David Farrellan award-winning and pioneering Canadian music trade journalist and publisher, died on December 19. He was 73 years old and had spent the last year as an editor at Billboard Canada.
Pharrell has had a long and distinguished career in the music media. After contributing as a journalist and editor to various publications in Canada and the United States, in the early 1980s he co-founded The Record. He became a critical commercial voice for the music industry in Canada over the next two decades. Shortly after founding THE RecordFarrell and his associates started The Record Conference, an annual gathering of the music industry that later became Canadian Music Week.
The Record he also created the first authoritative Canadian music charts, which were also published in his Hits of the World section Bulletin board. Farrell served as Canadian editor for Bulletin board in the late 1970s and maintained an association with the magazine, a role that would come full circle decades later. In 2008, Farrell founded FYI Music Newsa trade newsletter sponsored by Farrell's longtime friend and benefactor, the music industry mogul Gary Sleight.
FYI acquired from Billboard Canada in 2023, keeping its records in a new home. Farrell remained as editor, returning to Bulletin board after almost 50 years.
“Known for his bold voice, sharp insight and relentless dedication to storytelling, David brought authenticity and heart to every piece he wrote,” he says. Billboard Canada chairman Mo Ghoneim. “His work and influence have left a lasting legacy in Canadian media, touching the lives of many and shaping the industry he loved so deeply. David first joined Billboard as Music Editor in 1977 and we were lucky enough to welcome him back in 2023 as part of Billboard Canada family. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and all who were privileged to know him.”
Farrell's latest byline appeared Nov. 6 in a comprehensive profile of the veteran record industry executive Jeff Burnsa piece he painstakingly completed with Nick Krewen after his diagnosis. “David was always the kind of person who made time to listen to what you had to say, whether he used it or not,” Burns said in the tribute. “When he was editor of FYI, I often wondered how he did it each week when he received so many emails, phone calls or texts from others in the music industry trying to get their stories published.”
Farrell's achievements over a long career earned him induction into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame at Canadian Music Week, an event he helped launch in 2018, and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Radiodays North America Awards Luncheon at CMW in June of 2024.
Reading Billboard CanadaFarrell's obituary, including tributes from many of his friends and colleagues in the music industry, here.
