Being a Music Industry Arts student, I had the luxury of attending Toronto's Canadian Music Week. For those of you who don't know what that is, I shall start by simply saying... It rocks!

Canadian Music Week is a fiveday event that includes panels of the biggest names in the music and the entertainment industry and a ton of concerts being held all over Toronto at various bars. Bands from all over come to this event to try to get some serious exposure. There was plenty of ground to cover here, so much that at times it was too much. I will try my best to narrow it down for you as best I can.

The event was held at the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto, and it took place from March 21 to March 25. This was my first time inside the hotel, and I was blown away just by its architecture, not to mention the many bands and famous people running around. I got tired just standing there.

There is a lot of nightlife during CMW — concerts all over town you can check out if you have a wristband. Every person attending CMW has different interests and things they are most focused on. I was there for the panels, networking, handing out business cards and learning as much as I could about the current status of the industry. That being said, I didn't go to a concert every night, which I now regret. But I did have the pleasure (sarcasm) of seeing Treble Charger! Yeah, the pre- Sum41 band that only had about three hit songs. These guys haven't been around since like 2004 so I thought it would be kind of cool to check out some nostalgia, because, after all, I was a punk skater who went nuts for the song “American Psycho,” which was really one of only three good songs at that show. Thank god it was free.

The panels were one of the most interesting parts of CMW and I learned a lot. For those of you who are in bands, or are aspiring musicians and songwriters, and are down with the whole social media thing, you're in the right position, but you need to start working harder. Almost every panel I went to talked about social media and how crucial it is in today's music industry.

Everything is digital now, which means the ways of the old are pretty much gone. This is not a bad thing, as I came to learn, because it just means that we have more power than ever to do what we want with our music. This doesn't mean that things are easier by any means, because with new technology comes new problems, like how piracy is still affecting artists' incomes. That situation isn't gonna change until the Internet is more strictly monitored. But the industry is turning back in favour of the artist again, and since there are no major record labels anymore, there is less control.

The three most important things I learned at CMW are:

1. Your song better be good: If your song is good — and I mean really good, to the point that it doesn't take much to make it better — then you will get noticed no matter what. If you're extremely talented, there will be far more opportunity for you in every sector of the new-model entertainment industry.

2. You better know how to use social media: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, SoundCloud, Spotify, etc. — the list goes on, but the point is they are all important and they are all the power you need.

3. If you've got the first two covered, you're looking at a world of opportunity: There is far more opportunity than ever before in the business. If you have a good song, are good with social media and are educated with what's going on in the industry, then there is far more opportunity than you can imagine. Whether it's in music, TV, film, social media, video games and beyond, if you have a song that is good enough and you make it heard with the right tools, then you are set. For now...

If you'd like to hear more, email me or hit up my blog: eternalmelodies.tumblr.com. Cheers.