Our Front of House feature this month is on Emma Brown, Online Licensing Administrator. Emma’s career at CMRRA began in 2006, right after she graduated from Fanshawe College’s Music Industry Arts program. Since then, her role has evolved alongside the music industry’s shift to digital platforms, and she values being part of a dedicated and supportive team.
You’ve been at CMRRA since 2006 and currently hold the position of Online Licensing Administrator. Can you tell us about your role and how it has evolved over the years?
I was hired right out of Fanshawe College’s Music Industry Arts program. I knew immediately that I wanted to work at CMRRA after Marianne Anderson (Publisher Relations Manager) visited one of our business classes and spoke about CMRRA’s role in the Canadian music industry. At the time, I was a singer/songwriter, and I was planning to move to Toronto. I thought CMRRA would be the perfect place to work, learn about the licensing and publishing world, and meet people in the industry. I was right. Luckily when I graduated CMRRA was hiring, and a group of my friends from school were hired too. We all moved to Toronto and lived downtown within a few blocks of each other for that first year, it was really fun to explore the city and start our careers together. I was hired onto the team supporting a project CMRRA ran for several years supporting Gracenote royalty distributions for their business and Joy Galiatsos was one of my supervisors (and lucky for me she still is today). At the end of 2009 I moved into the Online Licensing Department, and I’ve been there ever since. The way the world listens to and purchases music has changed a lot over the years and I’ve found my role at CMRRA has evolved constantly. It’s always interesting and rewarding to work with a great group of people who are dedicated and create a welcoming atmosphere where we are all successful.
What advice would you give to someone just starting their career in the industry?
My advice is to get out there and get involved! Go to the shows, go to Canadian Music Week, be a volunteer, get behind the scenes, attend panels. If you are a musician play live whenever you can, you never know who’s listening or who you could meet.
You had a busy summer attending various shows, ranging from Neil Young, Rock the Park in London, ON, to the Bluewater BorderFest Music Festival in Sarnia, ON. What has been the highlight?
Sadly, Neil Young and Crazy Horse had to cancel their performance at Rock the Park due to illness so I will just have to catch them the next time. BorderFest was fun, I Mother Earth was the highlight for me, they opened and had a short set, but they sounded amazing and with Edwin back as their lead singer it was nostalgic. It was my first time seeing Our Lady Peace and they put on a great show closing out the night. Raine can still hit those high notes!
What is your all-time favourite album, and why does it hold such significance for you?
That’s a hard question to answer, I have a lot of favourite albums from different stages of my life. One of my favourites from my time living in Toronto as a young person starting out would be The Wooden Sky’s debut album When Lost At Sea. They are a great Indie folk rock band from Toronto that put on an amazing live show. I enjoy all the songs on the album, but my favorites are the opening track “This Bird Has Flown”, “Rant in Blue”, “Poor Caroline”, and “The Wooden Sky”. Gavin’s vocals and the lyrics really speak to me; in my opinion it’s a great example of Canadian songwriting at its best.
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