Our weekly checkup on the health of Canadian music sales and streams is here.

September 8, 2020 Alan Cross 0 Comments

Nielsen/MRC, who keeps track on the music consumption of Canadians, released its weekly look at, well, how we’re consuming music during these pandemic times.

We’ll start by comparing things to where they were at this point in 2019. Note that these figures include the first edition of Record Store Day 2020, which happened August 28.

Total album sales, -37.8%
CD sales, -53.8%
Digital albums, -20.0%
Digital tracks, -26.3%
Vinyl LPs, -25.6%
On-demand audio streams, +17.2%

Now let’s look at things from week-to-week. This is where the RSD numbers come in.

Total album sales, +12.7% from the previous week.
CD sales, +23/1%
Digital albums, 4.0%
Digital tracks, -0.1%
Vinyl LPs, +20.9%
On-demand audio streams, -0.4% (1.724 billion streams in Canada last week)

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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