Here’s our weekly check-up on the health of Canadian music sales and streaming during the pandemic

September 1, 2020September 1, 2020 Alan Cross 0 Comments

Like so many other areas of the economy, the recorded music industry has had a very rough go during the pandemic. Let’s see where things stand this week.

Year-Over-Year Figures

Total album sales, -37.7%
CDs, -49.8%
Digital albums, -19.7%
Digital tracks, -26.4%
Vinyl, -26.1% (This doesn’t include data from Record Store Day August 26)
On-demand audio streaming, +17.2%

Week-To-Week Figures

Total album sales, -1.5%
CDs, -4.3%
Digital albums, +0.9%
Digital tracks, -1.5%
Vinyl, -3.9% (Again, no Record Store Day data has been included)
On-demand audio streaming, -0.6% (1.732 billion streams in the country last week)

All figures from Nielsen/MRC

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.

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