary music icon, Kardinal Offishall, and illustrations from multi-talented artist, entrepreneur, media personality, and author Leon “Eklipz” Robinson.

“This book was written to emphasize the importance of family structure, mentorship, hip hop, and the positive impact of inspirational elementary school teachers,” Williams says.

The results are in: Canadian retro-modern country-fusion artist Joy Chapman is officially the new Guinness World Record holder for Lowest Female Vocal Note! She’s available for interviews and demonstrations as well.

Smashing the previous record of 57.9 Hz A#1, the British Columbia-based singer/songwriter unveiled her current record of 33.57 Hz C1 for the win.

“I’m honoured and excited to hold this official record with Guinness,” Chapman shared of the results. “And that said, I plan to break it! Normally, I go way beyond to being recorded at E0 20 Hertz, and with a recording high of C10.”

Check out the YouTube here:

Those same signature velvet-textured vox that secured the Guinness record also bring Chapman’s forthcoming debut release, Footprint In My Songs.

LyricFind, the world’s pioneer in licensed lyrics, is excited to bring multifaceted Canadian music professional Zack Werner onto its Toronto-based team. He will be joining the company to manage Business Development.

A Winnipeg native, Werner has enjoyed a varied and extensive career in the music industry as an artist, producer, record executive, entertainment lawyer, music educator, and artist manager. With a law degree and a penchant for finding and developing talent, he has done everything from opening for Alice In Chains and running his own label and management agency, to practicing law and judging Canadian Idol. For six seasons, Zack appeared on the massive hit TV series and gained a reputation as the show’s “wild card” judge for his perceptive, unexpected views.

Werner will apply his savvy and skill to cultivate relationships that will bring LyricFind’s high-quality licenced lyrics and data products to more industries and spaces, as well as expanding the impact of new tools and products LyricFind has developed for music catalog owners, publishers, and labels.

Artist Julian Taylor has garnered his first Canadian Folk Music Award (CFMA) as Solo Artist of the Year. After a 20-year career of making great music, Taylor is delighted to be recognized for his achievements. For more information please visit the website and www.folkawards.ca.

Taylor, of combined Mohawk and Caribbean ancestry, is a major label veteran, Toronto music scene staple, and musical chameleon. Along with two JUNO nominations this year, Taylor was nominated in two categories for the 2021 CFMAs, English Songwriter of the Year and Solo Artist of the Year, the latter of which he won. In a field of outstanding nominees William Prince, Coco Love Alcorn, Basia Bulat, Sarah Jane Scouten, and Pharis & Jason Romero, Taylor was especially honoured to take the prize.