Several billion listens to musical tracks on streaming services have been counted in Quebec in 2022. Through this massive consumption, Quebec artists are struggling to find their place with less than 10% of the shares, according to a new report from the Quebec Statistics Institute (ISQ).
The ISQ Observatory of Culture and Communications published its annual bulletin on Tuesday on the consumption of musical recordings in the province. For the first time, it offers a complete picture of streaming music trends using data from the Luminate Data system.
It reveals that Quebecers listened to nearly 24 billion music tracks on streaming platforms last year.
Throughout the year, consumption on these streaming services showed constant growth, explains the author of the report, Lysandre Champagne, research fellow at the Observatory.
“We do not have data on income or the number of subscribers in Quebec. We only have music consumption, then this data suggests to us that this type of consumption is on the rise,” she says in an interview.
“Starving”
However, works performed by artists from Quebec only represented 8% of all these downloads.
Among the 10,000 most listened to tracks, the share for pieces performed in French climbs to 8.6%, of which approximately 5% were Franco-Quebec pieces. The vast majority of listenings (85.7%) were works performed in English.
Four songs by Quebec artists managed to climb the list of the 100 most listened to tracks, according to the Observatory. We find there Co-pilot (version Luxury Snack Foods) by FouKi and Jay Scott in 25e position, America cries dashing Cowboys in 68e position, Lullaby by Alicia Moffet in 72e position and Meaningless by Charlotte Cardin in 93e position.
For organizations in the music industry, this data on the place occupied by local artists on streaming platforms is not surprising, but remains worrying.
“5% of French-speaking vocal music of Quebec origin on streaming platforms is a percentage that could be described as starving,” comments the general director of ADISQ, Eve Paré.
The way in which digital platforms are designed is particularly singled out.
“The consumer is increasingly passive in the way he listens to music. We’re going to let ourselves be carried away by the recommendations, whether it’s reading lists or the effects of algorithms. And the platforms are not the ones that will necessarily favor local content in their recommendations,” says M.me Prepared for interview.
The figures confirm the importance of the federal law on continuous online broadcasting – for which the development of the regulatory framework is underway with the CRTC – supports the general director of the Association of Music Publishing Professionals, Jérôme Payette .
“One of the objectives of the law is precisely to promote the promotion and recommendation of our local music. […] It’s not really new to ask for our music to be featured. We have had quotas on the radio for decades. Now, the idea is to transpose that to the digital environment,” he says.
Regional differences
Difficult to draw comparisons between 2021 and 2022. The ISQ had only recorded data over a period of 11 weeks in 2021, i.e. from October to December.
However, there seems to be a trend emerging as the holiday season approaches where significant variations have been noted for this period over the last two years.
“We see the consumption of streaming music which rises in the month of December and which falls to its lowest level during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s Day. We realize that people probably consume a lot of recorded music while traveling or at work,” mentions Lysandre Champagne.
The Observatory’s analysis also shows some regional differences in musical preferences. For example, the highest consumption of alternative rock was recorded in the regions of Quebec and Shawinigan, while Montreal displays the largest share of listening for RnB/hip-hop and rap.
Popular music has gained a little more popularity in the Saguenay region than elsewhere in Quebec, while country has become more established in the Gatineau region.
More than half of the listenings made on streaming music platforms in Quebec were recorded in the Quebec metropolis in 2022, while it represents 23% of the population of the province.
This concentration could be explained in part by the geolocation system of the platforms, which ensures that people from outside coming to work in Montreal can increase the share of listening for this city, argues the Observatory.
Decline in album sales
The Recorded Music Consumption Bulletin once again presents data on album sales.
The downward trend continued for compact discs last year with a decline of 19% compared to 2021. A similar observation for albums and tracks in digital file.
Conversely, sales of vinyl records have once again seen an increase, now representing nearly 25% of sales of albums on physical media, “unheard of in 20 years”, according to the ISQ.