This sucks. The Canadian Government passed regulations nearly a month ago that pose a potentially serious problem to any thought of a healthy Canadian concert scene. Under the new rules, international touring artists have to pay nearly triple what they used to in order to perform in Canada. Applications used to be $150 per artist; now, they're $425. Imagine a group of four performers looking to play shows in Canada: under the old rules, they'd be paying $600 for the four of them to cross the border for a show; as of July 31st, they now have to shell out $1,700.
It doesn't take much math savvy to realize that this could really negatively impact any hip-hop acts that aren't signed to a major label - which is to say, a
lot of hip-hop acts. What ripple effect does this have? Artists asking promoters for more money up front? Promoters charging higher ticket prices? Suddenly, shows that could have turned a decent profit before may not be worth the risk. The whole culture suffers as a result - that's that ish I
don't like. So, how can we fix this? Well, start by reading the petition after the jump.
