President's Message

It is with great anticipation that I look forward to working with the creative and determined people who comprise Canada's recording industry.

I accepted the offer to become the President of CRIA because of my lifelong passion for music and my profound respect for the artists and other innovators who can start with a riff or a lyric and spin it into a song, and sometimes even a tune that the whole world sings.

During my career as an entertainment lawyer and as Vice President of Business Affairs and eCommerce at Universal Music Canada, I have had the honour of working with many of these talented people, such as Alannah Myles, Crash Test Dummies, Leahy, Loreena McKennitt, Randy Bachman, The Northern Pikes, The Pursuit of Happiness, Somerset Records and True North Records. And I am proud to have contributed to the birth of Canada's first legitimate online download service Puretracks last year.

We have a great deal to be proud of in Canada. Our performing artists are among the most recognized and successful in the world .

Canada's music industry has suffered challenging times for the better part of the last decade. The drop in annual sales between 1999 - the year that Napster's unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing service launched - and the end of 2004 was $465 million.

When there are fewer sales, record companies can't employ as many people, or to develop the careers of as many new artists each year. We've actually seen a 40 per cent drop in the number of Canadian artist certifications in the same time period.

It's common sense: when people can take music without paying for it: legitimate sales suffer, careers suffer.

I am optimistic about the coming year. I foresee that in the New Year our nascent online market place will become a robust environment for online retailers and consumers. There are now a number of businesses offering new services like music downloads and phone mastertones. Given some economic stability and consumer confidence, they should just take off next off next year.

For our part, the music business has retooled and is well equipped for this new online environment. Look for record companies and artists interacting innovatively with their audiences. Exclusive content, value adds will be streaming from unique new spaces.

What's more, governments around the world are lining up to ratify World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Treaties that will bring their copyright laws into the digital age. Canada will soon join 50 other nations in updating its Copyright Act, and in doing so will allow artists and others to seek compensation for their work, no matter how it is distributed.

Please watch this space for more news about exciting achievements by Canada's recording industry in the weeks and months to come.

Best wishes,
Graham Henderson
President

CRIA is...

The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) is a non-profit trade organization that was founded in 1964 to represent the interests of Canadian companies that create, manufacture and market sound recordings.

The Strength Of Our Industry

The structure of the Canadian Recording Industry Association is stronger than it has ever been in terms of achieving its objectives. Its strength, however, lies in its ability to represent all aspects of the industry on a national basis, and to achieve that, it requires the support of companies who believe in the philosophy of a strong, healthy and united recording industry in Canada.

Organization

CRIA is governed by a Board of Directors elected annually by the membership from among the chief executive officers of member companies. The Board establishes policies and elects the officers of the Association.

The CRIA office is based in Toronto and both the full-time President and the Director of Anti-piracy Operations are headquartered there.