Canadian Music Week was launched in 1983 by David Farrell and his wife Patricia Dunn-Farrell–then co-publishers of the weekly Canadian music trade, The Record. It began as The Record Music Industry Conference and was modeled on competitor RPM Weekly’s “Three Days in March” conferences in the late ‘60s and ‘70s.

Dixon’s marketing company Chart Toppers was initially hired in 1983 to book speakers, and organize panels. Over the next few years, the convention morphed into Canadian Music Week, and Dixon became a co-partner a couple of years after it began.

Dixon had opened Chart Toppers in 1985 to handle a wide variety of functions in the music industry, including record promotion, concert event production, television production, and sponsorships. Among Chart Toppers’ consulting assignments were working with the Juno Awards, Molson Breweries, Pepsi-Cola, Ontario Lottery Corporation and others.

When Dixon took over Canadian Music Week fully in 1993, he transformed the event in order to address the evolving global reach of the music industry.

What Dixon has achieved with Canadian Music Week amidst ongoing seismic disturbances in the music industry, which transformed the conference multiple times, has been largely been because of his uncanny ability to continually reset the conference to tune into all sectors of the music, radio and technological sectors while paying close attention to the changing nuances of each sector.

Canadian Music Week | Official Website