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FYI

MRC 2021 Canada Year-End Report In Music

On-demand streaming reached a new high of 107.6 billion streams in 2021, up 10.6% from 97.3 billion in 2020. Notably though is the decline in Current music listenership that decreased 5.3% for the first time since MRC Data began measuring streaming data. Off-setting this, fans spent more time with Catalogue titles, which increased by 19.5% in the year.

MRC 2021 Canada Year-End Report In Music

By FYI Staff

Analytics firm MRC Data has released its Canada 2021 Year-End Report, presented in collaboration with Billboard. The analysis spans Jan. 1 through December 30, 2021.


 The two most consumed albums were from new artists: Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour and Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, while Drake and Adele pushed up music streams to create two of the year’s biggest consumption weeks. And global genres like K-pop and Afro-Pop reached larger audiences in Canada through blockbuster hits such as BTS’ Butter and Wizkid’s Essence.

On-demand streaming reached a new high of 107.6 billion streams in 2021, up 10.6% from 97.3 billion in 2020. Notably though is the decline in Current music listenership that decreased 5.3% for the first time since MRC Data began measuring streaming data. Off-setting this, fans spent more time with Catalogue titles, which increased by 19.5% in the year.

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Physical music sales rebounded in 2021, with vinyl posting 1.1M sales, a 21.7% increase over the previous year and the highest unit total since MRC Data started measuring music sales in 1995.

CD sales tumbled 6.9% in the year to 2.7M, and total album sales in Canada, which includes physical and digital) dropped 12.1%, to 6.1M.

Justin Bieber, Drake and The Weeknd own the three biggest albums of 2021 among Canadian artists, as Justice, Certified Lover Boy and After Hours finished at Nos. 1-3 on the year-end top albums recap. Justice is the 3rd-most popular album overall, trailing American artists Olivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen. Shawn Mendes and Bieber’s teaming on Monster proved to be a, well, monster-sized hit, as it’s the No. 3 biggest song by a Canadian act in 2021 on radio. The Weeknd’s Save Your Tears, boosted by a remix with Ariana Grande, is the year’s biggest song on radio by a Canadian. The latter is also the most-consumed song overall by a Canadian artist in 2021, topping the year-end top song countdown.

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Kesha
Brendan Walter

Kesha

Chart Beat

Kesha Brings 'Holiday Road' to The Billboard Canadian Hot 100

The newly independent pop singer's cover of Lindsay Buckingham's 1983 song from National Lampoon's Vacation was first released as a Spotify exclusive for the holidays. Michael Bublé's Christmas, meanwhile, remains at No. 1 on the Canadian Albums chart.

Kesha has brought an under-appreciated holiday gem back to the charts. Her version of "Holiday Road" debuts on this week's Billboard Canadian Hot 100 (dated Dec. 28, 2024) at No. 83.

"Holiday Road" was originally released in 1983 by Fleetwood Mac legend Lindsey Buckingham and serves as the propulsive opening theme to the Chevy Chase-starting classic comedy road trip film National Lampoon's Vacation.

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