Big Tech companies will spend the next week arguing why they shouldn’t have to bankroll Canada’s music industry.
What happened: The CRTC, Canada’s telecoms regulator, kicked off hearings yesterday to discuss whether streaming giants like Spotify and Apple Music should have to contribute more of their earnings to Canadian artists.
- Radio broadcasters are also petitioning the regulator to loosen its requirement that they play 35% Canadian content on their stations.
Why it’s happening: The CRTC isn’t proposing a similar Canadian content quota for the streamers, but it is looking for them to further promote or make more financial contributions to the industry.
- The streamers argue they’re already paying enough by handing over 70% of their revenue in royalties to artists, while putting artists’ music in front of a wider audience.
Why it matters: On paper, stricter rules sound like a win for Canadian artists, but in practice, forcing streamers to pay more could backfire. Amazon has already warned that if the CRTC piles on extra regulations, it could cut back the investments it currently puts behind Canadian artists.
Zoom out: We don’t have to look too far back to see how this might play out. When Meta balked at the CRTC’s requirement for it to pay news publishers, Canadian news outlets saw their engagement plummet ~43% after Instagram and Facebook stopped allowing news content.—LA