Left to right: Daniel Lafrance (Éditorial Avenue), Nicole Beausoleil (Productions Nicole Beausoleil), Lucie Bourgouin (Permission), Jehan V. Valiquet (Groupe Éditorial Musinfo), David Murphy (David Murphy et Cie.)
On June 15, 2022, APEM named Lucie Bourgouin the recipient of this year’s Christopher-J.-Reed Award. Named in honour of this renowned music publisher, who passed away in August of 2012, the Christopher-J.-Reed Award is given to a person with outstanding achievements in the professional music publishing community, the utmost respect for music creators and their copyrights, and whose contribution to the trade and awareness of the work of publishers is exceptional. The award, presented by the Association des professionnels de l’édition musicale (APEM), with the support of SOCAN, was handed out in Montréal as part of the Rendez-vous Pros des Francos, during a day of activities celebrating APEM’s 20th Anniversary.
As head of Permission, the company she founded in 1995, Bourgouin has known for a long time that rights clearance is an important niche industry for screen productions. More than 20 years after the creation of her own business, she knows all the ins and outs of a fair trade between the different parties when it comes to integrating one work into another.
She joins a prestigious list of past recipients of the Prize including Daniel Lafrance (2013), Jehan V. Valiquet (2014), David Murphy (2015), Carol Ryan (2016), Claude Brunet (2017), Denis Wolff (2018), Serge Provençal (2019), Patrick Curley (2020), and Nicole Beausoleil (2021).
APEM also presented two roundtables that day: the first about its history, with one of its founders, Daniel Lafrance (Éditorial Avenue); the second, on the future of music publishing in Québec, with Guillaume Lombart (Ad Litteram), Odette Lindsay (Third Side Music), Yao (Intello-Production) and Marie-Ève Rochon (Bonsound).
The second roundtable looked at several aspects of music publishing, including education, best practices, new challenges brought on by digital technology, collaboration opportunities, and finally, how to properly understand new forms of music consumption. The consensus was that the future lies, above all, in better publishing education for music creators.
APEM also presented two musical showcases early in the evening, featuring current pop sensation Marilyne Léonard (published by Editorial Avenue) and rapper 20some (published by Joy Ride Records), a member of the popular rap group Dead Obies.