Developing? Growing? Improving?
I think it is all of those things. One of the challenges facing the Canadian scene is the lack of strong churches that are capable of being their own production house, and sustaining it. When you look around the world at the way the industry works there are really two models.
One is the still the traditional record industry model that signs bands, produces music, markets it, tours and tries to garner income from the various channels available to them. Nashville is the hub in the USA for that industry.
The second is large churches that have created a quality production houses. Most of them integrate with the traditional industry at the distribution level. The creative part, the Nashville part is the church itself. I think the behemoth in that category is Hillsongs, it used to be Vineyard with some serious Canadian content.
I think the next phase for Canada is getting more semi-professional production houses going, as well as churches who sustain writing and production. I also think there needs to be some form of Canadian distribution, digital or otherwise, that makes it easy to get your Canadian fix.
Anyway, those are just some thoughts. Love to hear some feedback about your thoughts….