Wavelength Music founder and director Jonny Bunce.Supplied
Toronto’s Wavelength Music wants people to think more about a small yet vital part of the city’s indie scene: grassroots live music spaces.
This weekend, the non-profit arts platform will host its first-ever conference, held in conjunction with its annual winter festival of concerts. The hope is that a series of panels, held at Lula Lounge, will spark dialogue and action around protecting these key elements of the local music culture.
As Canada’s music sector nerve centre and largest live music market, Toronto hosts a number of annual industry conferences, including last November’s Come Together and spring’s Departure (formerly Canadian Music Week, May 4-10) and NXNE (June 10-14).
But where those gatherings are dedicated to artist development and networking, Wavelength’s conference is more existential.
“What we’re doing is not about musicians being signed by record labels,” said Jonny Bunce, Wavelength’s co-founder and director. “It’s about keeping the whole indie-music ecosystem alive.”
Music report calls for reinvention of live venues
It’s a continuation of a discussion Wavelength started in 2023, when it released Reimagining Music Venues, a study done in collaboration with the University of Toronto that recommended outside-the-box solutions to issues facing Ontario’s live music industry.
Since then, some of the suggestions have been acted upon. For example, in 2024, the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR) launched its Promoter Program, a pilot initiative aimed at supporting Canadian-owned companies presenting concerts by domestic artists.
Wavelength itself was established in 2000 by Bunce and a collective of indie musicians. Its public face is as a presenter of concerts and festivals championing under-recognized artists across diverse genres. Behind the scenes, the organization leads research and development projects dedicated to DIY arts culture.
The conference’s star attraction is Melissa Auf der Maur, the 1990s Canadian alt-rock icon and bassist for the Smashing Pumpkins and Courtney Love-led Hole. While the Montreal native’s appearance coincides with the launch of her memoir, Even the Good Girls Will Cry, she was brought to the conference because she runs Basilica Hudson, an arts and performance space in Hudson, N.Y.
“Wavelength is committed to artist-run culture and institutions they can build,” Bunce said.
Melissa Auf der Maur’s nineties rock memoir revisits the ‘last analog decade’
The conference’s keynote speaker is Mark Davyd, founder of British non-profit Music Venue Trust, which is dedicated to community venue ownership.
Bunce, who under the penname Jonny Dovercourt authored 2020’s Any Night of the Week: A D.I️.Y. History of Toronto Music (1957-2001), believes Toronto needs its own version of the Music Venue Trust and like-minded organizations such as the National Independent Venue Association in the United States and Quebec’s Les SMAQ.
“Locally, our sector needs to get itself organized before it can start to follow the successful path that’s happened elsewhere in the world.”
Bunce says the Toronto club and small venue scene has “stabilized” since the crisis of failing music rooms brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic – but troubling issues in the sector haven’t gone away. Insurance costs are still sky-high, and alcohol sales remain depressed because the Gen Z crowd doesn’t drink as much as its predecessors.
“The venue network really developed out of licensed bars and clubs. We need to find new economic models to replace or supplement that alcohol income stream.”
Bunce finds hope in the success of Hugh’s Room Live, which began as a for-profit supper-serving folk club renting a building in the city’s west end. It later transitioned to a charitable organization and purchased a building across town, where it ditched the dishes to serve just music.
Hugh’s Room Live does sell a little beer and wine, as does the Redwood Theatre, a historic east end space where art, a farmer’s market and theatre are presented in addition to music. Ticket sales, and subsidization by owners Maria Karam and Rob Indrigo, keep the venue afloat.
“Presenting music at the local level is a low-margin, high-risk business, and while a lot of venues are surviving, they’re not necessarily thriving,” Bunce said. “Hopefully we’ll see more examples of innovative new venue models happening around the city, and around the province and the rest of Canada.”
The Wavelength Music Festival + Conference runs to March 21 at various venues. For information: Wavelength Music.ca
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct Jonny Dovercourt's first name. An earlier version of this article included a paragraph stating that the Canadian Live Music Association only advocates for the concert industry at the federal government level. The paragraph was inaccurate and has been removed.