eFlash! 2019-08

2019 AGM — Annual General Meeting / AGA 2019 — Assemblée générale annuelle

Sonus Upgrade 2019

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I am very pleased to give further details on activities related to Sonus, as mentioned in Myriam’s President’s Report. 1[1. The Report on the Sonus Upgrade 2019 starts at 30:33 in the audio recording of the AGM.]

This unique, online “jukebox” for electroacoustic practices was launched in 2003 — long before the idea of streaming had become mainstream. Today, this database constitutes the largest freely available online collection of electroacoustic works in the world. Artists can submit their electroacoustic and related works to Sonus at no cost, and retain all copyrights for their work. Users benefit from an extremely diverse and inclusive space where they can discover the participating artists and their works, and can listen to individual works or self-organized playlists in high quality while consulting programme notes, work information and artist biographies.

You will recall from my Report on the Upgrade of Sonus at last year’s AGM that the SOCAN Foundation had awarded the CEC with Special Project Funding that made it possible to make essential programming corrections and redesign the interface. In parallel to that “tune-up” in 2017–18, a more extensive plan for broader improvements was developed to guarantee the long-term viability of the project. As Shawn mentioned in his Treasurer’s Report, the CEC successfully applied for a major Sector Innovation grant from the Canada Council for this second stage of ameliorations, which are being implemented in June-December 2019.

At present, approximately 60% of the nearly 3000 works in Sonus are by artists who are from or living in Canada. Each year, 30–50 new works by young and emerging Canadian artists are added effortlessly through the Jeu de temps / Times Play (JTTP) project.

The 2019 enhancements include updating and copyediting of information contained in existing records: biographical information and programme notes, as well as other documentation about the works and the artists. For this substantial task, which will vastly improve the quality of presentation and support of the artists and works, Canadian artists are the priority. Metadata will also be implemented in the entire site, which will greatly improve the positioning and discoverability of Sonus content and artists in online search results.

Once completed, the CEC will exploit the vastly improved potential of the resource for the representation of the artists whose works are found there. Thanks to a streamlined submission process, a plethora of minor to extensive interface improvements, a cleaner and sexier design, improved visibility in search results and renewed promotional activities that are more assertive than before, a surge in new submissions is expected.

In other words, the two upgrades will have made it possible for the CEC to represent and promote artists in Sonus — perhaps 60% of whom are Canadian — to an extent that has thus far been difficult, if not impossible. Of course this will take place at the national level but the renown of Sonus will also make it easy for the CEC to effectively position and represent these artists within the broader international community of electroacoustic practices. The artists benefit from a highly respectful and professional level of representation that can only benefit their artistic activities in Canada and abroad.

On behalf of the CEC, I would like to thank both the SOCAN Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of this important initiative. Thanks are also due to Jean-François Denis and David Turgeon (Diffusion i Média) for their important contributions to the project in terms of interface design and programming.

Yves Gigon
Administrative co-Director of the CEC
Montréal, Tuesday, 27 August 2019