Featured Organization - Misfit Music Inc.

Misfit Music Inc. is a multi-award-winning artist management and development company based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. We pride ourselves on being artist-friendly, with a focus on supporting equity-seeking artists and, regardless of their experience level, removing barriers to access curated support from industry champions. Our services include full-time management and co-management, under Misfit Music MGMT, in addition to mentorship for self-managed and emerging artists through our Artist Evolution program. We recently launched Odd Doll Records, Manitoba’s first women-owned record label supporting a roster of acts, where we promote commercially viable music that celebrates diversity. Our mission is to expand our artists’ opportunities to create sustainable careers, build international partnerships, and foster representation across all facets of the industry.

Follow Misfit Music on Instagram.

What is success for your organization in the coming year?

Success means growing our Artist Evolution program’s outreach by increasing our flexible and artist-friendly services, offering support to Francophone musicians especially where they are a language minority, and building bridges to international markets. For our management roster, success is helping them grow and engage their audiences, establishing global partnerships, collaborations, and team members, and creating a solid foundation for a long-term career of sustainability while prioritizing their mental and physical health. It also includes a successful launch and first year of Odd Doll Records so we can continue to promote great art! 

What are you currently excited about in the music industry?

We’re excited about the industry’s increasing focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, especially as platforms are creating more space for underrepresented voices. While we still have a long way to go, the rise of 2SLGBTQI+, Indigenous, Black, and Artists of Colour in global spaces is inspiring, and we’re thrilled to help advocate for and inspire these shifts.

What is the greatest challenge you face currently, and how can other industry and artists partners help?

Our greatest challenge lies in balancing artist development and a budding business with the ongoing demands of financial sustainability and limited resources. Artists and music entrepreneurs are held to high standards by well-funded organizations with a salaried staff, who exist to support us, but don’t always operate by the same standards they hold us to. This can be really deflating when we’re trying so hard with these limitations, jumping through what seem like unnecessary hoops, only to find that sometimes, even our best efforts don’t yield the desired results. These organizations can help by putting themselves in the shoes of entrepreneurs who are constantly fishing for their next revenue stream while managing every aspect of a business from admin to marketing to legal to financial to the literal role they are doing all these things for. Reducing excessive administrative work, streamlining forms and redundant processes, and increasing transparency and flexibility would make a significant difference.

Can you give a shout out to an artist or industry member who is also doing great things?

Keisha Booker, an R&B artist and the founder/curator of Soul Supreme, a space and festival dedicated to the underrepresented R&B scene in Manitoba. We resonate with hard-working pros like Keisha who see a gap and fill the need.