[1][2] The Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia was started by Jaimie Vernon on July 1, 1998, as an online service of the Toronto Sun newspaper website CANOE.
This led to the publication of a music magazine, Great White Noise, which became the blueprint for the eventual hardcover version of the Encyclopedia.
A double sized single edition was released to Long & McQuade Music stores in Canada in 2013 but has since been discontinued.
The primary criteria for inclusion in the encyclopedia is that a band has been in existence for at least a year and has released music in a commercial format or as a commercially released solo act.
[1] Many Canadian music photographers have contributed material to the encyclopedia, including John Rowlands, Andrew MacNaughton, John Fraser and Allison Janzen.