Here is this week's Nielsen Marketwatch report which features Canadian music stats for the current week and YTD with comparisons to last year. This chart is published every Tuesday.
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Here is this week's Nielsen Marketwatch report which features Canadian music stats for the current week and YTD with comparisons to last year. This chart is published every Tuesday. The abbreviation "TEA" is a term used to describe the sale of music downloads or singles. A track equivalent album is equal to 10 tracks, or 10 songs.
According to the Toronto-based audio research firm Signal Hill Insights' new Audio on the Move report, only 5% of Canadians enjoy AI-generated music, while 65% dislike it.
According to a new study, AI music is not the wave in Canada.
Toronto-based audio research firm Signal Hill Insights has published its newest Audio on the Move report, and the results highlight a disdain for AI-generated music among a "supermajority" of Canadians.
The study, which surveyed 6,161 Canadians aged 12 and older, shows that only 5% of respondents say they like AI-generated music, while a staggering 65% say they dislike it. The responses skew negative overall, as only 29% of respondents say they are neutral regarding the presence of AI in the music they consume.
The findings are similar when it comes to podcasts, with only 4% saying they enjoy AI-generated podcasts, 68% expressing disdain and 28% indifferent. The study reflects the findings of global research company Ipsos' AI Monitor 2026, a ranking of 32 countries which Signal Hill Insights mentions in its report. That list placed Canada in last place in terms of favourability towards products and services using AI, an attitude that has carried over to AI-generated media.
This negative view isn't exclusive to the consumer, as music creators feel the same way. In August, the University of Alberta surveyed 263 "working Canadian musicians" about the evolving industry landscape, and 87% of the 142 participants who brought up the rapid adoption of AI expressed a "negative" view towards its use.
Signal Hill Insights also finds that the younger generation shows more leniency towards AI, but the overall sentiment still tips negatively. Half the respondents aged 12-17 say they dislike AI-generated music and 37% are neutral, leaving just 13% who have positive feelings towards it.
"The steep rise in fully AI-generated music and podcasts has sparked controversy in the audio industry, which is why we thought it important to understand how these products are perceived by Canadian consumers," says Matt Hird, vice president of research for Signal Hill Insights. "The findings from Audio on the Move show there is very little support. The number who dislike AI-generated audio outnumber those who like it by a factor of at least 13 to 1."
AI-generated music has become one of the industry's most talked-about issues recently. In August, Billboard Canada joined Billboard in its affirmation of transparency regarding AI music featured on its charts. SOCAN launched a major lawsuit against the AI music generation application Suno just days later (Sept. 2), suing the company for over $10 million for infringing on songs by Avril Lavigne, Joni Mitchell and more.
Earlier this summer, The Atlantic reported that songs by Drake, The Weeknd and Nemahsis were included in the datasets being used to train Suno and other AI platforms, some of which contain over 12 million songs. Canadian music companies and organizations like SOCAN, Factor and Music Publishers Canada (MPC) have continued to advocate for the protection of musicians' copyrighted works, with MPC notably filing to intervene in a federal court case in July to stress the importance of Canada approaching generative AI "in a manner that respects creators and incentivizes human expression."
