While local content struggles to stand out on international streaming platforms, QUB musique boasts of its “11 times greater participation in the Quebec cultural economy” in 2021. At least, in average royalties per subscriber.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
The NumériQ team, a subsidiary of Quebecor, calculates that it returns $6.38 to the local industry per monthly subscription, while other Canadian services such as Spotify and Apple Music redistribute only $0.56.
“What we want people to understand is that there is a smaller service, but one that is able to give more,” explains Marc-André Laporte, senior director of QUB musique. .
How can this gap be explained, when all companies pay around 70% of their subscription income to rights holders (record companies, publishers, artists, etc.)?
Not only does QUB musique display a slightly higher monthly rate ($11.99 compared to $9.99), but above all it encourages a much higher proportion of listeners to Quebec performers, around 76% compared to 8% for competing platforms, according to its calculations.
Mr. Laporte explains that “the first and most important action” of QUB musique was to offer great “visibility to what is being done here, to Quebec performers”.
Like Spotify, the platform offers a catalog of around 75 million international titles. Its bias in favor of local content is reflected in its display choices or even in its approximately “3600 playlists”.
“There is something strong in the idea of coherently mixing what is done internationally with what is done here, notes Marc-André Laporte. For us, when we make a soul playlist, it’s logical to have a Nina Simone who will precede a Dominique Fils-Aimé. »
David versus Goliath
In July 2021, QUB musique announced that it had gained some 25,000 subscribers a year after its launch, which was moved up to May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the platform has remained silent on its evolution. “Comparisons quickly become inaccurate with the competition,” explains its principal. Our missions, our objectives and our markets are super different. »
According to the optimistic estimates of Romuald Jamet, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, QUB musique today brings together a maximum of 50,000 Quebec subscribers. Spotify, for its part, would have approximately 1 million active accounts in Quebec.
In absolute value, the runoff from the Quebecor service to Quebec artists remains marginal. Mr. Jamet, specialist in music “streaming” platforms, gives the example of Charlotte Cardin, who would have generated some $300,000 on Spotify thanks to the titles of her album phoenix.
A year after its launch, QUB musique pointed out that it paid $500,000… to all artists and rights holders in Quebec.
“Where it could be interesting is for small independent artists, less known, but we have very little information. For big artists, it’s much less interesting than what you can collect on Spotify, for example. »
As a general rule, revenues from listening platforms are collected in a common pot, then donated to rightsholders in proportion to listening. According to Mr. Jamet, artists like Charlotte Cardin, Les Cowboys Fringants or Cœur de pirate therefore receive huge slices of the cake from QUB musique, while generating much more money on other platforms.
The royalty system is “very unequal between the different artists” and “favors the very big players”, he observes.
A Quebec prize list
QUB musique also stands out from the competition when it draws up its list of the most listened to albums in 2021. Although an English-language record sits at the top – Phoenixby Charlotte Cardin – 13 of the top 15 positions are occupied by Quebec artists. Nights in RepentignyDashing Cowboys, and Perseidsfrom Cœur de pirate, deserve second and third place.
The Quebecor family is no exception. Two productions of Star Academy under the fold of Musicor – the 2021 compilation and Our reunion – follow the leading trio, while Like on the first date by Mario Pelchat, whose MP3 Discs label was bought by the music sector of Quebecor, appears in seventh place.
A visit to the platform’s homepage on Tuesday was otherwise telling. « QUB music behind the scenes of Star Academy “, we headlined at the top of the page. The first call labels for the various playlists were attributed to Corneille (Musicor), Olivier Faubert (ex-academician), Corneille again, Guylaine Tanguay (Musicor) and Star Academy (broadcast on TVA and partner of QUB musique).
This is the strategy that Spotify and others are taking. The problem is that 70% of rightsholder royalties go to record companies and publishers. However, this percentage circulates a lot internally, within Quebecor.
Romuald Jamet, assistant professor of sociology
According to the specialist, QUB musique, which operates “at a loss”, is a political showcase before being a cultural showcase. “It’s Quebecor posting to say: ‟Look, we support the artists, the people here”, but in fact, they are only supporting themselves. »
“The goal is to put forward performers from here and to satisfy the people who are subscribers, retorts Marc-André Laporte, senior director of the platform. I invite you to walk around the platform, and you will see that we are fair with everyone. It’s something we said to ourselves from the start. »
Whether the platforms highlight Quebec or international content, one issue remains, according to Mr. Jamet. “It’s knowing how copyright and the distribution of the money generated between the different rights holders will change. In this respect, I think that the business model of streaming does not at all put forward the creation and the artists, who are the last to eat their piece of the cake. »