How one micro grant can take a music video around the world

Comment une micro-bourse peut faire circuler un clip musicale autour du monde

Creating digital content, such as a music video, is extremely important for artists marketing and promoting their craft for commercial profit.

Attempting to pitch a playlist without a high-quality music video is like trying to sell products without samples – buyers need to see it and hear it to understand what they’re investing their time and resources into. For one Saskatchewan musician, éemi, this is where Creative Saskatchewan’s Market and Export Development Grant – Micro Stream was crucial.

éemi is an emerging francophone musician and experienced videographer right here in Saskatchewan. She needed to add to her digital repertoire and have a visual asset that would be engaging to media outlets in helping promote her latest music. The result is À fleur de pôt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDkPwVSBFY0

À fleur de pôt is the story of a flower stuck indoors while her friends play outside. Told through interpretive dance (choreographed by Marie-Clo and Mackenzie Carlson), the story highlights that even though being indoors is safe, being outside seems more fun – a commentary on éemi and Marie-Clo’s deteriorating mental health associated with the pandemic.

The video is a collaboration with an Ontario musician, Marie-Clo, who is making serious waves in the industry. The partnership is a strategic one, designed to help take éemi’s career to the next level and reach new markets.nnThe duo are projecting at least 12,000 views for the launch À fleur de pôt, and are using the same powerful marketing team Marie-Clo used for the launch of her latest album, for which she received over 90K streams on Spotify and maintains a strong presence on Sirius XM.nnCombined, their market reaches Canada (Saskatoon, Montreal, Ottawa), US and France, playing on most, if not all, Digital Streaming Platforms (DSPs), including Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music and Tidal.nnThe artists currently have a distribution relationship with APCM (Association des professionnels de la musique et de la chanson) and a partnership with Indica Records, allowing both artists to access new markets within Québec and anglophone markets across Canada. Suddenly ‘micro’ seems like a small word for the impact the grant has.n

Thanks to Sirius XM’s francophone station, éemi expects a strong rotation on ICI Musique Chansons and ICI Musique Influences, which could result in tens of thousands of dollars in royalties over the course of the year.

About éemi

néemi started making music professionally in 2017 after being one of two finalists for Planète BRBR, a

nationally broadcasted music competition for francophones outside Québec.

Following this experience, she was featured on ‘Balade’ a national televised showcase for francophone musicians (2018). This then led her to tour out East with Zachary Bachand and Aaron Dolman as her musicians. The “éemi + two boiz” self-made tour had 6 shows in 5 cities: Toronto (Burdock and Tranzac), Ottawa (Live on Elgin), Shawinigan, QC (Le Trou du Diable), Montréal (Sotterenea), Cowansville, QC (L’Archipel) – talk about putting Sask-francophones on the map!

With that under her belt, she went on to self-produce and self-promote her first EP, Honey, in the spring of 2020.

Fun fact – in true entrepreneurial spirit, éemi did all her own marketing (save for hiring a radio tracker) and utilized some rather out-of-the-box partnerships to promote her album, including branding actual honey jars with Kitako Lake Honey to promote and sell her album!

www.eemisk.ca