Toronto’s grassroots music scene just got a unified voice. The Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA), in partnership with MusicOntario, has launched LIVE Music Toronto, a new industry collective built to represent and strengthen the city’s independent and grassroots live music sector. The launch arrives ahead of the CIMA and MusicOntario annual summer day party during NXNE.
The collective serves Toronto’s independent venues, festivals, promoters, and presenters across both for-profit and non-profit sectors. It gives them a shared voice on local policy, resources, and the long-term survival of the rooms where artists develop and audiences connect. The local focus complements the national work of the Canadian Live Music Association and mirrors proven models like Les SMAQ in Quebec, the Music Venue Trust in the UK, and NIVA in the United States.
CIMA President and CEO Andrew Cash frames a strong local scene as the foundation for the whole ecosystem. He notes that the new LIVE Music Toronto membership tier connects independents to each other and bridges them to CIMA’s broader community of labels, managers, publishers, and artists.
The people running these rooms see the difference already. Shaun Bowring, who operates The Garrison and The Baby G and runs promoters Transmit Presents, points to how Toronto’s venues mobilized during the pandemic to win a property tax exemption, and calls the formal launch fantastic. Camille Neirynck-Guerrero, programmer of Queen West hub DROM Taberna and its non-profit arm in•summer, says membership has already expanded both her community and her access to resources, simply by connecting her with neighbours across the city.
The numbers behind the scene are serious. The City of Toronto’s 2020 Re:Venues study estimated that the city’s venues generate $850 million in annual economic impact and support the equivalent of 10,500 full-time jobs. The Canadian Live Music Association’s Hear and Now report found that Canada’s live music industry contributed more than $10 billion to the national economy in 2023.
MusicOntario Executive Director Emy Stantcheva points to live music as something that animates the city day and night, creating jobs, driving tourism and hospitality, and standing as a core feature of any world-class metropolis. LIVE Music Toronto exists to advocate for the independents behind those figures.
Membership is open to independent, grassroots venues, promoters, presenters, and festivals that are Canadian-owned and controlled, operating in Toronto, working outside the major institutional ecosystem, and not run by any level of government. Supported by the City of Toronto’s Music Office, the initiative grew out of extensive groundwork by CIMA, MusicOntario, and writer Jonathan Bunce, founder of non-profit Wavelength Music and co-author of the study Reimagining Music Venues. That work included consultations, focus groups, and a year-end townhall at The Garrison. More than 40 venues and presenters have already signed on as founding members, with more to come through the year. Global ticketing platform Tixr, a longtime CIMA partner, is providing financial support to fund outreach and onboarding over the next year.