Federico on DKD and Seligman

Donald K. Donald’s recollection of personal experiences in the music industry throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s was at the same time entertaining and filled with interesting advice for both ourselves and for future generations.

Donald’s started off in the music business as a DJ back in the 60s. Founder of a number of large-scale rock festivals in Montreal and Toronto, he soon understood (even as early as the 60s) that it is necessary to plunge into the culture that immediately surrounds you in order to attract the attention and sympathy of audiences; he also quickly understood the importance of approaching and communicating with Montreal’s bilingual audiences in both French and English.

After his first experiences as an events creator, he became a record producer in the 70s, founding his first record company, basing his business on the concept that “everything is about personal connections with producers and agents.”

By the 90s, he was one of the most prominent and influential figures in the music business in Canada, mostly working in the Montreal and Toronto areas. Thanks to his almost 50 years of experience as a record producer, founder of small and large-scale events, PR and artist agent, Donald possesses a very clear vision of the evolution of the music market from the 60s up until to today. This vision puts the markets of today and tomorrow in the context of the paradigm shift that began already in the 90s. While originating in the “wealth for everyone” ideal of the pre-90s situation, the business became progressively more restrained, and this continues to characterize today’s situation in many ways. People in the business tried to adapt to the new post-90s way of business making by moving in different directions, in particular by looking abroad to reach larger and larger audiences and find new ways of selling music as a product. Michael Cole, for example, created the idea of worldwide touring. Canada, Donald said, maintained the leadership in this process of renewal of the music business all the way through the 90s (for example, Live Nation and Ticketmaster were created in Canada in response to this paradigm shift) and continues to do so.

As a result of this paradigm shift, a new and challenging future for the music business has dawned. Subscription services and the need to prevent loss incurred from illegal downloading (mainly by making products more accessible to people) have been highlighted by Donald as two of the major issues the music business has to face today.

Complementary to Donald’s talk was Dan Seligman’s talk on the festival Pop Montreal. Seligman focused mainly on the circumstances surrounding today’s live shows, describing how Pop Montreal works and how it constitutes a successful model; as a non-profit organization, re-designed year by year, the festival is always in the process of evolving (incidentally, evolution was a point on which both speakers strongly agreed). Reaching out for broader audiences by means of the combination of both more and less well-known artists is a key element for Seligman and his festival.