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An Easter Weekend Note To Our Readers
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Apr 19, 2019
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BILLBOARD CANADA FYI
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Warner Music Canada
Ryan Tedder, Bollywood star Disha Patani and Karan Aujla, part of a recent cross-culture collaboration.
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IFPI Global Music Report 2025 Touts Canadian Revenue Growth, International Punjabi Music Push
The IFPI's 2025 State of the Industry report finds that Canada is still the 8th largest music market in the world, while highlighting Warner Canada and Warner India's 91 North Records as a case study in international collaboration.
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Canada's music market is staying strong, with revenues growing to $660.3 million USD in 2024.
That's according to the IFPI, which represents the global recording industry. IFPI's 2025 State of the Industryreport lists Canada again as the 8th largest music market in the world.
Canada's 2024 revenues saw relatively small growth of just 1.5%, but the report notes that the 2024 figures are in comparison to an unusually high 2023 which saw a large one-off performance rights revenues payment.
Meanwhile, Canada's most popular musician, Drake, saw his global standing rise. During a tough year for the superstar's reputation, Drake's worldwide popularity increased, rising from No. 4 to No. 2 in the IFPI's artist rankings, behind only Taylor Swift.
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"Canada’s major labels invest heavily in finding new talent, breaking Canadian and Indigenous artists at home and around the world, and developing new technologies to help them achieve their commercial and creative goals," says Patrick Rogers of Music Canada, which represents the major labels in Canada. "A robust Canadian market is what enables that re-investment and the success of future generations of talent."
Beyond Canada, the U.S. saw growth of 2.2%, but the major expansion in revenues is happening in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, which saw growth of 22.8%, 22.6% and 22.5% respectively.
Global music growth slowed slightly compared to last year, but still had some major milestones. Streaming revenues exceeded $20 billion USD for the first time. They represented 69% of total revenues, which reached $29.6 billion. And paid subscription streaming saw global increase of 9.5%, with subscription account users reaching 752 million worldwide.
The report identifies several policy priorities, emphasizing the importance of recognizing music's cultural and economic value through protections for copyright holders.
It also advocates for supporting what IFPI calls "music's competitive marketplace," and puts a spotlight on one of the most polarizing developments in music and technology: generative AI. While there's room for artists to make creative use of new AI technologies, the IFPI report emphasizes, unauthorized use of copyrighted material is a major existential issue in the industry.
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"Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be one of the defining issues of our time," writes IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley. "It is very clear that the unauthorized 'ingestion' of copyright-protected music by developers of generative AI systems to train their models poses a very real and present threat to human artistry."
That threat has led to several recent controversies in Canada alone, from the accidental broadcasting of an AI-generated song on New Brunswick radio to an AI-generated album appearing on musician Ian Janes' Spotify profile without his permission. Those cases will only become more frequent as the industry grapples with developing new norms and regulations around AI.
91 North As A Case Study In Cross-Border Collaboration
The report highlights Warner Canada and Warner India's joint venture, 91 North, which has been successfully growing the profile of South Asian music in Canada and abroad.
Warner India's Jay Mehta and Warner Canada's Kristen Burke discuss how the collaborative label came to be. Mehta says the idea came to him during lockdown, when he noticed the explosion in Punjabi talent coming out of Canada.
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“While it was already a big consumption market, Canada was newly becoming a big creator market, which was consistently making great Indian sounds," Mehta says. He connected with Burke on the idea of a label that could support South Asian artists in Canada who have huge followings in India.
"Jay and I quickly got together and recognized that there was a real opportunity here to be the first label to come together to really support these artists," Burke says.
Warner Canada added team members of South Asian heritage to best support the new signees, she shares. Led by creative director Ikky and A&R head Charlie B (both 2024 Billboard Canada Power Players), the label has had success with artists like Chani Nattan, AR Paisley and Jonita Gandhi. Warner Canada and Warner India also work together to foster the burgeoning superstardom of Karan Aujla.
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“We're not looking to try and Westernize these artists. We're trying to support them and help them become global superstars and not make them feel like they need to change or do something like sing in English to get those bigger looks,” Burke explains. “As the world is changing and sounds are travelling, we're making incredible music that cuts through – that's what we want to do.”
“91 North Records is more than just a record label; it's a cultural movement that we wanted to create an infrastructure for," Mehta adds.
Find the full IFPI report here and more global insights here.
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