Skip to content 
Talk
Randy Lennox
Behind the Scenes with one of Canada’s Secret Sauce Makers
By Bill King
There’s a secret sauce in selling some of the biggest music acts. You see it among Swifties selling out global concert halls to see their icon, Taylor Swift. Closer to home in Canada, music gigs in the land of the Maple Leaf have come out as number one.
According to Billboard Canada, a whopping 85.1 per cent of world concert tours have come through Toronto. In fact, gig tourism in Canada represents a $3.8 billion industry for live performances.
Enter Randy Lennox.
The former Universal Music Canada’s top gun (he was CEO from 1998 to 2015) and founder of Loft Entertainment, a new multimedia creative incubator he started last year, is busy fielding calls from his perch in downtown Toronto, the country’s capital of music tourism. Lennox has had a plethora of creative success. In short, he has the secret sauce. He helped build Crave into Canada’s premier subscriber streaming service and has long spearheaded the Canadian music revolution. Randy is a force behind a successful run of music documentaries involving legends like Oscar Peterson, Robbie Robertson and the Band, David Foster, Neil Young, The Tragically Hip, among others.
DS: When you were CEO of Universal Canada Music, how would you define your role in the success of Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber, Drake and the Weeknd?
RL: I communicate like a music lover because I am one. They saw the music lover and didn’t see the corporation. I loved the music, which won the day with the many artists.
At Universal, we understood that the development of Canadian artists isn’t a solo journey and we developed them in partnership with our U.S. company. In the music industry life is a team effort and it’s having the resources to reach a world market.
DS: You just started Loft Entertainment. What’s the potential impact?
RL: Loft Entertainment aims to blend the disciplines of music and film. We currently have creators in nine cities that help leverage the gig economy. We have virtual offices in Nashville, L.A., London and even lesser-known cities like Kitchener.
DS: Are you able to unplug? Do you have a happy place?
RL: We paddleboard and kayak in Muskoka at my cottage on Lake Joseph, which may surprise you. It’s also my happy place, as it’s a genuine serenity getaway for the family.
DS: Out of the country, where do you enjoy travels?
RL: We adore Italy (Amalfi coast, Tuscany), particularly Lugano. London and Paris are our two favourite walking cities. You can go on forever with a fascinating atmosphere. Also, their food and aesthetic are next to none. London has come so far cuisine-wise. Some of our top restaurant picks there are Mambow, Brooklands (inside The Peninsula Hotel) for the view, Chiltern Firehouse for its fun atmosphere, and Alex Dilling at the Hotel Café Royal in Piccadilly.
Bill King is a multifaceted artist: a musician, celebrity writer, radio host, photojournalist and author. Rolling Through the ’70s by William M. King is his latest book available on Amazon.ca.
