Music Industry

Weekly health check-up on Canadian music sales and streams

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.

Alan Cross has 40229 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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