Music consumption grew 6.5% in Canada in 2020, buoyed by a 16.1% increase in streaming, as the number of Canadian music subscribers hit 9.3m.

According to MRC Data / Billboard, total album equivalent audio consumption in Canada in 2020 reached 73.9m units, up from 69.4m in 2019, while on-demand audio song streams in Canada grew 16.1% in the same timeframe.

These figures, of course, do not necessarily reflect a similar growth in recorded music income. Nevertheless, these promising consumption figures do give the Canadian music industry, which is the subject of our latest Country Profile, hope for the future.

Music Canada CEO Patrick Rogers says that engagement with audio streaming is growing across all age groups, while Canadian collecting society Socan’s interim CEO Jennifer Brown revealed that there are 9.3million subscriptions to music streaming services in Canada, up from 7.8m in February 2020. This came despite a significant drop in bundled streaming deals in Canada in 2019, when Rogers, the country’s largest telco, ended its bundling deal with Spotify.

Image by abdallahh (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Related posts

Read More

Country Profile – Canada 2023

With a booming digital music industry and huge domestic stars, Canada looks like one of the most successful music markets globally. Will it also prove to be a pioneer in the promotion of local content on streaming services?

March 23, 2023

Read More

YouTube’s Lyor Cohen adds to criticism of Canada’s Bill C-11

Cohen said that there would be "unintended consequences" of the bill, which he believes is trying to use legal tools designed for "push" media like radio to on-demand services like YouTube.

March 14, 2023

Read More

Former Spotify chief economist criticises Canada’s Bill C-11

Last year, we reported on efforts in Canada to compel audio and video streaming services to feature a greater proportion of Canadian content.

March 13, 2023