By Kerry Doole
Frank Davies is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in Canadian music industry history, a recognition cemented in 2014 with the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the JUNO Awards.
Since emigrating from England in 1970, Davies has built a career that spans many facets of the music industry including creating and running Daffodil Records, founding and/or heading successful music publishing companies (ATV Music Group Canada, TMP-The Music Publisher, Partisan Music Productions), producing albums from the 1970s onwards through to those more recent like Serena Ryder’s breakthrough If Your Memory Serves You Well, and creating the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF). His diverse career has seen him shape the development of numerous Canadian artists and songwriters, and over the years, he has forged a strong bond with the Canadian Music Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA). Reflecting on his long history with CMRRA, Davies speaks highly of the agency and its impact, both on his work and on the Canadian music industry as a whole.
Davies closely observed the agency from its founding in 1975, saying “those founding music publisher directors included several longtime publisher colleagues of mine – Al Mair, Cyril Devereux, John Bird as well as John’s brother Bailey, Franco Colombo, Matt Heft, Bill Coombs, Doug Chesebrough, and William ‘Bill’ Brubacher.”
“I became a client of CMRRA early on when I started with my small publishing company, part of the Daffodil group, and CMRRA represented the rights we had.”
At the time, Daffodil signed and released albums and singles by Canadian artists such as Crowbar, King Biscuit Boy, Tom Cochrane, A Foot In Coldwater, Klaatu and Fludd. Over the years, Davies represented an impressive roster of Canadian songwriters and artists including Murray McLauchlan, Honeymoon Suite, Ron Hynes, Alfie Zappacosta, Ian Thomas/The Boomers, Hagood Hardy, David Tyson, Eddie Schwartz, Jane Siberry, Aldo Nova, Dan Hill, Toronto, Bill Henderson/Chilliwack, the Headpins, and many others. He remains active as a publisher, with current songwriter clients including Nathan Ferraro (Beyoncé) and David Tyson (Alannah Myles).
Davies joined the CMRRA Board of Directors in June 1984, serving 17 years, including a term as Chairman from 1992 to 1996. He also served on the executive committee of the Canadian Music Publishers Association (CMPA) from 1982-2000. “It made a lot of sense to join CMRRA when I did, as by then I was running both ATV Music Group, a large music publisher in Canada, and my original publishing company. I was also on the board of PROCAN, a performing rights society, so it all worked well together.”
When Davies first became affiliated with CMRRA, he admits he was still learning the ins and outs of the music publishing business. “I was rather thrown in the deep end after initially starting in the record business in the UK and then with my own record label here and realizing early on, thank God, that I needed to publish what I was producing and releasing. Without that I think it’d have been impossible to survive as long as I was able with an indie label.”
A quick learner, Davies rapidly educated himself in the world of music publishing, copyrights and policy, and his insights proved valuable for CMRRA. His time on the Board including his role as Chairman came during a period of great growth, and major challenges for the agency.
He singles out Cyril Devereux and David Basskin as key figures at CMRRA. “Devereux was just an extraordinary person,” says Davies. “As the original General Manager at CMRRA, he was able to help David navigate those early years, imparting knowledge on mechanical rights, broadcast mechanicals and other areas CMRRA handled.”
Davies was also part of the selection committee that appointed David Basskin as General Manager and CEO in 1989. He recalls “when Paul Berry resigned in 1989 to live in France we were appointed by the board to find his successor.
“Our search to find the right person to lead the CMRRA, amidst the evolving music industry landscape and its fragile relationship with the record industry ‘majors’, was a pivotal moment for the organization. We needed someone with the expertise and intellectual savvy to take on a much-expanded role. After meeting with many individuals from various sectors, our selection of David Basskin, a broadcast lawyer, proved to be a watershed moment for CMRRA.”
“It was a whirlwind when David came in,” he adds. “Times were difficult. There was no love lost between the publishing companies and the record industry. It was contentious and confrontational.”
Given his work in both camps, Davies could see both sides “The record companies would say, ‘We put all this money into developing artists for you guys to take all the cream off the top.’ Sometimes that was the case, but often it wasn’t and in either case publishers also performed an important function administratively that nobody else in the music industry understood.”
“Because I came from a record and production background, I was able to be a hands-on developer of songwriters as well as artists. I understood where publishers were coming from and what good publishers did, which was a lot more than administration.”
“The good ones develop the whole career of these people, behind the scenes, putting writers together with other writers or with artists, producing demos/showcases, and financing all aspects of their careers. By the end of the 1980s, when Basskin arrived, several Canadian publishers were actively developing artists and songwriters, bringing them to labels.”
A major issue during Davies’ time at CMRRA was the mechanical rate paid to music publishers and songwriters. He explains “When I came on board, the mechanical rate was the lowest in the Western world at two cents per playing side of a vinyl album, with, on paper, 5 or 6 songs per side divided up within that two cents. This eventually led to the rallying cry ‘Two Cents Too Long!’ spearheaded by the publishers in tandem with their writers.”
A group of music publishers and leading songwriters lobbied in Ottawa, gradually pushing the rate up. “This was helped by the American model,” he adds, noting that publishers in the U.S. had more power due to the market size and their influence.
Another issue Davies took a strong interest in was that of the controlled composition clause, created by CBS Records. “It dramatically limited the return for publishers and their writers, bringing artists to a label that would then pay only 75 percent of the already small rate, which would sometimes even fall below 50 per cent,” Davies explains.
One highlight event of his time at CMRRA/CMPA singled out by Davies was a joint meeting in Toronto of the CMPA/NMPA (The National Music Publishers Association) and HFA (Harry Fox Agency)/CMRRA boards. “It was a unique, one-time event for CMRRA and the Canadian music publishing community,” he recalls. “The attendance of major American publishers at our meeting was a very respectful indication that Canadian songwriters and our smaller market mattered.”
Davies also fondly recalls ‘A Celebration of Songwriters’ created in 1985 by Greg Hambleton of Peer Southern (now peermusic), which awarded the highest earning songs in multiple genres. “It ran for several years, with the1988 event standing out during a pivotal year for Canadian Music copyright. While Greg and the CMPA initiated it, CMRRA’s financial support was crucial for its success.”
Given Frank Davies’ significant contributions to CMRRA and CMPA, it is fitting that both organizations were able, in turn, to greatly assist with his labour of love, the non-profit Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame/Le Panthéon des auteurs et compositeurs canadiens (CSHF/PACC). Created by Davies in 1998, the CSHF/PACC, now a highly important component of the Canadian music industry, will stand as his legacy project.
Recognizing the need for an institution to honour both English and French-Canadian songwriters, Davies invested both money and countless hours to get the Hall of Fame off the ground. “When I created the CSHF, I went to the CMPA and asked them to match my initial contribution. Every member matched, and then CMRRA stepped in and doubled those funds! That gave us the foundation to build a Board, secure a trademark, write bylaws, hire an executive director and take the necessary steps toward holding our first Gala.”
This early support enabled Davies to approach the major Canadian record labels for their co-operation, made easier by his relationships with those label heads. “I pitched all five label heads by saying ‘You are the beneficiaries of songwriters and what they do. We need your financial support too. The backing we had from the publishers and CMRRA helped get all those labels on board.”
Davies notes that that co-operation between publishers and record labels was a pivotal moment in uniting the songwriting and publishing community together with the record community where they could feel a common good, as partners and friends celebrating together.”
He reports that the labels came out in force to the first CSHF Gala in 2003 and loved it. Gordon Lightfoot was the initial inductee, and he was joined by some iconic French-Canadian songwriters, confirming the fully bilingual scope of the CSHF. In December 2011, SOCAN acquired the CSHF, which it continues to be run as a separate organization.
Davies reflects on CMRRA’s milestone 50th anniversary with pride. “Such an anniversary for any organization is a significant accomplishment and milestone particularly for the music business. “CMRRA’s 50th truly deserves to be celebrated. That it is also an organization that has been important to the various publishing companies I have owned or run for every one of those 50 years makes it even more pertinent and memorable to me personally.”
