Ontario Music Fund being cut by more than half

The Ontario Music Fund is being cut by more than half, and could make it even harder for struggling musicians to survive.

Nobody in the industry knows yet how widespread the cuts will be, and what effects they will have on the grass roots music scene.

The Arkells are stars now, they’ve made it, but for every success story, there are hundreds of other bands and artists struggling to make ends meet. The province is cutting its music fund from 15 million a year, to only 7.

Hamilton’s Sonic Unyon manages a small stable of artists, including Terra Lightfoot.

They also run Supercrawl, funding is already in place for this year’s event, but not next years.

Record producer Andre Kaden Black spoke to aspiring artists at Mohawk College today, he says losing funding could hurt young musicians.

The PC’s say they are reviewing the music grant program to refocus investments into emerging talent, this after industry giants Sony, Universal, and Warner Music shared close to 2 million dollars last year.