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How Music Creators Lost Their Worth, and How to Take It Back
A raw and honest exploration of creative worth, ownership, and the systems that quietly extract it.
- Toronto
- Nashville
- Los Angeles
- Moscow
Who is Terrance “Terry” Sawchuk?
Bio
Well, I’m not the Hall of Fame NHL goalie of the same name, though as a kid, making it to the NHL was my dream. I never got to lace up in the big leagues, but at least I have my name on the Stanley Cup four times.
I’m originally from a small paper mill town of 5,500 people in Northern Ontario, Canada. Over the past three plus decades, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to journey through the music industry as a songwriter, artist, producer, engineer and mixer.
That path wasn’t a straight line. It included failing 9th-grade music, quitting high school, then going back and finishing. But from those beginnings, I went on to sell millions of records, co-write the Country Song of the Decade, and collaborate with brave, unapologetically fearless artists like Alanis Morissette, Phil Collins, Jake Owen and Sara Bareilles, and, critically, retain ownership of my copyrights and songs throughout my career.
Mission
My mission is to restore the true worth of music by examining how creative labor is undervalued and measured only in market share. Through my work as an author, filmmaker and 37-year music industry veteran, I aim to enlighten creators and fans about the systems that separate them from their true value and guide them toward ownership, leverage, and long-term sustainability.
The work now
Author · Podcast host · Filmmaker$old 4 a $ong
The podcast
Where I unpack creative worth, ownership, and what really happens inside the systems that monetize it.
ListenThe True Value of Music
A Love Story
The film explores music’s extraordinary power to heal, unite, inspire and transform lives, while confronting a striking contradiction: throughout history, those who create this immense human, cultural and economic value have often received only a fraction of its rewards.
Through stories from around the world, it asks a simple but profound question. If music is worth so much to humanity, why have those who invent it historically been so over-leveraged and undervalued?
At the core of everything I doTo awaken my unique purpose to serve others and awaken the same revelation in them.
Selected discography
Artist
Title
Role
Label
Jake OwenBarefoot Blue Jean NightCo-writerRCA / Sony
Alanis MorissetteJagged Little Pill (25th Anniversary): “Superstar Wonderful Weirdos,” “Comfort”Co-writerMaverick / Warner Music
Straight No Chaser & Phil CollinsAgainst All OddsMixerAtlantic Records
Straight No Chaser & Sara BareillesI Want You BackMixerAtlantic Records
Smash MouthFuture X Wife · Live To Love Another DayMixer—
Ruby WatersBlowCo-writer, co-producer—
Chris MannIn Testa Solo TeCo-writer—
Matt DuskVarious albumsComposer, producer, mixerDecca / Universal
Our Lady PeaceNaveed · ClumsyEngineerSony Music
Finger ElevenQuicksand Live EPProducerUniversal
Ron SexsmithRetrieverMixer—
Gordie SampsonFor The Few and Far BetweenMixer—
Film & TV placements
Songs placed in- Mad Max: Fury Road 6 Oscar nominations
- Amazon Studios
- Chicago Fire
- Pretty Little Liars
- Teen Wolf
- Reign
- Battle Creek
- Being Mary Jane
- Siesta Key
- Lip Sync Battle
- Crazy Heart film
- Good Kids film
- The Next
- CMT
- NHL
- NASCAR
- ESPN
- FOX Sports
- College GameDay
- Levi’s
- Outback Steakhouse
- Applebee’s
- Discover Boating
Featured awards
- 2-week Billboard Country #1
- ASCAP Song of the Year
- “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” 3× Platinum
- Most Played Country Song of the Decade
- 3× SOCAN #1 Awards in Canada
- #1 Award on the jazz and pop charts in Japan
- Multiple Gold and Platinum Awards, various artists
Advisor roles
- Nashville Entrepreneur Center
- Imogen Heap’s Creative Passport
- Musiconomy Blockchain music ecosystem platform
- Remix Hits Audio stem technology
Conference panels
- NEMO Music Boston, USA
- NXNE Toronto, Canada
- Music Business Adelaide Adelaide, Australia