About Rhythm Changes
Rhythm Changes is a website about creative music in Canada. Will Chernoff started it in Vancouver in 2020 with the mission to be "a home for creative, improvising, local music people" and to make it more fun and easier to participate in the scene.
"Stepping up to spread the word about great music" - Nou Dadoun, Vancouver Co-Op Radio
"Coverage of some of the best. [Will] comes to the music from the inside" - Laila Biali, CBC Music
"A great local service" - John Korsrud, Hard Rubber Orchestra
Rhythm Changes publishes curated lists of shows, stories from around the scene, and conversations between music people.
How Rhythm Changes works
Rhythm Changes' flagship offering is the gig list, a local live music listing service. The Vancouver list, curated by Will Chernoff, has been running continuously since 2022 with 200+ shows per month. The Calgary list, curated by David Lavoie, launched in June 2026.
The Free Weekly email goes out every Tuesday morning. It features artists, events, and recordings from the community. It includes a "gigs section" that highlights upcoming events from the gig list each week.
The Rhythm Changes Podcast began in 2021 and is an audio companion to the website.
Some of the top stories so far
Here are a couple recent highlights you can check out first as examples of what goes on here:
Will Chernoff
Will Chernoff
Will Chernoff
Will Chernoff
People
Will Chernoff
I was born and raised in New Westminster, BC and live in nearby Coquitlam. I’m an active musician. For work, I have my own business called Chernoff Music, where I offer services to record labels, live music presenters, and non-profit arts organizations in the U.S. and Canada, including some companies here that you may know (more on that below).
David Lavoie
David is a guitarist, trumpeter, composer, and educator based in, and originally from, Calgary. He is a graduate of Capilano University's jazz program and spent several years on the Vancouver scene in the 2010s. He began curating the Calgary gig list in 2026.
Chris Fraser
Chris is a guitarist and teacher in the Vancouver jazz scene who has been an active bandleader and first-call side musician since graduating from Capilano University. He became the new host of the Rhythm Changes Podcast in 2024.
FAQ
Are you a music journalist?
No. I haven't ever written for or pitched to other outlets, been edited, or earned any of that experience that music journalists have. In terms of what goes on at Rhythm Changes, I'm happy writing here. I don't go around trying to write for other outlets. If the question is, "Are you writing here because you're working towards a writing gig at a well-known music publication? Maybe they'll hire you someday?" No.
Does Rhythm Changes make money?
In the early years, Rhythm Changes relied on the support of a handful of paid subscribers. I would've stopped doing it a long time ago without that ongoing infusion of ten or 20 thousand dollars over a few years. But then, the beautiful thing about me running Rhythm Changes as a solo founder became how it functioned like my university degree and resume all in one. I got all the paid client work that pays my bills today from first being the Rhythm Changes guy. Thanks to that, the desire to monetize this website directly hasn't been as crucial.
Thinking about the business generally, I believe that a lot of music writers might have learned under the mass-market advertising model, which no longer works for music writing. I bet the concept of mass-market in entertainment only was real in the 20th century and won't exist any longer. With no mass-market, everyone serves a niche, from the traditional music publications down to us. And just because some old players still exist, doesn't mean their business model works. Cost structures are a brutal reality. The only thing that works for a media niche as small as ours is subscription. There’s no moment in the future when Rhythm Changes breaks through to a mass-market and advertising supports everything.
All that said, my business motivation to hold it down here has been the massive indirect contribution Rhythm Changes has brought to my professional career.
Do you get grants?
Rhythm Changes has never taken grant funding and is still a project I control 100% as an individual founder. It's wild to think, but we may currently be the most successful independent music media outlet in Canada where both those statements are true. We started as the tiniest thing in the most intimate niche and became something of a sole survivor.
Don't we all get too much email in our inboxes?
No, I don't think so: we get too much bad email, unexpected email, disrespectful of the five 'W's email. When you subscribe, you know who it's from (me), what you're getting, when and where you're getting it, and why you chose to get it.
People actually don't have enough email like that. When we give them more of it, they'll be even happier to refuse the bad email.
Ethics
Before Rhythm Changes, I worked in a variety of roles throughout the first 10 years of my music career, including making my own music. Integrity is important to me. Here's a breakdown of how I operate:
- No payment for coverage. I never charge artists to be covered and no-one can pay for influence over whom I cover, or what I say about anyone or anything.
- No editorial control for the subject. Though I sometimes explicitly clear speaking terms with people, making sure I know what's on-the-record and what isn't, I don't allow anyone I cover to review, approve, or otherwise have "final cut" privileges on my content before publication.
- No editorial control for sponsors/subscribers, no sponsorship of own music content. While I sometimes have local sponsors who benefit from the music I cover, I never sell sponsorships on content that features their music. And of course, the sponsors have no input on the coverage of their music. The same goes for paying subscribers: several presenters in the scene are subscribers, but they get no editorial control over anything I write.
- I don't tie complimentary tickets to coverage or set up any exchanges of value around going to shows. My ideal policy for comps is, "Never ask, always accept." I usually buy my own admissions like anyone else but am grateful for invitations and comps extended to me, of course.
- Your pre-release music is safe with me; I often need those links and files, but I'll never share them to the public.
- No editorial control for people I gig with. Rhythm Changes is an independent project, no matter whom I work with. I have covered many previous colleagues, and I might work with a musician who has been covered. That's how the cookie crumbles when you live so much of your life in a small local music scene.
Recordings and music sales
I don't aim to benefit from sales of the music I cover, but sometimes, I might write about my own releases, songs, and events. I add a disclosure when it makes sense to do so. Also, I might promote my own upcoming projects in little bits throughout my content.
No links from Rhythm Changes to recordings, event tickets, or sponsors' products are affiliate links, which means I never earn any commission money when you go to gigs or buy music that you find here. All sponsors simply pay me a flat fee when they book their sponsorship.
Chernoff Music clients and partnerships
My clients at Chernoff Music may not solicit any coverage at Rhythm Changes, unless we have an in-kind sponsorship agreement for me to do editorially independent content. As always, I will not receive payment in exchange for any coverage, and no one will have editorial control or input over what I publish except for me.
My largest client is Cory Weeds and the Cellar Music Group (since Nov. 2023), under which I work on properties in the scene like the label Cellar Music, the festival Jazz at the Bolt, and the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra Society. However, I have no direct business with Frankie's Jazz Club, unless I'm playing there.
The following are my other active clients and partners who are present in the scene:
- Bez Arts Hub, a venue in Langley (since Jun. 2025)
- Coastal Jazz & Blues Society (since Dec. 2025)
- Inlet Music Society (on board of directors + society member since Apr. 2026)
My recent former clients in the scene include:
- Infidels Jazz (Oct. 2024 - Dec. 2025)
- Darlene Cooper and Bill Sample for the Inlet Music Series, Port Moody (Aug. 2025 - Apr. 2026; Rhythm Changes also provided an in-kind sponsorship for the series' 2025/26 season as the media partner)