Since joining the SiriusXM team in 2022 – bringing with her experience from roles at Universal Music, CBC and Apple – Mearns has made a big impact, leading the station’s launch of Mixtape: North, the first 24/7 Canadian Hip-Hop/R&B channel. Though hip-hop and R&B have produced some of the biggest stars in Canadian history, the national industry is often slow to support rising acts. Mixtape: North works to showcase emerging hip-hop and R&B talent and honour the legends, with a launch event in May 2023 featuring special guests like Drake, Majid Jordan and Smiley. That was good news following some public scrutiny in 2022 when the company ended its partnership with CBC, leaving artists concerned about lost royalties and Canadian Content. The company has extended its development of Canadian talent through programs like the Top of the Country competition and the Black Canadian Music Awards (in partnership with the SOCAN Foundation), as well as the Soundwaves MusiCounts Community Fund, which makes musical instruments accessible to kids throughout the country.

With 215 music stations, Bell Media is the largest radio broadcaster in the country, and through a partnership with iHeartMedia, Inc., the media juggernaut brings the popular iHeartRadio platform to Canada providing live radio, podcasts, playlists and more. The platform already features influential stations like Toronto’s CHUM 104.5 and Quebec’s ÉNERGIE group, and is making moves to expand. In 2023, 67 Stingray stations joined the platform, and recently iHeartRadio announced the addition of 39 Corus stations, including Toronto’s Q107 and Calgary’s Country 105. Sarah Cummings described the announcement as an “expanded choice for listeners, making their experience bigger and better than ever before.” Leading Bell’s audio strategy, Cummings brings decades of expertise, including her experience as the first female Program Director of CHUM 104.5.

Spotify Canada Editorial Lead Jess Huddleston and Artist & Label Partnerships Manager JD Parent are helping to grow Canadian artists’ reach within Canada and beyond. Parent has overseen partnerships with Francos de Montreal, Montreal Jazz Fest and Boots and Hearts. Spotify flagship playlists are an important gateway in the modern music industry, and its flagship Canadian playlists, New Music Friday Canada and Hot Hits Canada, have grown by 20% since Huddleston started leading them, as well as over a hundred other playlists that help connect listeners with the latest Canadian music. Spotify also launched Fresh Finds Canada, a playlist promoting independent Canadian artists. Exported streams for Canadian artists also ramped up by nearly 18% from December 2022-December 2023. If streaming services face questions over their royalty models, editorial playlists and partnerships are unquestionably boosting Canadian music at home and abroad.

John Murphy, originally part of the launch for Amazon Music in the UK, came over to Canada in 2022 to lead music and podcasts. Now, he works on strategy, programming, marketing and industry relations here, and he’s already overseen some big opportunities in initiatives for artists in Canada. That’s included the Breakthrough Artists to Watch program, whose 2024 picks like Jonita Gandhi and Owen Riegling are already seeing big success this year. In his tenure, Amazon Music has also produced a handful of original songs featuring artists like Frank Walker and The Beaches. The Beaches were also the only international artist in Amazon Music’s CURVED video series, with two live videos filmed in London.The Amazon Music Bus, meanwhile, takes Amazon Music’s programs into the real world at festivals throughout the country.

Broadcaster, TV and radio producer, and cultural tastemaker, George Stroumboulopoulos has been sharing his love of music with the world for over 30 years, from his MuchMusic VJ days, to TV and radio with CBC, and now as the host and executive producer of STROMBO on Apple Music Hits. From that important DSP perch, he’s still influencing Canadian breakthroughs. He’s also part of the team behind Apple Music’s much-talked about 100 Best Albums project. Strombo’s influence extends beyond media, from his work as a UN World Food Programme Ambassador, to the David Suzuki Foundation, to his Music Therapy Fund. In 2023, he was appointed to the Order of Canada. Three decades in, Strombo stays current, chopping it up with Canadian legends like Rush as well as the latest breakthrough acts, like Billboard Canadian Hot 100 charting artists Ikky, Zeina and Owen Riegling, in his Up Next Canada series. Mike Lawless, who is the head of Apple Music and Apple Podcasts in Canada, was instrumental in that series' launch. He leads a team of music editors and music & podcast business partner managers in Toronto and Montreal, helping amplify Canadian talent on Apple Music and Apple Podcasts both in Canada and around the world. This past year, Lawless and his team launched a six-part series with Montreal's Charlotte Cardin leading into her breakthrough album 99 Nights, launched Home Sessions original content with artists like LOONY and Devon Cole, and helped make Karan Aujla the first Punjabi artist to be on the cover of the global flagship New Music Daily playlist, which was accompanied by an interview on the Zane Lowe show.

YouTube has a global reach and the ability to amplify Canadian artists beyond borders, which is why Gabriel Obadia’s role as YouTube Canada’s Music Partnerships Lead is a crucial one. Obadia works with the major and indie labels to support Canadian artists’ growth, including placements in programs like YouTube’s Black Voices Class (which rapper TOBi was part of) and Fifty Deep, which supports hip-hop artists and featured Quebec rapper Lost. YouTube has been one of the main platforms enabling the 2023 breakout of Punjabi-Canadian artist Karan Aujla and pop act Crash Adams, making international connections and helping them go viral on YouTube Shorts. Obadia also helped Music Canada update its Gold/Platinum Singles Program, which as of 2024 now counts video streams – a modern approach that follows similar ones in the U.S.