Music Industry

Our weekly look at Canadian music sales and streaming

After supper last night and right on time, Nielsen MCR delivered its weekly report on music sales and streaming across Canada.

Let’s begin with how things are doing year-over-year. This is where all the bad news lives.

  • Total album sales, -37.7%
  • CD sales, -53.7%
  • Digital albums, -20/3%
  • Digital tracks, -26.2%
  • Vinyl LPs, -23.9%
  • On-demand audio streams, +16.8%

Now let’s track how things are progressing through the pandemic with these week-over-week numbers. All this news is positive.

  • Total album sales, +5.2%
  • CD sales, +10.8%
  • Digital albums, +1.8%
  • Digital tracks, +0.1%
  • Vinyl LPs, +1.0%
  • On-demand audio streams, +2.0% (1.767 billion streams in Canada last week).

Next week’s numbers will include the results of Record Store Day Part 2.

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 39682 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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