Katalogue gives a boost to local music scene
Website collects details about venues, musicians for fans, bands alike
Montrealers have no excuse to ignore local music anymore. A new database, Katalogue, launched on Tuesday as a one-stop shop of the city’s burgeoning artists.
The catalogue in its current iteration is simple: It showcases about 1,100 artists, along with their genre, the names of their members and links to where their music lives online, be it Spotify, iTunes, SoundCloud or Facebook. It also links to Spotify and SoundCloud playlists featuring the artists from the site.
But Josh Spencer — one of Katalogue’s creators along with web developer Bashu Naimi-Roy — said this just scratches the surface of what they hope to do with the site.
He said more playlists will be curated, an events listing will be added and information on local venues, including their capacity and how to book them, will become available. The venue information serves the local artists themselves, rather than the regular listeners who Spencer said are the site’s intended audience. This could help “level the playing field for artists (who) don’t have to have this amazing giant personal network.”
The need for such a service became apparent for Spencer, who produces and promotes shows under the name KickDrum, in the summer of 2016 when he said he was receiving calls from artists four to five times a week asking for artist or venue recommendations.
“Everything is laid out sparsely over the internet,” he said.
Over the last year, Divan Orange in the Plateau and Le Cagibi in the Mile End have closed and relocated, respectively. With the future of small local venues at risk, Spencer said he feels it’s important to support smaller artists and spaces.
“(Katalogue) is a direct response to the changing urban landscape and the fact that people are being forced out of neighbourhoods that they kind of created and fostered.”
Gregory Burton, a former venue manager at Le Cagibi, echoed Spencer: “The small venues in the city and the small music promoters have always been really important for keeping Montreal’s musical spirit alive.”
Burton also agreed that Katalogue is one initiative that can “help make things easier” for those within the scene.
“We embrace all of these big artists that come out of Montreal,” Spencer said. “I hope that this resource will be something that’ll show people that it’s so valuable ... to support local music.”
A free 5 à 7 in celebration of Katalogue’s launch will be held at Le Cagibi, 6596 St-Laurent Blvd., Tuesday evening.