October’s Very Personal has a brand new dwelling.
Genuine Manufacturers Group has introduced the acquisition of a majority stake within the mental property of October’s Very Personal, also called OVO, the life-style model and attire firm co-founded by Drake. The Toronto rapper will retain a big possession stake and stay concerned with the model as its driving pressure, persevering with to form its inventive imaginative and prescient.
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Vince Holding Corp. (VNCE), a longtime associate of Genuine, shall be taking up OVO’s working enterprise, dealing with clothes design, product growth, merchandising and retail shops.
“We’re only a couple youngsters from Toronto who began one thing we believed in. Right here we’re 20 years later, identical youngsters with larger goals. Genuine and VNCE are the right companions to assist us proceed to develop,” says Drake.
The chart-topping rapper co-founded OVO in 2008 along with his shut associates and collaborators, entrepreneur Oliver El-Khatib and producer Noah “40” Shebib, initially as a weblog and life-style motion. The model went on to grow to be a Canadian staple worldwide, notably by means of its signature black-and-gold owl brand. It made main expansions into high-end clothes and streetwear. The OVO Sound label additionally spun off from that model.
Along with its on-line retailer, OVO runs twelve flagship shops throughout Canada, the U.S. and the U.Okay., with places in Toronto, New York and London. The model has fostered collaborative relationships with a few of the world’s largest manufacturers and establishments, curating a number of high-profile collections in tandem with the likes of MLB, New Period, UFC and the NBA, together with an instant-classic merchandise capsule celebrating the Toronto Raptors’ 2019 NBA championship title.
“OVO has earned a spot among the many world’s most influential life-style manufacturers as a result of it has all the time stood for one thing genuine and unmistakable,” says Jamie Salter, Genuine’s founder and government chairman. “Drake and his crew have constructed one thing with unbelievable cultural affect. We see a big alternative to take that even additional, opening new markets, constructing new companies and reaching extra individuals world wide with out dropping what makes OVO, OVO.”
Genuine Manufacturers Group is a significant licensing firm within the U.S. whose portfolio contains the possession of main manufacturers like Sports activities Illustrated journal, Champion and Nautica, in addition to the licensing for the estates of movie star legends Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali. Now, it’s taking up one among Canada’s largest manufacturers, whose international success has lengthy been grounded in its hometown of Toronto and town’s essence and tradition.
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Canada is standing agency in terms of CanCon.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Fee (CRTC) confirmed that it’s sticking with its plans to manage how Canadian content material is introduced and made obtainable to customers on main streaming providers, following current resistance from the US.
A spokesperson from the CRTC tells the Canadian Press it’s going to transfer ahead to find out precisely how streamers should guarantee Canadian content material is out there and visual to audiences and continues to be finalizing the dates for the regulatory proceedings.
The continuing controversy surrounding the On-line Streaming Act, which turned regulation in 2023, reached a fever pitch over the weekend after commerce talks between Canada and the U.S. fell by means of, partly as a result of Trump administration’s last-minute demand for American streaming platforms to be exempt from Canadian content material laws.
“There have been some issues we wouldn’t do. We weren’t ready to compromise Canada’s sovereignty or undermine our key industries,” Mark Carney stated in an in depth speech following the collapse of the discussions. “We weren’t ready to compromise on our sovereignty, the safety of the French language, and our tradition. To our American colleagues, allow us to be clear: for my authorities and for Canada, these points had been by no means on the desk, regardless that the US tried till the final minute.”
It’s the most recent growth in a steady back-and-forth between the Canadian authorities, Canadian corporations and U.S. streaming corporations, which stems from the controversial On-line Streaming Act launched by the Trudeau authorities in 2023.
In its implementation, the CRTC mandated a 5% tax contribution on all broadcasters making over $25 million, supposed to fund the manufacturing of Canadian, French language and Indigenous content material, which brought on main pushback from affected streaming giants like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. Again in Might, the CRTC introduced plans to triple that contribution to fifteen% for audiovisual streaming providers like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV in an try to stabilize the $200 million funding charge for Canadian corporations.
The Canadian authorities then stepped in and introduced a landmark, $600 million yearly funding, which incorporates overlaying the $200 million base contribution that may have in any other case been taxed on overseas streaming providers.
Past monetary contributions, discoverability has additionally been a degree of rivalry throughout discussions between Canada and the U.S. Again in December, Quebec handed Invoice 109, the Act to affirm the cultural sovereignty of Québec, which sought to impose quotas on the quantity of French-language content material introduced and promoted on the homepages of overseas streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime Video. Like with the CRTC, these platforms voiced their displeasure, asking the Nationwide Meeting to forego the quotas.
Carney stood up for the language’s preservation over the weekend, after Trump and his representatives instantly denied that the French language was an element inside their talks. “I’d by no means intrude with Canadians talking French! The truth is, I’ve by no means even considered doing such a silly factor,” Trump wrote on Fact Social.
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The Juno Awards have introduced that they’re reshaping sure classes forward of their 2027 ceremony to extra precisely characterize present traits in music consumption throughout Canada, primarily altering sure class names and eligibility standards.
“CARAS is introducing a sequence of class and eligibility updates designed to raised replicate Canada’s music group at this time and supply clear, significant pathways for artists to have their work acknowledged,” says the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) on the official Junos web site. “The adjustments are knowledgeable by CARAS’ annual assessment of The Juno Awards, working carefully with Music Advisory Committees and the broader music group to look at how classes and standards can proceed to serve Canadian artists.”
The principle adjustments are mergers or identify adjustments within the rap, reggae/dancehall, digital/dance and up to date Christian/gospel music classes. Rap album and EP of the yr have now been changed by melodic rap recording of the yr and rap recording of the yr, whereas dance recording of the yr and digital album of the yr have been merged underneath one umbrella (dance/digital), with respective awards for single/EP of the yr and album of the yr throughout the style.
The reggae class has been renamed to reggae/dancehall, reflecting an rising prevalence of dancehall throughout the mainstream, given current hits like MOLIY’s 2025 chart hit, “Shake it to the Max (FLY) – Remix.” The up to date Christian/gospel album of the yr class has additionally swapped “album” for “recording,” enabling singles and EPs to be included within the operating.
This yr’s awards for “recordings” now settle for albums, EPs and singles as submissions, though singles should be standalone releases that don’t seem on any brief or full-length undertaking. The vocal-instrumental threshold for jazz music has additionally shifted from 80% to 51%, which speaks to the rise of artists like Laufey and Olivia Dean, whose jazzy fashion incorporates pop-centric tendencies. The classical music album classes have additionally shifted to permit compilation albums to be eligible.
These adjustments mark the most recent step within the Junos’ ongoing class evolution. Final yr, Alex Cuba gained the first-ever Latin music recording of the yr award, which was launched amid a blockbuster yr for Unhealthy Bunny and his chart-topping album Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which amplified Latin music’s international success on a much bigger scale than ever. Earlier than that, the awards launched the South Asian recording of the yr class, which was gained this yr by Punjabi stars Karan Aujla & Ikky.
The Junos have additionally run into controversy for his or her class choices. In 2024, public backlash brought on CARAS to backtrack on its determination to axe reggae recording and Christian/gospel album classes — each classes that honour genres led by Black musicians.
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