VIEWPOINT: Love Local Music campaign hits all the right notes

By Nathaniel Dove, Arts editor

I’ve dedicated my past few columns to highlighting some of the arts projects in this city that, in my view, weren’t very good ideas. The proposed revival of an indebted travelling arts festival and the use of millions of taxpayer dollars to build a tribute to athletes who make millions of dollars a year aren’t examples of the best use of public funds.

But now comes a local arts project that I think is, simply put, a brilliant idea.

That project is Love Local Music. Created by the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition and funded by the City of Ottawa and the Ontario Media Development Fund, it’s smart because it’s so simple and convenient you wonder why no one’s done it before.

The project is a series of playlists available on Spotify), iTunes, Google Play Music and Stitcher that have been curated to showcase local artists from six loosely defined genres. It brings to your attention, and to your earbuds, some of the best music that the Ottawa area has to offer.

These are not all, strictly speaking, Ottawa-based artists, nor are they necessarily up-and-coming musicians. The first track on the Capital Coffeehouse (acoustic singer-songwriter) playlist is Craig Cardiff, who has been active for years, released 16 albums and lives in Arnprior.

But what Love Local Music does is present serious acts that have talent and a bit of a catalogue.

So far from being a collection of garage bands, this is more like Ottawa’s version of NPR’s All Songs Considered, in that it seeks to shine the spotlight on good acts that are ready to break onto a bigger stage — or at least be affirmed as an act that deserves to be regularly heard by music fans.
To that end, Love Local Music will also introduce a podcast in January that will feature music and interviews with artists, and even co-present concerts with local promoters.

This is intelligent arts funding. It takes advantage of existing popular platforms to make the local more convenient, instead of trying to carve another niche into a busy arts scene in a busy city. This makes it easier to build interest and, hopefully, will get more fans to more concerts.

The problem that Love Local Music solves is this: it isn’t that hard to find and foster a few local artists, but it can be difficult to find more than a handful of acts and to secure exposure for them.

And while social media offers every artist a venue for expression, or at least self-promotion, the result is often a cacophony that is easier to just ignore. By employing the established music-dedicated sites — I’m a Spotify user — Love Local Music makes it far easier for Ottawa music fans to learn of the talented musicians nearby. It encourages and bolsters the Ottawa music scene by introducing new music that is not only good, but readily available on your phone.

And since the purpose of the program is to introduce Ottawa music, bands that aren’t members of OMIC are also featured.

This one hits all the right notes.