East Coast Music Association

The East Coast Music Association (ECMA) is a non-profit association purposed towards supporting the music industry in the Canadian east coast, i.e., Atlantic Canada. The ECMA hosts the annual East Coast Music Awards (formerly the Maritime Music Awards) festival.

The East Coast Music Awards have been a springboard for many Atlantic Canadians, including Sarah McLachlan, Ashley MacIsaac, Rawlins Cross, Lennie Gallant, Natalie MacMaster, Gordie Sampson, Joel Plaskett, The Rankin Family, Rita MacNeil, Bruce Guthro, J.P. Cormier and Great Big Sea.

Each year, the ECMA also awards one person with the Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award to recognize an artist or band that has had a profound and lasting effect on the Atlantic Canadian music industry.

Association history and mission
In 1989, Halifax music industry promoter Rob Cohn launched the Maritime Music Awards to celebrate music in the Canadian maritime region. Two years later, in 1991, Cohn joined forces with Sheri Jones, Karen Byers, Lee Stanley, Mike Barkhouse, Peter Hendrickson, Bruce Morel, and Tony Kelly to form the East Coast Music Association. The association's event thereby became known as the East Coast Music Awards and covered all of the provinces in Atlantic Canada.

Today,, the ECMA's mission is "to develop, advance and celebrate East Coast Canadian music, its artists and its industry professionals throughout the region and around the world," as well as advocating "for [its] members to ensure they can sustain music careers while based in Canada's Atlantic region."

The ECMA is a registered non-profit association. Membership is open to all individuals working in any sector of the music industry, or those who support the music industry. Membership includes musicians, artists, agents, managers, record companies, studios, media, related corporation and retailers. , it has over 1,000 members.

East Coast Music Awards
The East Coast Music Awards (formerly the Maritime Music Awards) is an annual festival hosted by the ECMA to celebrate the music industry in Atlantic Canada.

The Awards have been a springboard for many Atlantic Canadians, including Sarah McLachlan, Ashley MacIsaac, Rawlins Cross, Lennie Gallant, Natalie MacMaster, Gordie Sampson, Joel Plaskett, The Rankin Family, Rita MacNeil, Bruce Guthro, J.P. Cormier, and Great Big Sea.

The awards were created in 1989 by Halifax music industry promoter Rob Cohn as the "Maritime Music Awards". The inaugural award show took place on April 10, 1989, in the Flamingo Café and Lounge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to focus on the diversity of music and musicians in mainland Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick.

The awards were renamed in 1991 with the formation of the East Coast Music Association, now including Newfoundland and Labrador. The event moved from The Flamingo Cafe & Lounge to the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium at the Dalhousie Arts Centre and new awards were added.

While being held in Halifax for the first few years, the East Coast Music Awards has been hosted by other Atlantic Canadian cities since 1994, as with the formation of provincial music industry associations, it was decided that the event would move each year, revolving from province to province. The East Coast Music Awards: Festival and Conference is now a five-day event. Since 2002, its awards gala has been aired in a two-hour national broadcast on CBC Television.

Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award
Each year, the ECMA also awards one person with the Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award. The award recognizes an artist or band that has had a profound and lasting effect on the Atlantic Canadian music industry; the recipient is chosen by the ECMA board of directors. Helen Creighton (1899-1989), after whom the award is named, was an author and pioneer in the field of folklore, both nationally and internationally. In 1958, she was one of the judges at the first Miramichi Folksong Festival, organized by Louise Manny. Recipients of this award include Stompin' Tom Connors (1993), Édith Butler (1997) and Don Messer (1998).