Quebecers continue to shun music from here, especially that which is in French. No song in the language of Leclerc and Charlebois is among the 100 most popular songs currently in Quebec on listening platforms. Even more worrying: among the rare Quebec titles in French that are rising in the top 1000, there are very few new features.
The duty was able to consult the listening data compiled by Luminate during the first two weeks of June. Charlotte Cardin, who sings in English, saves the honor of Quebec. She is the only Quebecer to appear in the ranking of the 100 most listened to titles on digital platforms in the province. In the week of June 9 to 15, his success confetti took the 9e position of the songs that generated the most plays. His last single, 99 nights, for his part took the 27e rank as soon as it was released, surpassing the hits of the hour from international megastars like Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran: a real feat.
Quebec songs in French appear much further down the rankings. Copilot, by rapper FouKi, and America is crying des Cowboys Fringants, the two most listened to French-language songs in Quebec, respectively occupied the 113e and 157e places in the general classification published last week. In both cases, we cannot speak of novelties. Copilot was crowned song of the year last year at the last Gala de l’ADISQ, while theAmerica is crying won the same honors in 2020.
Since the publication of the first statistics on online listening habits in Quebec, in 2021, these same two songs have always been the most popular among French-speaking Quebec songs. “It’s an observation that we make week after week, we are very little in the novelty. What works best is the catalog. Emerging artists and even newcomers from established artists have great difficulty carving out a place for themselves in the streaming “, laments Ève Paré, director general of the Quebec Association of the record, entertainment and video industry (ADISQ).
Industry blinded?
She hopes that the passage of Bill C-11 in April will change the situation somewhat. The new law aims to force major platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music, to promote Canadian content. “The algorithms currently offer a lot of American content. Local artists have more difficulty reaching new audiences. It’s more difficult to be discovered than when everyone listened to the radio, which is obliged to play a certain percentage of Quebec music. I don’t think there’s a lack of interest in new Quebec music at the moment, but rather a lack of knowledge,” believes Ève Paré.
However, in France, American songs are in the minority in the list of the 50 most listened to songs of the week on the Spotify platform. French rap largely dominates this ranking. Even in her wildest dreams, the director general of ADISQ does not harbor such hopes in Quebec, despite the adoption of C-11. It seems a long time ago when more Quebec albums were sold than American records in Quebec!
“Europe has always been more resistant to the American and British music industries. In Quebec, there was rather blindness. The industry has preferred to focus on album sales figures and radio charts, which are forced to pass quotas for French and Quebec music anyway. Before the appearance of streaming, we weren’t interested in what people were actually listening to. The truth is that Quebecers have always listened to American music. The industry made a strategic mistake in the 1990s and 2000s thinking that Quebec music was doing well because sales were strong,” notes Romuald Jamet, a sociology professor at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi whose research focuses on among other things on music and digital.
Rap is trendy
According to ADISQ, Quebec music represents, year after year, between 7% and 8% of the songs listened to on online listening platforms. A percentage that drops to about 5% if we are only interested in Quebec music in French.
In the rankings to which The duty had access, the finding is even more alarming. Of the 1000 most listened to songs in the week of June 20, less than 4% were in French, all origins combined. When we exclude the few French and Belgian titles that are successful in Quebec, there are only 23 Quebec songs in French in the top 1000, mainly rap songs in Franglais. Les Cowboys Fringants, for their part, place six songs alone in the top 1000, including some titles that date from the beginning of their career.
“Rap fans are younger. I imagine that they will be more likely to listen to the same album several times in an intense way. While people who listen to other styles are older, they may be less likely to listen to their music repetitively. This is perhaps what can explain why rap works much better than other styles”, raises Rafael Perez, president of the record company Coyote Records and vice-president of Joy Ride Records, one of the main labels in the Quebec rap scene.
Communicating vessels
It should also be noted that young adults and teenagers, who form the target audience for rap, are the two age groups that use listening platforms the most. But according to ADISQ, this way of consuming music is spreading to other age categories. A study commissioned last year shows that 61% of Quebecers now use an online listening service.
However, the platforms provide little financial return to Quebec artists. Even if the latter were more successful there, their rewards would remain starving. The fact remains that it is essential that Quebec artists manage to connect more with the public on listening services, believes Rafael Perez, of Coyote Records: “They are communicating vessels. More than streamsit also means potentially more show ticket sales, and possibly more merch. No component of the industry should be underestimated. »