SOCAN and ACCORD advocated strongly for Canada’s songwriters, composers, and music publishers, in submissions to the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) on May 5, 2025, to support greater promotion and recommendation of Canadian music from online music streaming services.
The CRTC has already imposed a five percent contribution requirement toward the creation of new Canadian music on streaming services that make $25 million or more in annual revenues (and are not affiliated with a Canadian broadcaster). The CRTC launched a subsequent consultation examining how to support Canadian, French-language, and Indigenous audio content on online audio services. In SOCAN’s submission, we advocated for greater promotion and recommendation of Canadian music on those platforms.
Declaring that the CRTC’s CanCon rules for traditional radio broadcasters have had a real and measurable impact on the consumption and use of Canadian music, SOCAN requested a new regulatory framework for the online audio services that continues that tradition. We argued that the absence of promotion and recommendation obligations on online audio services has resulted in less Canadian music being streamed by Canadian audiences.
SOCAN told the CRTC that more streams of Canadian music will lead to better support of the Canadian cultural community and establish the next generation of Canadian songwriters and composers. We noted that a strong Canadian music ecosystem is an important part of maintaining Canadian cultural sovereignty. We raised the example of SPACQ-AE launching MUSIQC (in February 2025), an online platform showcasing French- language songs from Québec — as a proof of concept to show that there’s a strong appetite for Canadian songs when Canadians can easily discover them. In MUSIQC’s first month, it had more than six million page visits and 35,000 unique visitors, indicating clear demand for Canadian music.
ACCORD (an umbrella collective of Canadian music organizations, of which SOCAN is a member), reported that several independent studies back-up SOCAN data to show that Canadian music currently has a low market share of streams on online audio services. That is, only about 10 percent of music streamed online in Canada is Canadian.
ACCORD suggested that the CRTC seek further information from the online audio services as to what promotion and recommendation measures they currently use, to understand what will be effective for showcasing Canadian music.
All broadcasters have two over-arching obligations: to financially contribute to the creation of Canadian music, and to promote and recommend Canadian music. ACCORD encouraged the CRTC to make sure these obligations are tailored and appropriate to each specific type of service.
The CRTC will hold public hearings regarding these matters starting on Sept. 18, 2025.