The IFPI, the global recording industry association, recently released
its Recording
Industry in Numbers 2012,
which provides detailed sales data from countries around the world.
Years ago, the Canadian Recording Industry Association would promote
its annual sales data, but it no longer does. Perhaps that is because
the data tells a far different story from the one CRIA (now Music
Canada) seeks to promote. While CRIA talks
about
"rebuilding the marketplace", the industry's own data indicates that
Canada already stands among the global leaders in digital music sales.
The most obvious metric (and one relied upon by IFPI) is paid digital
music downloads. According to the IFPI data, Canadians purchased 94.2
million single track downloads in 2011, making it the third largest
market in the
world (trailing only the U.S. and UK). The Canadian numbers represented
a 39% increase in sales, far ahead of the U.S. (8% growth) and U.K.
(10% growth). The data shows Canadians purchased more single track
downloads than Germany or Japan, and more than double the sales in
France, despite the fact that each of those countries has far larger
populations. In fact, Canadian sales were larger than all the sales
from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden combined. Moreover, given the
current growth rates, Canada seems likely to pass the U.S. on
per capita single track downloads in about 18 months (not
coincidentally iTunes entered the Canadian market 18 months after it
debuted in the U.S.).
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CRTC Chair Len Katz called out
Bell Canada and Bell Aliant yesterday for failing to extend broadband
to dozens of rural communities across the country as required by a 2010 decision.
Katz noted that in August 2010 the Commission directed the large phone
companies to spend over $420 million from their deferral accounts on
extending broadband to hundreds of rural communities. While MTS
Allstream and Telus appear to be on track, Bell Canada is not.
According to Katz:
Unfortunately, it's a different story
with Bell Canada and Bell Aliant. Nearly two years after we issued our
directive, Bell has extended broadband service to only three of its 112
communities. Broadband service is more and more of
a necessity for full participation in the digital economy and in our
life as Canadians. The funds were collected over a number of years from
Bell subscribers. I urge our friends at Bell to give a higher priority
to the needs of the people in these rural and remote communities by
accelerating their rollout plans.
The deadline to complete the broadband rollout is 2014. The deferral
account case
involves hundreds of millions of dollars collected by large telephone
providers as surplus funds. In 2010, the CRTC ordered a portion be
refunded to consumers and remainder spent on broadband services.
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Industry Minister Christian Paradis put a timeline on the "Penske File"
yesterday, promising
to deliver a Canadian digital economy strategy by the end of the year.
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