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FYI

Canada's Creators Averaged $54 In Streaming Revenue Last Year

Call it the great upheaval. Tech companies are wiping out sustainable incomes for a great many creators who not long ago earned a fair return for their work.

Canada's Creators Averaged $54 In Streaming Revenue Last Year

By Nick Krewen


The top takeaway from the CISAC Global Collections Report released Thursday isn’t so much the amount of money collected over 2018, but the average payout that Canadian creators receive for digital revenue.

$54.

That’s right. Despite the fact that Canadian collections were up 3.9% year-on-year, totaling C$364M, and registered a 23.6% increase in digital revenue over 2017, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), which unites 239 collective management organizations in 122 countries and represents 4M creators in audiovisual, dramatic, literature, music and visual arts disciplines, SOCAN members took in $54 from digital resources.

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While radio and TV broadcasters accounted for 53.8% of total collections, both mediums registered a 1% drop, with reprography (-7.6%), synchronization (-19.3%), and private copying (-69.2%) also offering diminishing returns.

Private copying revenues, in particular, have shrunk, from $4.9M in 2013 to $0.6M in 2018.

Overall, music accounted for 88% of the total collection, or $12.39B.

Other intriguing CISAC findings: Canada ranks 7th in global collections for music with a 2.8% share, but is places 5th by percentage share accounted for in digital music – 30.9%.

The surprise regarding the No. 5 ranking:  the top countries in the categories are Mexico (with a 48.9% digital music share), Sweden (42.8%), Australasia (36.6%), and South Korea (34.8%).

At least we’re beating the States at something.

The other notable aspect of the CISAC Report is the acknowledgment of the April 2019 adoption of the European Copyright Directive.

If passed into legislation by members of the European Union, the Directive would, according to CISAC president Jean-Michel Jarre, "build a fairer balance between creators and the tech platforms" in terms of remuneration. 

You can bet this will be watched closely by everyone.

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EMPIRE's Tina Davis (left) and Girl Connected's Lola Plaku at Conversations with the Pros at Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto on March 28, 2025.
Courtesy of Girl Connected

EMPIRE's Tina Davis (left) and Girl Connected's Lola Plaku at Conversations with the Pros at Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto on March 28, 2025.

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EMPIRE President Tina Davis Gives Strategic Advice to Women in Music at Girl Connected's New Speaker Series

On Friday (March 28), the president of EMPIRE, the Bay Area-independent label and music company, came to Toronto for Conversation with the Pros offering tangible advice to the mentorship program's community. Davis also spoke to Billboard Canada about her impressive journey in the industry.

Girl Connected has launched a new series that connects the next generation of women in Canadian music with powerhouse executives for the global industry.

On Friday (March 28), Tina Davis, president of EMPIRE, sat down with Girl Connected founder and music industry veteran Lola Plaku at Toronto Metropolitan University for the first in-person Canadian edition of Conversations with the Pros (Billboard Canada was a supporting partner). The series brings in inspiring music industry figures from Girl Connected's international network to talk about their journeys and offer actionable information and advice to help the budding music professionals develop their skills and reach the next level of their careers.

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