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The first national study on mental health in the Canadian music industry has been released, and nearly all of its participants say that mental health issues are \u201cprevalent\u201d in their line of work.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoundcheck: Mental Health in the Canadian Music Industry<\/a>\u201d surveyed more than 1,250 music professionals through a bilingual survey, focus groups and in-depth interviews. Participants\u00a0 encompassed artists, crew members, managers, venue operators, educators, media professionals, festival staff and executives in an attempt to reach the wider industry and not solely musicians.<\/p>\n The findings are dire: 94 per cent of participants agreed that mental health issues are “prevalent” in the Canadian music industry; 86 per cent have “personally experienced challenges;” and 95 per cent have “witnessed challenges in others.”<\/p>\n Additionally, 53 per cent of respondents have felt that “life wasn\u2019t worth living;” 42 per cent have “wished they were dead;” and 43 per cent have “thought of taking their own lives.”<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not about fragility,\u201d said Catherine Harrison, lead researcher on the study and president of Revelios, which both ran the study and provided funding for it. \u201cIt\u2019s about systems. When over half of respondents have felt life wasn\u2019t worth living, we are no longer talking about isolated burnout \u2014 we are looking at structural harm. The Canadian music industry must confront how work is organized, led and supported.\u201d<\/p>\n Musicians announcing breaks for their mental health has become increasingly common in recent years. Justin Bieber surprised fans almost a decade ago when he famously cancelled the final concerts on his 2017 Purpose tour because he wanted his \u201cmind, heart and soul to be sustainable<\/a>.\u201d But once the pandemic hit, more artists followed suit: in 2022, Shawn Mendes cancelled the end of his tour, saying he needed to \u201ctake the time I’ve never taken personally to ground myself and come back stronger;\u201d Orville Peck postponed his Bronco tour in 2023, saying his \u201ccurrent mental and physical health won’t allow me to bring you my best;\u201d and as recently as last month, Demi Lovato pushed back her tour to \u201cprotect<\/a>\u201d her health.<\/p>\n But postponing a tour and taking time off to recover isn\u2019t a luxury the average musician or music industry person can afford.<\/p>\n \u2018Very validating\u2019<\/p>\n The call for mental health support has been coming from inside the house for some time. Alex Johnson, executive director of Unison Fund, a non-profit that provides phone counselling and financial assistance to members of the Canadian music industry that was also a promotional partner for the survey, said none of the results surprised her but they were \u201cvery validating.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt really brought to life in numbers some of the things that anecdotally I had witnessed in meeting with our community and working for music workers,\u201d she explained. She added that the industry hasn\u2019t recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, and added financial precarity and stress is still felt from that time.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of Canadians would be shocked to know that their favourite artist \u2014 like the person who wrote the song that they sing to their kids at night, or that played at their first dance at their wedding \u2014 their favourite artist might be struggling this much.\u201d<\/p>\n WATCH | Catherine Harrison presents the preliminary results of the survey:<\/p>\n Juno-nominated singer-songwriter Amanda Walther was one of the Soundcheck study participants, and said she was immediately interested in the study when she heard about it.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a full-time musician for 20-plus years, I have had many experiences within our industry that felt unsafe, unprofessional and unbalanced,\u201d she said via email. \u201cThere are no central bodies to protect us when the work environment is unhealthy, and the entire system seems to be set up to assist companies in making profits rather than the day-to-day experience of being an artist. I felt like this study was long overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n Walther said she has created her own work practices to protect herself, but she still struggles to uphold those boundaries. \u201cThis industry’s expectations of artists are unsustainable, unrealistic and, frankly, unhealthy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n I think a strong, united, healthy Canada needs to be doubling down on its arts funding right now.- Alex Johnson, executive director of Unison Fund<\/p>\n With the release of this first national study, Unison\u2019s Johnson believes it will finally provide a baseline to create the systemic supports that are so needed in the industry, including the possibility of paid sick leave, benefits and security for a population of artists who are getting older. She has already had conversations with labels and agents who have read the study, and want to support their artists.<\/p>\n It will all cost money, though, and arts funding at varying levels<\/a> of government<\/a> is seeing cuts. But Johnson cites a \u201cproven connection\u201d between healthy arts sectors and healthy communities as the reason to find a budget for the \u201cmulti-billion dollar economic driver\u201d that is the music industry.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a strong, united, healthy Canada needs to be doubling down on its arts funding right now,\u201d she said. \u201cNot just for the wellness of our artists or the wellness of our music workers, but for the wellness of our nation and for the unity of Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n Need help? Here are some national mental health resources:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 6 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":["post-518886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}