Ontario Music Fund Extended Permanently

BY Alex HudsonPublished Jun 17, 2015

Drake's OVO Fest may not have received any government funding this year, but the rapper's OVO Sound label was granted $45,000 thanks to the 2014-2015 Ontario Music Fund (OMF). It looks as if a lot more people will be receiving cash from the OMF in the years to come, since the provincial government has now made it a permanent, recurring program.

Previously, the OMF was launched in 2013 as a three-year, $45 million grant program. However, news of its extension was confirmed today (June 17) by Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Michael Coteau and Minister of Finance Charles Sousa during Supercrawl's 2015 lineup announcement in Hamilton.

The OMF is administrated by the Ontario Music Office, and it benefits a wide range of music industry workers including labels, publishers, managers, entrepreneurs, promoters, booking agents and more. According to an official description, it's "aimed at strengthening and stimulating growth in Ontario's music companies."

In addition to OVO Sound, recent OMF funding has gone to labels like Arts & Crafts, Dine Alone, Last Gang, Outside Music, Paper Bag, Six Shooter, Sonic Unyon and Black Box, as well as the Canadian major labels Universal, Warner and Sony. Additionally, money went to artists (and their affiliated companies) like Metric, the Tragically Hip, A Tribe Called Red and Zeds Dead, as well as live events and organizations such Canadian Music Week, Ottawa Folk Fest, Live Nation Ontario, TURF, Supercrawl and Ottawa Bluesfest.

See the full list of recipients (and how much money they got) here.

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