Canada an unsung heavyweight of global music, but new Canadian content law could backfire: report

With a population slightly larger than California and an economy roughly the size of Brazil, Canada is not often considered a global cultural powerhouse. However, a new report shows that when it comes to streaming music, it certainly is.

Canadian artists rank third in worldwide streams among the top 1,000 singles (behind the US and UK), an organization says. new report from before Spotify Chief economic expert will pagemainly uses data from market surveillance Light. Page called Canada's third place (along with Australia's eighth place) “an incredible achievement.”

And it's not just the superstars drake And Weekend Who is responsible for that success: Use Spotify Echo Nest Music intelligence data, the report shows many Canadian artists is now popular worldwidefrom Tate McRae And Total 41 ARRIVE Nelly Furtado And Tory Lanez.

Page attributes much of that success to the global nature of the music streaming ecosystem.

“For example, without streaming, it is unlikely that we would see two Canadian artists singing in Punjabi with three of the top 10 songs in India,” he wrote.

However, the report warns that the Canadian government's plan to regulate music streaming services to encourage the prominence of Canadian music could backfire if regulators get too involved in how their approach.

Quote data from IFPI'S Global music reportPage analysis – done for Canadian music, a recorded music industry trade group – notes that Canada remains in the top 10 global markets for recorded music revenues. The country's growth in streaming subscribers (increased 8.4% by 2022) beyond what was seen in the US (increase 5.8%).

“For example, without streaming, it is unlikely that we would see two Canadian artists singing in Punjabi with three of the top 10 songs in India.”

Will Page, reports on Canada's Streaming Act

And Canadian recorded music revenues have seen a remarkable recovery from the era of music piracy – much stronger than in many other developed markets, with revenues doubling since 2014, up to 792 million Canadian dollars (608.6 million USD) in 2022, according to IFPI.

“We need to appreciate that very few developed markets can meet this claim in such a short period of time,” Page wrote.

However, “Canada's per capita spending on recorded music ($20.03) is far behind its southern neighbor ($42.78), the report noted.

And when it comes to Canadian music consumed in Canada, the numbers aren't as impressive as the global numbers. Page's report shows approx ten% Later Top 10,000 most streamed songs in Canada is Canadian and the like ten% of the artists in the top 10,000 are all Canadian.

That compares unfavorably with the surrounding UK, for example 40% Among the most popular types of music streamed online are domestic, the report notes, citing data from British recording industry (BPI).

However, although Canadians may consume more music from outside Canada than music within the country, they still seem to support their homegrown industry. In a recent report, Luminate noted that Canadians “strongly support homegrown artists, with 71% number of music listeners interacting with music from Canada by 2023, vs 66% in 2022.”

However, it was the relative weakness of Canadian music in Canada that prompted the Canadian Parliament last year to pass a new law, Streaming Actseeks to expand “Canadian content” regulations from broadcasting to the world of streaming.

Canadian broadcasters have for decades been required to include a certain minimum amount of Canadian content and pay into funds that distribute money to Canadian production companies and creators.

While many entertainment industry groups support the Streaming Act, many new media and technology companies oppose it, saying such “CanCon” rules are unworkable in the open world, globalization of the Internet. And based on how discoverable algorithms work, these rules could actually backfire.

That's an argument Page repeats in his report, which lays out a number of options for how the CRTC, Canada's broadcasting regulator, might approach the issue of mandating CanCon to provide music streaming service.

Page argues that if the CRTC chooses to directly regulate the market, as it did with TV and radio, it could have the unintended consequence of limiting the ability of artists to grow into global phenomena. Canadian doctor.

“To illustrate this point, go back in time and think about your local record store: if they noticed that you bought an album by a promising Canadian artist, instead of saying 'you would too like this great British artist,' Algorithm tweaking can be compared to restricting a store owner from saying 'you might like this other similar Canadian band,'” Page wrote.

“The risk is that Canadian minnows will only be paired with other Canadian minnows – which is exactly what artists don't want: a small group with limited geographic reach… As Nettwerk music group shownDomestic gains can lead to unintended international losses.”

Another source of “international pain” for Canadian artists could be the growing trend of Canadian artists, Page reports. Localization – music in local languages ​​is becoming more popular in many domestic markets around the world, narrow market share of English music worldwide.

“For English- and French-speaking Canadian artists, the path to export success to Europe is about to get more difficult. Navigating these market forces may require help – in the form of a future-proof music export strategy – from the state,” the report said.

(Page must know a thing or two about globalization: He is largely responsible for popularizing the term, with his reports in recent years noting the growing popularity of vernacular music.)

However, Canada has one advantage when it comes to globalization: a large and diverse immigrant community with ties to their countries of origin. For example, the report notes that Punjabi is now the third most popular language in Canadian songs (3%), second only to English (75%) and French (20%).

Punjabi is “the fastest growing musical language in Canada today thanks to the success of artists such as Ikky, Karan AujlaAnd AP Dhillon”, the report noted.Music business worldwide