How are Canadian music sales and streams doing during the pandemic this week? Let’s have a look.

August 4, 2020 Alan Cross 0 Comments

The music industry continues to plug along in the age of COVID-19. Here’s how things look in Canada compared to 2019.

Total album sales, -37.7%
CDs, -49.6%
Digital albums, -20.0%
Digital tracks, -26.5%
Vinyl, -26.0%
On-demand video streams, +20.6%

Again, comparing things year-over-year is going show some big drops. It’s more instructive to track things week-by-week during the pandemic.

Total album sales from the previous week, +16.4% (Thank you, Taylor Swift!)
CDs, -5.9%
Digital albums, 34.6% (Again, thanks to Tay-Tay)
Digital tracks, 0.9%
Vinyl, 0.9%
On-demand video streams, 1.0% (1.776 billion streams in the country last week)

All figures from MRC Data (the new name for Nielsen Music Canada)

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 38858 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross