Canadian Musician‘s Mike Raine is in Toronto as CMW takes over the city and will be checking in daily with reports on the conference programming, the bands showcasing around the city, and more. Here’s his take on Thursday, March 22nd’s happenings.

Branding and social media. Those topics and their respective roles in the music industry were top of mind at day two of Canadian Music Week and also the subject of multiple speeches and panels.

Of the multiple panels discussing endorsements – by this we mean the mutually beneficial relationships between companies/corporations and artists/tours – one of the best was certainly the “Bands, Brands, and Fans” session moderated by Dave Videka, CEO of Rooftop Agency/Jägermeister. The panelists’ main message to both signed and unsigned artists was that the days of being scared to “sell out” are in the past. Smart artists in the modern music industry see the practical benefits of teaming up with a company or corporation to receive funding for a project and a promotional boost.

As Videka pointed out, Jägermeister funded tours for nine unsigned bands in Canada last year . As well, the company funded the studio time for Swollen Members’ 2011 album “Dagger Mouth,” which is nominated for a JUNO, despite many fans not evening knowing about it. “There a misconception that brands don’t care about music,” added Virgin Mobile’s director of brand experience and marketing Kevin Campbell.

Tom Jackson, a live producer from Nashville and President of Onstage Success, said at the session that in 20 years of working with bands, helping them fund tours and studio time through brand partnerships, “I’ve never seen a downside to this process.” Jackson added that bands he’s worked with, both signed and unsigned, often earn anywhere from $500 to $2,000 per night on tour because of brand partnerships.

Giving some practical advice for artists, Nelson Phillips, Director of Marketing for Monster Energy Canada, said companies look for bands that match their brand and bands have to do the same. He advised bands looking for a partnership to start by asking themselves what companies they already support – through things like clothes they wear, gear they use, etc. – and approaching those companies. Additionally, Cathy Cutz of 145 Live Solutions told young bands to team up with charities because it is a great way for two entities with a common cause to boost each other’s promotional reach.

So the branding lesson of the day was that commercial companies are now filling the funding gap left behind by increasingly risk-averse record labels and young bands need to take advantage of it. There are lots of promotional opportunities and money out there for artists, but they have to start looking outside the music industry.

On the social media side, there was an excellent panel entitled “The Fanbase Phenomenon: Engaging the Online Music Community,” moderated by Canada’s best-known music geek, Alan Cross. Panelists including eOne Music’s Eric Alper and Fiona Bloom, President of The Bloom Effect, made three key points about the way artists use social media.

1. “Retweets are the new autograph” – This phrase, said by Alper and continually repeated by Cross, is essentially a catchy way of saying that in the age of social media, bands are winning people over one person at a time and the best way to do this is interaction –retweeting or responding directly to individual fans’ comments via Twitter or Facebook. This makes the fan’s day and encourages them to spread the word; an engaged fan can be your best advocate.

2. “Only your homepage is permanent” – Bloom told a story of an unnamed artist she represented who had 9 million followers on the now-defunct social media site imeem. When the site was terminated, so were her nine million followers. The lesson: Facebook and Twitter complement your homepage; they don’t replace it. Social networking sites come and go but your homepage (could be) forever.

3. “Feelings, not facts” – In short, when communicating via social media, don’t just make statements; instead, start conversations with fans. In practice, this means instead of tweeting “Playing a show tonight in Toronto at Lee’s Palace,” try “Pumped for tonight’s show in TO. What songs you wanna hear?”

This last point ties in with something the day’s keynote speaker, Huffington Post Founder Arianna Huffington, said during her speech on social media: “Using social media as a press release doesn’t work; you have to be authentic.” Though Ms. Huffington hasn’t lived in the music industry like past keynotes such as Ted Nugent and David Crosby, few people understand social media like her, and this lesson is very relevant to bands promoting themselves online. As she said, social media is part of an online community where both listening and commenting are important. Bands should understand that social media is part of a two-way conversation with their fans.

All this doesn’t even include the great Q&As and performances by Joel Plaskett and Burton Cummings. These guys really showed that Canada has a great history that continues to this day of producing songwriters with intelligence and soul.

A lot of food for thought, and now I’m off for a long night of great music. See you tomorrow.

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