Music Industry

A Mid-Year Report on the State of the Canadian Music Industry

We’re halfway through 2015, a good time to take the temperature of the Canadian music industry. All this data comes from Nielsen SoundScan.

Some highlights:

  • The biggest-selling album of the year is 1989 from Taylor Swift.
  • CD sales are down 9%.
  • Digital album sales are up 10%.
  • Digital tracks are down 10%.
  • Vinyl sales have increased by 40% over last year.
  • More than 10.5 billion songs were streamed in Canada–pretty good considering that we were very late to the streaming game.

2015 NIELSEN mid-year Music Canada Report

On-demand MUSIC STREAMS  Includes on-demand Audio + video  data from google play, XBOX, Rdio, SPOTIFY, Tidal, YOUTUBE/VEVO 
  2015 AvG Weekly Volume
  2015 YTD Q1 Q2
Total Streams              10.5B 371M    439M
   Audio                             2.1B 65M 95M
   Video                             8.4B 306M 344M

       

   

TOTAL ALBUM SALES  Includes CDs, Cassettes, Vinyl LPs, Digital Albums 
  2015 2014 % CHG
Total UNITS              12.3M 12.3M  -0.3%
cd                             6.3M 6.9M  -8.6%
digital                            5.7M 5.2M +9.6%
lp/vinyl 207K 148K +39.9%

       

   

overall sales album with tea  TRACK EQUIVALENT ALBUMS RATIO OF 10 TRACKS TO 1 ALBUM 
  2015 2014 % CHG
Total album + tea          17.4 17.6 -1.1%

 

digital track sales  in millions 
  2015 2014 % CHG
Total units          51.6 53.2 -3.0%

 

total digital music sales  Digital Albums + Track Equivalent Albums in Millions 
  2015 2014 % CHG
Total units          10.9 10.6 +3.2%

 

BILLBOARD’S TOP CHARTS FOR MID-YEAR 2015

COMPILED BY NIELSEN MUSIC

  2015 Top Albums + TEA
  Artist Album Sales
       1 TAYLOR SWIFT 1989 172,000
2 ED SHEERAN X 170,000
3 SOUNDTRACK FIFTY SHADES OF GREY 134,000
4 SAM SMITH IN THE LONELY HOUR 132,000
5 YOAN * YOAN 101,000
6 HOZIER HOZIER 101,000
7 DRAKE * IF YOU’RE READING THIS… 101,000
8 MAROON 5 V 92,000
9 MEGHAN TRAINOR TITLE 86,000
10 MUMFORD & SONS WILDER MIND 84,000

Includes Album sales and Track Equivalent Albums at a rate of 10:1

 

  2015 Top Albums
  Artist Album Sales
1 ED SHEERAN X 117,000
2 TAYLOR SWIFT 1989 111,000
3 SAM SMITH IN THE LONELY HOUR 105,000
4 YOAN * YOAN 100,000
5 SOUNDTRACK FIFTY SHADES OF GREY 89,000
6 DRAKE * IF YOU’RE READING THIS, 89,000
7 JEAN LELOUP * PARADIS CITY 76,000
8 MUMFORD & SONS WILDER MIND 74,000
9 HOZIER HOZIER 68,000
10 IMAGINE DRAGONS SMOKE + MIRRORS 66,000

 

  2015 Radio Songs
  Artist Album Plays
    1 MARK RONSON FEAT. BRUNO MARS UPTOWN FUNK! 69,000
2 ED SHEERAN THINKING OUT LOUD 65,000
3 MAROON 5 SUGAR 65,000
4 TAYLOR SWIFT STYLE 61,000
5 ELLIE GOULDING LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO 56,000
6 HOZIER TAKE ME TO CHURCH 54,000
7 SHAWN MENDES * SOMETHING BIG 51,000
8 TAYLOR SWIFT BLANK SPACE 48,000
9 WALK THE MOON SHUT UP AND DANCE 46,000
10 WEEKND * EARNED IT 43,000

Based on plays at all Canadian Formats

 

  2015 Top Digital Albums
  Artist Album Sales
      1 DRAKE * IF YOU’RE READING THIS… 77,000
2 ED SHEERAN X 63,000
3 TAYLOR SWIFT 1989 56,000
4 SOUNDTRACK FIFTY SHADES OF GREY 52,000
5 SAM SMITH IN THE LONELY HOUR 47,000
6 MUMFORD & SONS WILDER MIND 46,000
7 HOZIER HOZIER 40,000
8 KENDRICK LAMAR TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY 36,000
9 IMAGINE DRAGONS SMOKE + MIRRORS 33,000
10 SOUNDTRACK GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 33,000

 

  2015 Top Digital Songs
  Artist Album Sales
    1 MARK RONSON FEAT. BRUNO MARS UPTOWN FUNK! 526,000
2 ED SHEERAN THINKING OUT LOUD 346,000
3 WIZ KHALIFA FEAT. CHARLIE PUTH SEE YOU AGAIN 315,000
4 MAROON 5 SUGAR 289,000
5 RIHANNA/KANYE WEST/PAUL MCCARTNEY FOURFIVESECONDS 289,000
6 HOZIER TAKE ME TO CHURCH 279,000
7 ELLIE GOULDING LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO 245,000
8 OMI CHEERLEADER 242,000
9 ANDY GRAMMER HONEY, I’M GOOD 204,000
10 WALK THE MOON SHUT UP AND DANCE 200,000

 

  2015 Top On-Demand Streams
  Artist Album Streams
       1 MARK RONSON FEAT. BRUNO MARS UPTOWN FUNK! 38,000,000
2 ED SHEERAN THINKING OUT LOUT 25,000,000
3 WIZ KHALIFA FEAT. CHARLIE PUTH SEE YOU AGAIN 23,000,000
4 MAROON 5 SUGAR 20,000,000
5 TAYLOR SWIFT BLANK SPACE 18,000,000
6 TAYLOR SWIFT SHAKE IT OFF 18,000,000
7 HOZIER TAKE ME TO CHURCH 18,000,000
8 ELLIE GOULDING LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO 17,000,000
9 SIA ELASTIC HEART 13,000,000
10 OMI CHEERLEADER 13,000,000

Includes all Audio and Video on-demand streams

 

 

  2015 Top Audio On-Demand Streams
  Artist Album Streams
       1 MARK RONSON FEAT. BRUNO MARS UPTOWN FUNK! 4,800,000
2 ED SHEERAN THINKING OUT LOUD 4,100,000
3 HOZIER TAKE ME TO CHURCH 4,000,000
4 WIZ KHALIFA FEAT. CHARLIE PUTH SEE YOU AGAIN 3,900,000
5 ELLIE GOULDING LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO 3,800,000
6 MAROON 5 SUGAR 3,700,000
7 FLO RIDA FEAT. SAGE THE GEMINI G.D.F.R. 3,500,000
8 OMI CHEERLEADER 3,500,000
9 MAJOR LAZER FEAT. DJ SNAKE LEAN ON 3,400,000
10 WEEKND * EARNED IT 3,100,000

 

  2015 Top Video On-Demand Streams
  Artist Album Streams
      1 MARK RONSON FEAT. BRUNO MARS UPTOWN FUNK! 33,600,000
2 ED SHEERAN THINKING OUT LOUD 20,800,000
3 WIZ KHALIFA FEAT. CHARLIE PUTH SEE YOU AGAIN 19,100,000
4 TAYLOR SWIFT BLANK SPACE 18,000,000
5 TAYLOR SWIFT SHAKE IT OFF 17,800,000
6 MAROON 5 SUGAR 16,100,000
7 HOZIER TAKE ME TO CHURCH 13,700,000
8 ELLIE GOULDING LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO 13,000,000
9 PSY GANGNAM STYLE 12,000,000
10 MEGHAN TRAINOR ALL ABOUT THAT BASS 11,500,000

 

 

*Indicates Canadian artist

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38035 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

One thought on “A Mid-Year Report on the State of the Canadian Music Industry

  • As a U2 fan I am really disappointed that their name appears no where in this article. S.o.I. is a much better record than No Line.

    Reply

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