Weekly health check-up on Canadian music sales and streams

August 18, 2020 Alan Cross 0 Comments

The coronavirus continues to really screw things up for the recorded music industry. How much? Let’s take a look at the weekly sales and streaming numbers provided by MRC/Nielsen, starting with where things stand today vs. 12 months ago.

Total album sales, -37.4%
CDs, -53.5%
Digital albums, -19.4%
Digital tracks, 026,5%
Vinyl, -26.2%
On-demand audio streams, +17.1%.

So not much good news, right? But since COVID-19 is a 2020 phenomenon (at least so far), it’s perhaps better to trace sales and streams week-by-week. Here’s how things have changed over the last seven days.

Total album sales, -4.9%
CDs, +10.8% (thanks almost exclusively to Taylor Swift)
Digital albums, -15.2%
Digital tracks, -3.7%
Vinyl, +5.6%
On-demand audio streams, +0.7%

I’ll keep you posted.

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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