Nielsen Soundscan has just released the Canadian music sales figures for 2009. Notwithstanding the regular claims that the Canadian digital music market cannot develop without copyright reform, the Canadian market grew faster than the U.S. market for the fourth consecutive year. As the chart below demonstrates, digital music sales have grown faster in Canada than in the U.S. in every year since 2006:
| Year | Canada | United States |
| 2009 | 38% | 8% |
| 2008 | 58% | 27% |
| 2007 | 73% | 45% |
| 2006 | 122% | 65% |
While this does not suggest that the market is thriving – a down economy with more competition for the entertainment dollar it is a tough market – it does confirm yet again that attempts to link copyright reform to the development of a Canadian digital market are not borne out by the facts. Indeed, Canada has consistently grown faster than the United States (from an admittedly lower starting point given that digital music stores arrived later in Canada).
