2016 Was Very Good for Rock Sales and Streams in Canada. This Bodes Well for 2017
We’re halfway through January, but the 2016 reviews are still coming in. BuzzAngle, which is a company that analyzes music consumption, has some interesting numbers for Canada and they all support this theory I have that rock is once again on the ascendant.
They say that rock songs—and we’re talking all genres of rock here—were the most streamed songs of 2016, accounting for a little over 26% of all music streams. No one song or one band dominated the overall streaming charts, but if you add up all the rock streamed last year, it was number one.
If I’m honest, this surprised me, too. And there’s more.
About 41% of all Canadian album sales in 2016 came from rock albums. Compare that to pop in second place, with just 14%. Then again, pop and hip hop tend to be genres dominated by singles.
Of all the vinyl albums sold in Canada last year, 69% were rock records. And if you want to dig into sales of individual songs, 28% were rock, good for the number one spot.So while individual pop performers like Bieber and Drake and The Weeknd got all the attention for their individual songs, he truth of the matter is that rock was the dominant form of music in Canada last year.
I like it. I’m telling you: rock is going to have a good year. For even more detail on what happened in this country last year as far as music consumption goes, go here.
