CanadaSound is a massive collaboration between Canadians and artists, all for a good cause.

Launched in April 2017, it began when Cleansheet Communications noticed that while many have captured Canada’s landscape, none had captured our contemporary soundscape. Sound is such a powerful trigger of memory, so the platform was created to capture life in Canada in a completely new way.

The digital platform allowed Canadians to share their favourite sounds and sentiments about why they love living here – toonies jingling, returning ex-pats hearing children say “please,” etc. Everyone has favourite sounds, so the idea was incredibly inclusive.

The team created the CanadaSound.ca platform where Canadians could both submit their sounds and draw inspiration from others’ submissions. This inspired the CanadaSoundbank, created for musicians who became project collaborators. Partnering with the JUNO Awards, CBC Music, SOCAN, and Heritage Canada, Cleansheet curated these sounds and made them available to artists rights-free.

The goal was for Canadians to inspire artists to create the ultimate Canadian soundtrack. Thus, fueling pride, culture and identity.

To accelerate collaboration, experiential booths captured people’s sentiments, CBC Music amplified with podcasts and renowned beat maker Rich Terfry created original tracks from the CanadaSoundbank weekly. Specials aired nationally on CBC Radio with social media promotions. Artists directly invited Canadians to collaborate in Social. Weekly, the CanadaSound partners found new ways to engage audiences and artists.

Only eight months in, 81 artists across all genres have joined, ranging from Serena Ryder to an undiscovered 13-year old whose song made seasoned record execs sit up. CanadaSound has generated over 7,912,800 earned media impressions, three TV features, stories as far away as Australia, and a write-up in iconic Billboard Magazine.

Site visits averaged 140,000 per week and reach topped 13,880,000 (mass) and 1,038,300 (social). Incredibly, all with partner donated or earned media. The government even asked Walk Off the Earth to perform their CanadaSound song as the finale to Canada Day Opening Ceremonies on Parliament Hill.

CanadaSound is now becoming a digital music initiative in schools. In early 2018, CanadaSound will be releasing a digital EP with net proceeds going to MusiCounts, a charity that puts musical instruments in the hands of kids who need them most.

With partners ranging from the music business to the government, CanadaSound inspired collaboration across age, geography, culture – and musical genres – to unite Canadians together on a digital platform fueled by emotion and imagination. Where else could a sound submission of a boot crunching on Arctic snow inspire an indie rendition of centuries-old Farewell to Nova Scotia by JUNO-nominated Torontonians Blitz Berlin?

The budget for all this was only $274,000, but the $2.9 million+ the team got in donated time, media, and energy speaks to the passion behind this collaboration. People just wanted to be part of this.