Secret Frequency – Music, Community, and Ideas

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  • Canadian Festival Report Card
  • Artist Features
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  • About
  • Canadian Festival Report Card
  • Artist Features
  • Resources
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  • Events

    The Check-In – August 2020

    August 1, 2020 /

    The Check-In is a weekly videohang/chat/networking session for women, trans, and non-binary folks in the music industry in August, 2020

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    Some thoughts about - and a good, green idea for - Music Submissions

    Some thoughts about – and a good, green idea for – Music Submissions

    April 22, 2016

    Music Marketing Web Seminar

    October 19, 2012
    Canadian Festival Report Card

    2014 Canadian Festival Report Card

    September 12, 2014
  • British Columbia,  Grade A Festivals

    Vancouver Folk Music Festival

    May 6, 2020 /

    The Vancouver Folk Music Festival (Vancouver, BC) July 17-19, is a Canadian cultural institution; a unique community-based celebration internationally renowned for presenting the finest traditional and contemporary folk and roots music from around the world. Each year, the Festival draws more than 40,000 enthusiastic attendees to beautiful Jericho Beach Park. Two and even three generations of families join friends and fellow community members to experience the music and culture of more than 40 international, national, and local artists. They come together to dance and to enjoy food and children’s activities – and the magical ambience of the Festival. The Vancouver Folk Music Festival has received an ‘A’ grade on the…

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    Candace 0 Comments

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    kimmortal

    Artist Spotlight: Kimmortal

    February 28, 2020

    Artist Spotlight: Ursidae

    April 9, 2020

    Islands Folk Festival

    July 1, 2020
  • Grade A Festivals,  Saskatchewan

    Ness Creek Festival

    April 15, 2020 /

    Ness Creek Cultural and Recreational Society presents the Ness Creek Festival (Saskatoon, SK) July 16-19, is reputed as “The best time you can have in one weekend!” Four Magical Days celebrating Music, Arts, Community and Ecology in the breathtaking setting of the Boreal Forest. Over 30 Main Stage performances, Workshop stage, Eco-Village, Artisan Market, Community Kitchen, Children’s Area, Drum and Dance Circle, Community Sharing Circle, After Hours Tent, and more. Immerse yourself in the Magic of Ness while staying in our rustic campgrounds. The best part is that camping is free with a weekend pass! Feel the sunshine on your face, dance to the beat of live music, breathe the fresh…

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    Block Heater

    Block Heater

    February 12, 2020

    Hillside Festival

    June 10, 2020
    Lawnya Vawnya

    Lawnya Vawnya

    March 11, 2020
  • Events,  Ontario

    Workshop: What Bookers Want – Band Promo 101 ONLINE

    March 10, 2020 /

    BAND PROMO 101 – A workshop to help you stop pissing off bookers and promoters and get more gigs. Sunday, April 4, 12:30pm – 4:30pm Sadleir House Lecture Hall, 751 George Street North

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    The Conductor

    The Conductor – You’re Invited!

    March 13, 2020

    Ideas: A small-town musical roadshow

    October 3, 2013

    Folk Music Ontario Conference

    October 8, 2013
  • Artists,  Big Ideas,  Canadian Festival Report Card

    A short list of women and gender non-conforming Canadian artists

    April 8, 2018 /

    ETA: Because this is awesome, we’re creating an accessible database for Trans folks, Non-Gender-Binary folks, and Women to add themselves and/or their bands so that bookers can find them.  We launched it in Winter 2020; you can check it out here (and also add yourself or your band!).  All of the artists in this short list are also in the database! ETA 2: When this post was originally published in Spring 2018 on our old website, it generated 138 replies from members of the community, listing more than 600 artists and bands.  We’ve collected this information in the database above, and are looking for volunteer to help flesh out the…

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    Artist Spotlight: Unbuttoned

    August 20, 2013

    Artist Spotlight: The Galpines

    April 23, 2020

    Artist Spotlight: Claire Morrison

    January 7, 2014
  • Canadian Festival Report Card

    2017 Canadian Festival Report Card

    November 12, 2017 /

    The 2017 Festival Report Card is here! For the past twenty years, the music industry has seen its stages dominated by men in most genres and scenes.  With the exceptions of the occasional women-focused festivals, like Lilith Fair, women have tended to see very little representation on stages, and nowhere is that more noticeable than at a festival, where sometimes hours can pass before a woman, a racialized person, or an LGBTQ, Two-Spirited, or Gender Non-Binary person walks on stage as a member of a band. With that in mind, we’ve been tallying up the numbers, and are presenting them below. We’d like to give a huge thank you to…

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    MarieLynnHammond-photo-by-Kate-Morgan-Images-300x195

    2016 Canadian Festival Report Card

    December 10, 2016
    Canadian Festival Report Card

    2014 Canadian Festival Report Card

    September 12, 2014

    The Big Count 2018 – Canadian Festival Report Card

    April 27, 2018
  • MarieLynnHammond-photo-by-Kate-Morgan-Images-300x195
    Canadian Festival Report Card,  Uncategorized

    2016 Canadian Festival Report Card

    December 10, 2016 /

    For the past twenty years, the music industry has seen its stages dominated by men in most genres and scenes.  With the exceptions of the occasional women-focused festivals, like Lilith Fair, women have tended to see very little representation on stages, and nowhere is that more noticeable than at a festival, where sometimes hours can pass before a woman, a racialized person, or a member of the LGBTQ community walks on stage as a member of a band. With that in mind, we’ve been tallying up the numbers, and are presenting them below. This list is presented in the spirit of information-sharing – often, bookers and Artistic Directors don’t realize…

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    Candace 0 Comments

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    A short list of women and gender non-conforming Canadian artists

    April 8, 2018
    Canadian Festival Report Card

    2014 Canadian Festival Report Card

    September 12, 2014

    2017 Canadian Festival Report Card

    November 12, 2017
  • NXNE PRESENTS A SAUSAGE FESTIVAL - Electric City Magazine
    Articles,  Big Ideas

    NXNE PRESENTS A SAUSAGE FESTIVAL

    July 8, 2016 /

    From a piece I wrote for Electric City Magazine: “The Canadian music industry is a diverse, varied place, but you wouldn’t know it from the endless parade of white guys with guitars wanking across the festival stages and conference panels of the nation. Over the past month, NXNE have been releasing the lineup for their Portlands festival, and the list, while appearing more racially diverse with the most recent release, is still very dude-heavy. With three women-fronted bands and one genderqueer artist out of 16 total acts released so far, I have to ask: where the fuck are the women, NorthBy?” Read the rest at Electric City Magazine.

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    Candace 0 Comments

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    2018 festival report card

    2018 Canadian Festival Report Card

    March 6, 2019
    Secret Frequency

    What goes in an EPK?

    October 15, 2014
    Some thoughts about - and a good, green idea for - Music Submissions

    Some thoughts about – and a good, green idea for – Music Submissions

    April 22, 2016
  • Some thoughts about - and a good, green idea for - Music Submissions
    Articles,  Band Advice,  Big Ideas,  Events

    Some thoughts about – and a good, green idea for – Music Submissions

    April 22, 2016 /

    There was a time, 15 years ago, when the wealth of CDs that suddenly started coming my way, as a full-time booker at a dive bar, was exciting and fun. Opening packages mailed from across the country was exciting – who knew what fabulous undiscovered gem was lurking inside that yellow padded envelope? Now I find myself looking at CDs – or any physical media music submissions – with a sense of weariness. The thrill of discovery is still strong, but it’s sometimes overwhelmed by the knowledge that every CD and paper package represents a use of resources that isn’t very smart or justifiable. I know there are some bookers/DJs/industry…

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    Candace 0 Comments

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    Help Me Promote You

    October 10, 2012

    Ideas: A small-town musical roadshow

    October 3, 2013
    Fuck Instrument Thieves - Hug_a_Guitar_by_MyCameraIsSuicidal

    Fuck Instrument Thieves

    February 22, 2014
  • Articles,  Big Ideas,  Events,  Ontario

    Music City – A strategy

    April 7, 2016 /

    The points I’ve included below – headlined ‘A Strategy for Music Peterborough‘ – was created with my hometown in mind, but swap out a few names and organizations and this would be useful in any city to frame the way you approach different sectors with a view to creating a cohesive push to highlight music (or, I think, almost any local art or cultural highlight) and create a Music City mentality. I’ve made a few edits from the original document to make explicit the sort of things that I take as a given, but which aren’t obvious to everyone (like gender parity, inclusion of racialized people, good working conditions, etc.). A…

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    Candace 0 Comments

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    10 Things I Want Musicians to Know

    May 10, 2012
    2018 festival report card

    2018 Canadian Festival Report Card

    March 6, 2019

    Ideas: A small-town musical roadshow

    October 3, 2013
 Older Posts

We sing on a Secret Frequency

Secret Frequency (formerly Canadian Women Working in Music) is and education and advocacy not-for-profit dedicated to raising the profile of under-represented people within Canada’s music community – women, trans and non-binary folks, racialized and Indigenous people, and more.

We’d like the music community to be as awesome as it pretends to be.  We want it to be a safe, good place to party, to create, and to work.

We’re ready to rock the boat, even if it’s the boat that some of us are sitting in; no organization or individual should be above question or consequences.

If you don’t invite us to the table, we’ll show up anyway, and we’ll bring our own chair.

We produce the annual Canadian Festival Report Card, grading Gender representation on Festival stages, skills workshops, research, and more.  We aim to create initiatives with demonstrable, measurable impact, which are also accessible and modular, designed to be shared and implemented by other organizations.

  • About
  • Canadian Festival Report Card
  • Artist Features
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